A Look at Election Results with Andre Audette

After the tense 2022 midterm elections last week, Political Science Professor Andre Audette held a non-partisan event to look at and discuss the surprising results.

            “Technically, according to the ‘midterm law’ that political scientists talk about, incumbent presidents lose seats in the midterm elections, or at least their party does,” Audette said, but that was not the case with this election. “There have been only three exceptions to that.”

            There were many comments on social media about a ‘red wave’ that should have swept the United States, but ultimately, that did not happen. Audette called it more of a red ripple, as Republicans did not take as many victories as they expected to.

“The country did probably move towards Republicans, but this was not an overwhelming move towards conservatives, and this is actually kinda surprising given the conditions of the country,” Audette said, referencing the economic conditions, “We would expect Republicans to do pretty well.”

At the time of the event, the Senate races were interesting to Audette, as the Democrat majority relied on the races going on in Arizona and Nevada. At the time of writing this, however, a Democrat Senate majority has been secured with Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, winning.

            Though Illinois is considered a ‘blue state’ because of Chicago’s high population, the 17th congressional district, which includes Monmouth, was a true toss-up between candidates Eric Sorensen and Esther Joy King, but ultimately Democrat candidate Sorensen took the victory.

Julie Briones - Contributing Writer