FiveThirtyEight put it bluntly with its tongue-in-cheek headline: “Why The 2018 Senate Elections Are Looking Bad for Both Parties.” The long and short of the article is that it will be incredibly difficult for the GOP to maintain its House of Representatives majority, while the Democrats will almost certainly lose ground in the Senate.
All that to say, the last couple election cycles have proven dubious historical data that declares past patterns as guides. Most would expect the first mid-term elections after electing an extremist as President would result in rebounding losses for said administration’s party, but one can’t be sure. Retiring members of the Senate might reinforce the same notion, but one still can’t be sure. The economy is objectively in a strong place, the housing market is on the climb and unemployment is at a low rate.
Perhaps 2018 will see a set of campaigns not focused merely on issues of growing American enterprise and helping our struggling middle class. Perhaps, however, this election year will be filled with hopeful candidates eager to defend the President for his claimed accomplishments and those ready to charge the capitol with vehement dissaproval of all that’s taken place since November 2016.