Presidential ‘fast starts’ come with electoral risk

“President Donald Trump is off to a fast start,” I wrote in a Jan. 30, 2017, column for Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, before warning that the same “aggressiveness could produce the same sort of reaction that Barack Obama’s fast start did in 2009: It could lead to a midterm election in which voters apply the brakes.”

They did, sending messages of dissatisfaction to Obama and House Democrats in 2010 and to Trump and House Republicans in 2018.

Now, the question is whether President Joe Biden will follow the same path — and face the same outcome in 2022, including substantial losses for the Democrats in the House. Or do different “fast starts” produce different outcomes? CONTINUED

Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call

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