What are the chances of the Democrats winning the House and the Senate?
In the United States, this November sees what are called the mid-term elections when we are half way through the current presidential term of of office and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the seats in the Senate are up for election. The Democrats will do well, but can they take both chambers?
Recently the Cook Political Report, a widely quoted authority on congressional politics, rated just 156 of the 435 seats in the House as solid Republican seats, whereas it rated 179 as solid Democratic seats. In assessing the more competitive races in November’s election, the Report reckoned 45 are leaning Democratic or are toss-ups. If the Democratic Party won 40 of these seats, which seems perfectly possible, it would gain control of the House.
In the Senate, where the Republicans have a narrow majority of two, only eight Republican senators are up for reëlection, so the political map is more favourable to them. But the Cook Report now rates three of these Republican-held Senate races—in Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee—as toss-ups.
So it is possible that the Democrats will take both chambers which would enable them to box in President Trump. The world is watching …