This midterm election was one for the history books. This election has shifted the power in our government; the Democratic party is now the majority in the House of Representatives, which is a win for them. The Republican party now has even more control over the Senate as they won even more seats. It was also historical as the first openly gay man, Jared Polls, has been elected as Colorado’s governor; and the first Muslim woman, Ilhan Omar, has been elected to congress in Minnesota. 

This is a recap of who kept or lost their seats in the Senate:

• Washington, Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware,  Hawaii; all Democratic candidates in these states won their election with no trouble and did not have a toss up.
• Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Mississippi; all Republican candidates in these states won their election with no trouble and did not have a toss up.
• Nevada, New Jersey, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Missouri were all toss ups and some flipped to the other party.
  • Nevada flipped to Democrat, and Indiana and Missouri flipped to Republican.

• • Two of the most watched elections were Texas and Nevada; Texas was very close, Ted Cruz (R) won by 3%, and Jacky Rosen (D) won by 5%. Both these elections could have gone either way.

• • Arizona and Florida were all too close to call and are currently still being recounted as the percentage of difference between the two main candidates is less than 1%.

The Republicans currently have 51 seats in the Senate and the Democrats now have 45 seats. The final tally will be made when all elections are over.

Out of the 435 seats up for election in the House of Representatives, these were some of the most watched:

• 1st District of Arizona, 3rd district of Nevada, and the 4th district of Nevada all had Democratic representatives and were won by Democrats.
  • 2nd district of Arizona; 49th district of California; 6th district of Colorado; 27th district of Florida; 1st district of Iowa; 6th and 14th districts of Illinois; 3rd district of Kansas; 11th district of Michigan; 2nd and the 3rd Districts of Minnesota; 2nd, 7th, and 11th district of New Jersey; 6th, 7th, and 17th Districts of Pennsylvania; 10th District of Virginia, 26th district of Florida; 6th district of Georgia, 3rd district of Iowa; 8th district of Michigan; 2nd of New Mexico;19th and 11th districts of New York; 7th and the 32nd Districts of Texas; 1st District of South Carolina; these are the districts switched from Republican to Democrat.
• 15th district of Florida; 2nd district of Kansas; 6th district of Kentucky; 13th district of North Carolina; 12th district of Ohio; 1st and 10th Districts of Pennsylvania; Alaska; 50th district of California; 6th, 16th, 18th, and 25th Districts of Florida; 4th District of Iowa; 12th and 13th Districts of Illinois; 6th District of Michigan; 2nd district of Missouri; Montana; these are most of the seats that were kept by the Republicans.
• • 1st and 8th Districts of Minnesota and the 14th district of Pennsylvania were flipped from Democrat to Republican.

The Democratic party currently holds 224 seats and the Republican party holds 197 seats. The Republicans have lost 29 seats so far and not all elections have been called because of how close they were. This election has restored the balance of power as now both parties hold parts of the government. You can see a full list of the senate results here, and a full list of the House or Representatives results here.