Dems make move on House

Votes were being counted across half the country late Tuesday as an anxious nation watched whether US President Donald Trump’s GOP would be rewarded or punished in the first nationwide election of his turbulent presidency.

Fox News projected that the Democrats would gain control of the House, while CNN reported that the GOP would maintain control of the Senate.

By around 10:30 pm ET, the Democrats had captured House 13 seats in states including Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania, meaning Democrats would need 10 more seats to wrest control of the chamber from the GOP and confront Trump, but they lost a high-profile contest in Kentucky.

Republicans fought to retain Senate control, hoping that Trump’s nationalistic appeals to right-leaning voters would let them continue their role as protectors of his conservative agenda.

While Republicans currently hold the Senate 51-49, the political equation leaned in their favor. Of the 35 Senate seats in play, Democrats and their two independent allies were defending 26, Republicans just nine.

Republicans scored a major victory with businessman Mike Braun unseating Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, marking the first red state Democrat to lose on Tuesday and giving the GOP an early flip, according to the report.

In Texas, incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz was declared the winner of over Democrat Beto O’Rourke in an intensely watched contest.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was re-elected in West Virginia.

In other key races of national interest, Democrat Andrew Gillum conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis in a close battle for governor.

In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams, attempting to become the first African-American woman governor in the US, trailed Republican Brian Kemp.

At least 40 million Americans had voted early, either by mail or in person, breaking early records across 37 states, according to an Associated Press analysis. Health care and immigration were high on voters’ minds, the survey found.

A Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll, based on responses from 36,740 people who voted in 37 states, found that about half of those who voted believed the country was on the “wrong track,” and 4 in 10 said it was headed in the “right direction”

Kent Calder, director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said the midterm elections are “agenda setting” for the legacy of the Trump presidency.

A scenario in which Trump’s party won both chambers in Congress would be “quite supportive“ for the president, and political controversies, such as the Robert Mueller investigation, or the president’s tax records, would probably be suppressed, Calder said.

“If, however, the Democrats take one house of Congress, it will have significant political consequences because the Congress has the investigative power and the subpoena power,” Calder told China Daily. “I think the level of criticism, the level of publicity about President Trump will probably intensify.”

He added that Nov 6 was just the beginning of a political battle that will culminate in November 2020, and the US will be more preoccupied with domestic political struggles.

Stanley Kober, a Washington-based analyst of international affairs, said he believed the consequences of having a divided Congress largely will be gridlock on domestic issues.

“It won’t have much of an impact on foreign affairs, which President Trump has pretty much a free hand, and in some cases I am nervous about where that is going to lead,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.