Midterms: What Are They?

You may be hearing a lot on the news about midterms and you may not know what that means. You may be thinking, "I thought the next presidential election is in 2020?" Well, you are right. The next presidential election will be in 2020. But the midterms are not presidential elections. They are called midterms because they take place in the middle of a President's four year term. In the midterms, the entire House of Representatives is up for election (they have two-year terms), and a handful of Senate seats are up for election (they have six-year terms). This year, Senate seats in California, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland are up for re-election! Now I know that is a lot on paper, but on election day on the map it will look a lot simpler. The Democratic Party hopes to take the Senate and the House this election season. the Democrats need to gain 23 House seats and 2 Senate seats to take both houses. What this means is that if the Democrats take both houses of Congress, they can pass legislation that they support. However, if they only take one house of Congress, government is likely to be deadlocked until one party takes both houses. The midterms will be held on November 6, 2018, and the next midterms after that will be November 8, 2022. Stay tuned for a GOVLEARN video this month about the midterms, as well as a PDF on the website!

- Luke Gialanella, Director of GOVLEARN