The Democratic party regained the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Republicans retained control of the Senate as mid-term election results went late into Tuesday night following record-shattering voter turnout fueled partly by vast numbers of young voters.
Even as the overall returns set the stage for epic conflict or compromise when the new Congress is seated in January, many races were too close to call, with some remaining undecided possibly for days or requiring a run-off because no candidate garnered a majority of votes cast.
Turnout among college students and millennials, especially in early voting, pushed numbers in some areas even higher than during the presidential election two years ago. Voting by absentee and early ballot soared in the 18-29 age bracket in some states with tightly contested races, including Florida, Georgia, Arizona and Texas, according to a USA Today report that also noted that early voting among Illinois youth was 144 percent higher than the 2014 midterm.
It also was a significant election in terms of cultural diversity. Black Democrat gubernatorial candidates Andrew Gillum of Florida and Ben Jealous of Maryland lost their bids. And Stacey Abrams of Georgia, who sought to become the first African-American female governor in America, was trailing slightly at the end of the evening and refused to concede because some votes had not yet been counted.
Meanwhile, Democrat Christine Hallquist, who would have become the nation’s first transgender governor, lost the Vermont gubernatorial race to Republican Phil Scott; Democrat Paulette Jordan was hoping to defeat Republican Brad Little and two other contenders in Idaho to become that state’s first Native American governor; Colorado Democrat Jared Polis became the first openly gay person in U.S. history to be elected governor; and Rhode Island Republican Allan Fung – who became that state’s first mayor of Chinese ancestry – lost his gubernatorial bid to Democrat Gina Raimondo.
“These governors races demonstrate that all politics is local,” observed Maya Wiley, Henry Cohen Professor of Urban Policy and Management at The New School. “Voters vote change when they want it, and voters of color continue to fight simply for the right to exercise the rights of citizenship. Florida and Georgia in particular demonstrate that the color barrier is one of power. Demography is not destiny and we must continue to make all our institutions function to bring us closer together.”
The candidacies of Jordan, Gillum, Abrams and Fung were important signs that people of color are a significant part of increased participation in the political process, said Dr. Monte Randall, dean of academic affairs at College of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma. Randall said that as he followed campaigns locally and across the nation and tuned in to election returns on television, the visible and heightened involvement of women and minorities as voters and candidates was “representative of who we are as a nation.”
