Midterms

Next Tuesday will be an important day in America – the midterm elections.  The United States government has 535 people that are elected from all over the country to decide on new laws and rules for America. They are called congressmen or congresswomen. On Tuesday, 470 of the members will be voted on by the people who live in the states they represent.  Some of them will keep their jobs as lawmakers, and some will lose and a new person will get their job.

They are called the ‘midterm’ elections because they come in the middle of President Trump’s four-year term as president. For the past two years the Republicans, President Trump’s party, have controlled both the presidency and the congress, which has made it easier for them to make new laws.  This year the Democrats, President Obama’s party, hope to win enough seats to have more than 50% of the members, which would allow them to block new laws that they disagree with for the next two years.  We will see what happens next Tuesday!

This map is for 35 members of the Senate (the higher of the two houses of Congress). Blue states have a Democrat who is the current lawmaker, red states have a Republican. Yellow states have a independent (neither party) and grey states are not holding a congressional election this time.