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By Jordan King
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Democrats secured their largest share of the national midterm vote since the post-Watergate election of 1974, handing President Donald Trump a significant political setback and reshaping the balance of power in Congress for the final two years of his term.
Provisional results tallied on November 12 by Popular Vote Analytics show Democratic candidates winning 56.1 percent of the votes counted nationwide, compared with 42.4 percent for Republicans.
That margin surpasses Democratic vote shares in the wave midterms of 2018 (53.4 percent), 2006 (52 percent) and 1982 (55 percent), according to historical data compiled by Popular Vote Analytics. The last time Democrats captured a larger share was in 1974, when they won 57.1 percent.
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After winning back control of the House and Senate, Democrats are positioned to stall Trump’s legislative agenda, launch oversight investigations into his administration and have influence over federal spending come January.
While Trump has acknowledged that the ongoing U.S.-Iran war factored into the election outcomes, he sought to distance himself from his party's losses.
“The election wasn't my election,” Trump said earlier this month. “I wasn't on the ballot.”
The White House has defended its record in the wake of the vote. In a statement previously provided to Newsweek, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle pointed to the administration's economic and border policies.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, this administration has signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, secured the border, cut the cost of prescription drugs, added more than one million private-sector jobs, and locked in nearly 20 trade deals,” Ingle said. “President Trump will never stop delivering results for the American people and he will undoubtedly go down as the most successful and consequential president in American history.”
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Echoes of 1974
The Democrats’ 1974 midterm landslide occurred less than three months after Republican President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, which stemmed from a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters by operatives tied to Nixon's reelection campaign and the subsequent White House cover-up.
Capitalizing on voter backlash, Democrats won 291 House seats to Republicans’ 144 and expanded their Senate majority. The influx of newly elected lawmakers became widely known as the “Watergate Babies.”
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What Is Behind This Year’s Midterm Results?
Voter dissatisfaction over the cost of living and the Iran war emerged as primary drivers behind this year’s results, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of roughly 100,000 midterm voters released shortly after the election.
Despite Trump’s efforts to blame his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for economic pressures, voters largely pointed to Trump’s tariff policies from last year and rising gas prices linked to the conflict in Iran. Roughly two-thirds of voters surveyed by the AP said Trump’s policies had fueled inflation, and a majority said those policies had slowed growth and driven up costs.
Macroeconomic indicators have remained relatively strong, with the S&P 500 stock index up more than 10 percent this year and the national unemployment rate sitting at 4.1 percent.
However, much of that growth has been propelled by heavy investment in artificial intelligence—a sector that roughly 6 in 10 voters said will do more to hurt society than help it, according to the AP poll. Many voters also expressed skepticism that broader economic gains are reaching middle-class households. About 7 in 10 voters nationwide said the economy favors the wealthy, while roughly 3 in 10 said it is fair to everyday Americans.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Daniel Orton and Anthony Murray.
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