Although the nation is more than a week past Election Day, and some races have still yet to be
decided, most analysts were looking at the election results as a victory for the Democrats.
According to CNBC, in fact, “It’s the most successful midterm for a Democratic president
probably in history and certainly since the Second World War.” This is according to Jeffrey
Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management.
“They still might lose control of both houses, but it’s hardly the ‘red wave’ that was being
marketed in the media.”

Current President Joe Biden was optimistic all along, even though projections had the
Republicans taking a large House majority and the control of the Senate as well. After the
elections, Biden said, “I know you were somewhat miffed by my obsessive optimism but I felt
good through the whole process, I thought we’d do fine,” Biden said. “While any seat lost is
painful, and some good Democrats didn’t win last night, Democrats had a strong night.”


Indeed, the Democrats were able to hang on to control of the Senate, though they recently
ceded control off the House of Representatives to the Republicans when they hit the magic
number of 218 representatives for the GOP.


The road to the elections was long, with Biden and his constituents begging voters to consider a
choice for democracy as well as abortion rights. Normally, midterm elections are more of a
scolding of the party currently in office, a rebuke of everything the nation thinks they are doing
wrong.


“While Democrats may ultimately lose the House, it will likely be by much less than Republicans
would want,” Jess O’Connell, a Democratic operative and founder of NEWCO Strategies said.
“The results so far don’t seem like a repudiation of Biden’s presidency, in fact, the opposite. By
all accounts so far, close results like this are really a win for Biden and Democrats given the
heavily redistricted maps and economic headwinds they’ve been navigating coming into these
midterms.”


Although nobody is perfect and the Democrats were worried about inflation and the economy
becoming the key issues, Biden has come through on a lot of his campaign promises. He has been addressing such hot button issues as climate change, the price of insulin, Covid-19 relief policies, and federal student loan debt.

Biden will continue to work hard to solve the problems that Americans care about. In a speech
after Election Day, Biden explained, “Voters spoke clearly about their concerns about rising
costs and the need to get inflation down. About crime and public safety. They sent a clear and
unmistakable message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to
choose in this country.”


The impact of Roe vs. Wade’s decision being overturned in June seems to have polarized the
nation and gotten a lot of people to the polls. And with that fight for women’s rights at the helm,
Gen Z came through in droves for the Democrats.


Still, the work to unify the country is ongoing. According to Adnan Zai, Advisor to Berkeley
Capital, “When you have such polarized constituents you are going to see a lot of turnout.
Unfortunately, what is lacking is a centrist government that has historically done better.”


With a voter turnout interested in preserving democracy, perhaps 2022 is the beginning of the
end of divisive politics in our nation. Time will tell if either party can move more toward the
center.