Republicans won control over the house and Democrats kept control over the Senate as results came in for this year’s midterm elections, days after the polls closed on November 8.

The party of the incumbent president typically does poorly in the midterms. For example, the Democrats lost a net 63 seats in the house and a net nine seats in the senate during the 2010 midterms when Barack Obama was President, and the Republicans lost a net 40 seats in the house and gained a net two senate seats during the 2018 midterms when Donald Trump was President.

However, this year the Democrats only lost a net nine seats in house and have gained a seat in the Senate. Usually when the party of  the President does well in the midterms, it is because the President is very popular. However, Biden has not had his approval rating go above 50% since August of 2021 according to FiveThirtyEight. 

Incumbent Raphael Warnock and Hershal Walker went back and forth in an extremely close race. Walker’s campaign involved scandals such as his mistresses claiming he paid for their abortions despite Walker proclaiming himself to be pro-life. His son Christian Walker, a right-wing social media personality, publicly criticized his father on social media for not following the family values he campaigned on. 

“Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one,” Christian Walker tweeted “He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it. I’m done.”

Warnock nor Walker got 50% of the popular vote; therefore, according to Georgia election law, there will be a runoff election in December. The runoff will determine which party controls the senate, as did Georgia’s runoff in 2020. Warnock as well as Democrat John Ossof won their runoffs in 2020, and the Democrats won control over the Senate. 

Democratic Congressman Andy Kim from New Jersey District 3, where Mount Holly is located won re-election against Republican challenger Bob Healy. Kim has many supporters in the third district and RV.

“I know [Kim] is good, we haven’t gone to shambles yet,” freshman Naomi Rose Bowser said. “I think he is doing a great job.” 

NJ District 3 was redrawn during redistricting after the 2020 census, making it a safer seat for Democrats. The old NJ-03 was a swing district that was made up of parts of Burlington and Ocean Counties. The new NJ-03 is a lean blue district that consists of all of Burlington County, about half of Mercer County and an arm that stretches diagonally into northwestern Ocean County and western Monmouth County.

The Pennsylvania senate campaign was one of the most crucial senate elections during the midterms. Controversy about the candidates dominated the campaign, with Fetterman attacking Oz for living in New Jersey until his senate run, and Oz’s attacking Fetterman’s health, arguing his stroke in May made him unfit to run for office.

Fetterman took a big early lead in the polls. However, after a disastrous debate, Oz started to surge in the polls and had a one-point lead according to FiveThirtyEight. Fetterman however, won the race on election day by four points. 

The race was hallmarked by nasty attacks from both candidates. Fetterman and Oz attacked each other with memes on Twitter and the local media markets were flooded with ads bashing the other candidate. 

“I saw a campaign ad and in big bold letters it said ‘dangerously liberal,” sophomore Lennon Heisler said.

GOP governor Ron DeSantis and Republican Senator Marco Rubio were reelected by big margins in the usually competitive state of Florida. Florida had a reputation for being one of the country’s key swing states with the ability to decide elections in years such as 2000. However, Florida has recently become a GOP stronghold and these victories further cement that.

“Thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won [the] election, but we have re-written the political map,” Desantis said in his victory speech. “Thank you for honoring us with a win for the ages.”

Gen-Z made a big difference in the 2022 midterms. In Florida, 25-year-old Maxwell Frost became the first member of Gen-Z to be elected to Congress. 

“History was made tonight,” Frost said in a tweet. “We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.”

Young voters largely contributed to the Democrats securing more seats in office. According to an NBC News exit poll, voters aged 18-29 supported the Democrats by 28 percentage points.

With the midterms resulting in Democratic control of the House of Representatives and Republican control over the Senate the country awaits runoff elections in December for the final results to be announced.