Abstract
The 2018 election that swept Democrats into the U.S. House majority was a wave, but not a tsunami. It crested short of elevating Democrats to majority status in the Senate but nevertheless resulted in the largest Democratic gains since 1974, and a 35-seat Democratic majority in the House. The results indicate a clear backlash against the Republican Party and its president but also illustrate the resilience of committed and hardening support for Trumpism. In this chapter, we review the major takeaways highlighted by our authors about the 2018 congressional election and speculate about the implications of this election. One thing seems clear: the election was a simultaneous rebuke and embrace of Trumpism that leaves future elections and electorates to give clearer direction to America and American democracy.
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Notes
- 1.
Patrick Hickey, “President Trump’s Effect on House Republicans,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 2.
Tyler Camarillo and John. D. Rackey, “Minnesota’s 1st and 8th Congressional Districts: Riptide: Two Republicans Prevail Against the Blue Wave,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 3.
Walter Clark Wilson and Marcia L. Godwin, “Diverse Roads to Congress,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 4.
Michael D. Slaven, Melanie J. Blumberg, and William C. Binning, “A Senate Trifecta: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 5.
Sean D. Foreman, “Florida Congressional Districts 26 and 27: Two Cuban American Strongholds Support Non-Cuban Democrats for Congress,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 6.
Walter Clark Wilson, “Texas Senate Race: If You Want to Run in Texas, You Can’t Be a Liberal Man. Beto O’Rourke Takes on Ted Cruz and Conventional Wisdom,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- 7.
Asma Khalid, “A Third Rail No More: Incoming House Democrats Embrace Gun Control.” National Public Radio, November 13, 2018.
- 8.
Slaven, Blumberg, and Binning.
- 9.
Joshua Stockley, “Tennessee Senate Race: Call It What You Want, but Tennessee Is a Red State,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Dana Harsell, “North Dakota Senate Race: A Right Turn in North Dakota,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
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Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
- 11.
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- 12.
Jens Manuel Krogstad, Antonio Flores and Mark Hugo Lopez, “Key Takeaways about Latino Voters in the 2018 Midterm Elections,” Pew Research Center, November 9, 2018, www.pewresearch.org
- 13.
Seth Moulton, “Abolish the Filibuster and the Electoral College,” The Washington Post. March 12, 2019. www.washingtonpost.com; Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, The Broken Branch. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
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Bryan Gervais, Heather Evans, and Annelise Russell, “Fear and Loathing on Twitter: Exploring Negative Rhetoric in Tweets During the 2018 Midterm Election,” in The Roads to Congress 2018, ed. Sean D. Foreman, Marcia L. Godwin, and Walter Clark Wilson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
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Wilson, W.C. (2020). Lessons Learned from the 2018 Elections. In: Foreman, S., Godwin, M., Wilson, W. (eds) The Roads to Congress 2018. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19819-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19819-0_16
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