CBS News elections and surveys director Anthony Salvanto breaks down the trends that influenced the midterm election results.
CBS News
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Democrats have done what seemed improbable months ago: Defy historical midterm patterns and maintain control of the Senate in an economy still recovering from Covid.
Chuck Todd, NBC News
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A lot of elements went into Tuesday’s unexpectedly good night for Democrats, but one of the biggest factors was a set of voters who surprisingly came through for the party: Voters who “somewhat disapprove” of President Joe Biden’s job performance.
There aren’t a lot of those voters, but in the exit polls they stand out for a few reasons. In a deeply divided country they appeared to be one of the few swing voting blocs this year and even if they “somewhat disapprove” of Biden, they seem to strongly disapprove of former President Donald Trump. CONTINUED
Dante Chinni, NBC News
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… Midterms are supposed to be the time for the opposition party to shine. That should especially be the case when there is once-in-a-generation inflation and when the vast majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.
Instead, Biden and the Democrats are in a position to have one of the four best midterms for the party controlling the White House in the last century.
So just what happened? It’s pretty clear that general election voters punished Republican candidates they saw as too extreme – on issues such as abortion and/or for being too closely tied to former President Donald Trump.
Still, the election results were extremely unusual. I went back through the record books. CONTINUED
Harry Enten, CNN
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… Democrats would have gotten crushed without young voter support. Democratic House candidates won voters under the age of 45 by 13 points, while losing voters age 45 and older by 10 points.
Breaking it down further, House Democratic candidates won voters under 30 by 28 points – that’s an increase from their 26-point edge with this group two years ago. …
What is perhaps especially interesting is that voters under 30 seemed to vote significantly more Democratic than those aged 30 to 39. CONTINUED
Harry Enten, CNN
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A set of countervailing political forces may have contributed to the closeness of this year’s midterm elections, according to the current results of the national exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research. It remains uncertain which party will control either the Senate or the House of Representatives next year, with votes still being counted and key races too early to call.
Voters were broadly discontented with the state of the nation, the economy and President Joe Biden, the exit poll found – the sort of political environment that conventionally leads to a midterm backlash against the party in the White House. But other factors, including views on abortion and Biden’s predecessor, may have helped keep Democrats competitive across the country. CONTINUED
Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
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