Democrats received almost as many midterms votes as Trump in presidential election – results show it's a 'a crazy number'
Highest turnout since 1914 sees party come within touching distance of presidential popular vote tally
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.America’s midterm elections saw Democrats win an unprecedented number of votes for an opposition party thanks to high turnout numbers.
Democratic candidates are forecast to receive more than 60.5 million votes in total for the house once the final ballots have been counted.
If accurate, the figure would be the closest an opposition party has come in a midterm election to matching the president’s backing two years earlier.
Donald Trump received just shy of 63 million votes in 2016, as he lost the popular vote but achieved a comfortable victory under the electoral college system.
House Democrats are currently on course to hit around 96 per cent of Mr Trump’s vote share from two years prior, beating the record 92 per cent of Richard Nixon’s share from 1968 seen in the subsequent midterms.
Pollster Nate Silver described the number of voters mobilised for the Democrats during the midterms as “crazy”, given turnout is usually considerably lower than in presidential elections.
He tweeted: “Of course, this reflects 3 things we already knew: 1) Trump was elected despite losing the popular vote; 2) D’s won by a big margin this year and 3) Turnout was VERY high.
“But Trump is a very unpopular president, and I don’t think that’s totally sunk in yet in how he’s covered.
“About 60 million people turned out to vote for Democrats for the House this year. That is a **crazy** number. (Republicans got 45m votes in the 2010 wave.)
“And this was sort of missed. Why so many stories about Trump voters in truck stops and not so many about ‘the resistance’?”
The 6 November election saw Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives, congress’s lower chamber, to the Democrats. However, the GOP was able to make gains in the Senate.
Polarisation of views on Mr Trump’s performance during his first two years in office, coupled with divisive debates in the lead-up to polling day on immigration, healthcare and taxes are thought to have spurred the highest turnout percentage in a midterm since 1914.
At least 49.2 per cent of eligible voters took part in the election, the United States Elections Project estimates — a marked contrast to the last midterms in 2014, when just 36.4 per cent of voters cast their ballot, the lowest turnout since the end of the Second World War.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments