Democrats sweep US midterm elections amid economic fallout from Iran war

The United States held midterm elections on Tuesday, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats contested. The results strongly favoured the Democratic Party, with Democrats gaining at least 40 House seats and seven Senate seats in what commentators described as a sweeping victory.

Several long-standing Republican strongholds shifted parties. Texas, which had not elected a Democrat statewide in over three decades, saw widespread Democratic wins. Kansas elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. In Maine, veteran Republican senator Susan Collins, who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee and was known for her bipartisan voting record after 30 years in office, lost her seat.

The article attributes part of the shift to the economic consequences of the ongoing war with Iran, particularly the sharp rise in petrol prices, which has driven up costs across the economy, including food and groceries delivered via road transport.

With Democrats gaining control of both chambers of Congress, the piece notes that oversight of President Trump and his administration is expected to intensify, along with renewed talk of impeachment. It also states that any future Supreme Court vacancy would be harder for the president to fill.

The article places the scale of the Republican losses in historical context, noting that since World War II, several midterms have produced similarly large losses for the sitting party, including 1946, 1958, 1966, 1974, 1994, 2010, and 2018, when Trump's party lost around 40 House seats. The largest midterm loss cited is 2010, when Barack Obama's Democrats lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats, followed by a further nine Senate seat loss in his second term.