What was the purpose of the midterms?
Midterm elections are the voters’ chance to voice their opinions about the current administration. In the case of this midterm, it was about showing the current administration that the nation, regardless of political affiliation, is not pleased with Trump’s decisions. It was also about taking away some of his power. It is much easier for the president to pass harmful legislation when the Senate and House are continually on his side. Flipping the Senate and House seats that once favored Trump’s greed to Democrats is a huge win in terms of taking away Trump’s ability to pass whatever he wants. He will now be forced to work with Democrats, which he claims to be willing to do, to put his political agendas in action.
Trump…
In many ways, this landslide victory for the democratic party is a massive shock to the country. However, when you take a step back to add up all the ways in which Trump has continually taken steps to benefit no one other than himself (including many executive actions that are blatantly unconstitutional and illegal), it makes a bit more sense. Here are just some things Trump has done during the first half of his second term to lose the once-booming popularity that he held in 2024:
• Started a war with Iran
• Froze federal grant funding
• Ended birthright citizenship
• Expanded ICE, resulting in around 1 million deportations as of July 2026
• Dismantled USAID
• Threatened roughly 77,000 federal workers with emails encouraging them to resign
• Rolled back protections under the Affordable Care Act
• Withdrew the US from the World Health Organization
• Cut funding for federal student loan programs
• Weakened EPA regulations and the enforcement climate-protection policies
• Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement
How did People Vote in 2026?
Understanding why the election went the way it did stems from who voted and how these voting trends changed from 2024 to now. An important note here: people ages 18-29 make upabout 12% of the voting-eligible population and represented the largest shift in republican to democratic voters from 2024 to 2026. All this to say… YOU HAVE A PLACE IN POLITICS AND YOUR VOTE MATTERS!
While there are a lot of demographic data out there, here are some notable stats from this midterm:
• 61% of female voters were democrat; 38% were republican
• 93% of black women voters were democrat; 6% were republican
• 74% of Hispanic women voters were democrat; 24% were republican
• 81% of nonwhite Northeast voters were democrat; 18% were republican
Some Midterm Firsts…
This was a midterm that will take its place in history. Notwithstanding the overwhelming majority of democratic voters, there were also many milestones that deserve to be celebrated, including many “firsts” for American politics…
• Abdul El-Sayed was elected as the first Muslim senator (Michigan)
• Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected as the first black female governor (Georgia)
• Chris Pappas was elected as the first openly gay senator (New Hampshire)
• Gina Hinajosa and Xavier Becerra were elected as the first Hispanic governors (Texasand California)
• Amy Acton was elected as Ohio’s first female governor
• Deb Haaland was elected as the first Indigenous governor (New Mexico)
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