Midterm Elections: What Happened and What Happens Next

The 2018 midterm elections made a lot of news on November 6. Here's what some of our experts had to say on the results and what's ahead.

Matt Kerbel, Professor of Political Science

"The House has been gerrymandered so effectively that Republicans believed they would retain their majority at least until the maps were redrawn for 2022. The Senate map was so steep for Democrats that they lost ground despite winning two-thirds of the seats in play.

"For the past two years, we have seen Donald Trump take a hammer to everyone and everything that threatens him—the courts, the press, the bureaucracy, the electoral process, the truth. The one institution he didn’t have to attack was Congress because they were always by his side. No more. We will now see how the Madisonian system of checks and balances is supposed to work. We have pulled the country back from the brink.

"Beto O'Rourke, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum are the future and it’s getting here fast. It is hard to swallow their losses but the country is changing. In 4-6 years, they all win. Democrats will move younger, multicultural and left in their presidential preferences and policy positions. That’s America in 10 years. There are strong hints of the future in these results. They showed us where the country is heading. It will take time to get there, but yesterday marked a big moment in the passage. The unchecked, wild west phase of the Trump era is over and we now move to a harrowing period of confrontation and accountability."

John Johannes, Professor of Political Science

"Democrats seem to be the majority, no matter how one counts it, but Republicans hold the smaller, less populated states. The Senate (and maybe Electoral College) gives them an advantage even while being less than a majority party." 

Jason Steinhauer, Director, Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest

"This election continued an historical trend in American politics that the electorate favors divided government two years into a President’s term. Turnout appears to have been historically high for midterms, continued evidence that, love him or hate him, Trump continues to be an animating force in American politics rarely seen in American history."

"The nation continues to move in a trend towards open acceptance and embrace of homosexuality and gay marriage. This has been a trend across party lines for the past 20-30 years and represents a generational shift among younger voters across party lines. We’re continuing to see the gradual integration of Muslim Americans into the American mainstream with elections of Muslims to Congress, even despite Islamophobia, ISIS and terrorism."

Leslie Book, professor of law

"Much was made immediately after it was known that the Democrats would re-take the House, that those on the Ways and Means Committee would move to subpoena President Trump's tax returns.

Professor Book is a tax expert and can talk about the IRS code relating to this: "Under Section 6103(f)(4)(A), any return submitted to one of the tax committees mentioned in (f)(1) may then be released to the full House or the Senate, or both. There is very little law associated with these provisions. That is about to change."

To speak with our experts, email mediaexperts@villanova.edu or call 610-519-5152.