Island Vote: Will a blue wave wash away GOP control of Congress?

<p>Will a blue wave wash away Republican control of Congress or will the GOP buck historical trends to maintain its majority in the House and Senate?<br /> &nbsp;</p>

News 12 Staff

Nov 5, 2018, 10:55 AM

Updated 2,220 days ago

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In less than 24 hours, voters will finally be able to cast their votes and make their voices heard.
Will a blue wave wash away Republican control of Congress or will the GOP buck historical trends to maintain its majority in the House and Senate?
Democrats have been talking about the possibility of it for a while now. The idea that anti-Trump angst will fuel voters to show up at the polls, take Congressional authority away from Republicans, and hand it to the opposition.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs this year. The Democrats need to flip 23 seats to wrestle control away from Republicans. It sounds like a tall task, but even the president admits history is on the side of the Democrats.

In fact, since the early 1960s, the president's party has almost always lost House seats in the midterm elections. The only two exceptions were Bill Clinton's Democrats during his second term in 1998, and four years later, when George W. Bush's Republicans gained seats in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
The trend generally holds true in the Senate as well, but it may not this year. Right now the GOP has a 51 seat majority. There are 47 Democrats, and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
A total of 10 of the Democratic incumbents up for re-election are from states the president won in 2016, including deep red Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia.