On November 8, 2022, people began voting in midterm elections in the United States. When the results came in, it was shown that the House was taken over by the republican party and the Senate had mostly Democrats.

After a week of counting votes, Republicans had 220 seats in the house while the democrats had 213 seats. This decision means that there will be a shift to the balance of power in Washington D.C. This decision also means that there can be an effective veto on Joe Biden’s plan for the next two years. The last vote the house needed was occupied by Representative Mark Garcia of California. Despite the win, this was disappointing to the Republican party because they had gone into the election hoping for a red wave.

A student from Hidden Valley says, “I think the republicans were hoping for way more out of this election and even though they had taken over the house, they were definitely hoping more seats and a higher number of votes”

As for the Senate votes, the Democrats took over the Senate by a hopeful gain of Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. The political battle was determined by the win in Nevada by Catherine Cortez Masto. The Republicans were hoping to win over Nevada to break the 50/50 split. Cortez was running in the race against former attorney general of Nevada, Adam Laxalt. Laxalt was ultimately unsuccessful in the race which led to a win for the Democrats in the senate.

Another student from Hidden Valley says, “I think that Cortez is a very inspiring person because even through having the pressure from the hate online and from the republican party, she still managed to become the first Latina in the Senate.”