NBC News Projected that the Democrats would have control of the Senate after the 2022 Midterms. They were right. Photo Courtesy of sophomore reporter Leo DeTurris.

  Millions of Americans and some San Luis Obispo High School students went to the polls on November 8 to participate in our nation’s democracy for the 2022 midterms.

The big headline of the election is that Republicans fell short of expectations, winning the house narrowly, and not being able to immediately retake the senate.

  In short, Republicans misjudged key issues that would end up being crucial. In addition to that, an ever-polarized political spectrum with Republicans becoming more and more radical led some voters to vote Democrat. This election wasn’t a referendum on the presidency as most midterms are, but it was a response by the American public to increasingly crazy Republicans.

  “In the past couple of years, I feel like there has been a rise in people believing in fake news. It serves as a good reminder that a majority of people are still making decisions based on true facts and what they believe is best,” said sophomore Greta Miller.

  It is traditional for the incumbent party holding the white house to perform poorly in the first midterms after their election. In 1994, two years after Bill Clinton was first elected, Democrats lost sixty seats across the house and senate.

Then in 2010, two years after Obama was elected, the Democrats lost 69 seats across the house and senate. So far this year though, Republicans have only gained 15 seats, which comes with a grain of salt since Democrats themselves have picked up five seats. So, by all means, Republicans should’ve performed better these midterms since inflation is a top concern among voters, and Biden’s approval ratings are still in the low forties.

What happened?

  The biggest group of Republicans who lost their competitive races were election deniers. It is factual that the 2020 election contained no more fraud than any normal election, yet many Republican candidates ran campaigns focused on election integrity and protecting further elections from fraud. 

  The big reason why campaigning on an idea like this could backfire so badly is that, in many of the key states that these politicians were campaigning in, Biden beat Trump in 2020. Making claims that undermine the votes and integrity of the majority of a population of people who are supposed to have your support is frankly stupid.

Sane people are not going to vote for someone who makes completely baseless claims that the person who they voted against was a rightful winner.

Take for example, Doug Mastriano.

Mastriano is an election denier who ran his campaign for governor of Pennsylvania on fraudulent claims and was also present at the January 6 riot. Mastriano expected to win over voters in a state that voted for Biden, by saying that Biden didn’t win. When the results came in, Mastriano lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro by over 13 percent. Compare that to the senate race in the same state, Mastriano catastrophically underperformed compared to the Republican candidate for Senate, Mehmet Oz. Oz, while he did lose to Fetterman, campaigned with more moderate stances, compared to Mastriano at least. Oz only lost his race by four percent and was a more moderate candidate, whereas Mastriano lost by 13 percent, and he claimed the election was fraudulent.  

  The only half-decent argument for why these candidates campaigned on such ludicrous ideas, was that it had the potential to rally their Republican base. It is tradition for turnout to be low during the midterms, and low turnout benefits Republicans. By making claims that could fire up Republican voters, the idea was to create a red wave. But, that strategy backfired badly. While some Republican voters were motivated to vote, the baseless claims did encourage many Democrats to head to vote as well.

  “When America questions the legitimacy of valid elections, it leads to bad things. There are countries around the world where they question the legitimacy of elections, and violence breaks out…look at the January 6 uprising.  Mistrust in the government is at an all-time low,” said AP Government teacher Jim Johnson, perfectly describing the situation our country is in right now.

  Additionally, I think another huge reason Republicans lost out badly in these midterms was that they underestimated the issue of abortion, especially among women voters. Many Republicans ran campaigns that were pro-life, hoping to rally their Christian conservative base. But, like fraudulent election claims, the Republicans only motivated the opposition. Women came out to the polls to protect their bodily rights in droves. Many pundits predicted that abortion as a major issue would fall off, as the overturning of Roe V. Wade fell out of people’s memories. People though, don’t just forget about protecting their rights to reproduction, and it’s why abortion was the number two issue among voters these midterms, second to only the economy/inflation.

  “This election has been able to show that abortion, which is what many Democrats were campaigning on, is a key topic to voters, as more younger voters start to show up at the polls. While the polls are dominated by older people, younger people increasingly are using their tool in this imperfect democracy to push for change,” said president of the SLOHS Young Dems club Izzy Nino de Rivera-Krieger. 

  Democrats knew well that they would have better odds against more radical Republicans, and Democrats funded their primary campaigns so that they would have better odds in the actual election. That questionable strategy paid out in big ways, and Democrats have been able to keep many hotly contested seats.

  The Republican party is struggling for Identity, and unless they can find themselves one soon, they’re going to lose more and more.

Sources: cnn.com, tennessean.com