The 2020 election is finally over, and the world is at peace. Joe Biden is the widely accepted President of the United States, a Democrat controlled Congress is going to pass some amazing policy the next two years, and the Supreme Court will uphold the constitution. This is a game I like to call two lies and a truth.
Let’s start at the top of the ticket with the presidential race. We had President Trump pitted against Vice President Biden. Early on election night it looked like President Trump was headed to a second term in the White House I knew all the mail-in ballots had to be counted, but even I thought the lead that President Trump built up on election day was too much for Joe Biden to surpass with mail-in ballots. I went to sleep at about 1 A.M. on election night and woke up at 3 A.M. with the same thought. I thought President Trump claiming victory on election night was a good move. I could not have been more wrong. There is still a sizable majority of Republicans that think the Democrats stole the election from President Trump, but I am not one of those people. I am not going to be one to say Joe Biden is not my president. I will refer to him as President Biden. Though, I am glad President Trump went down this election fraud road. For years, electron fraud has been a talking point in Republican circles. I think it is good that we let this all play out. I think election laws throughout the county need a revamping and this election will help in that process.
Moving now to the Senate, it looks like Democrats will hold a 50-50 majority (Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will hold the tie-breaking vote). Republicans lost Cory Gardner’s seat in Colorado, Martha McSally’s seat in Arizona, Kelly Loffler’s seat in Georgia, and David Perdue’s seat in Georgia. Democrats lone loss was Doug Jones’ seat in Alabama. This is a prediction that I was right about and wrong about at the same time. I predicted before election day that Republicans would lose control of the Senate. After election day headed into the Georgia runoffs, I was convinced that Republicans would win in Georgia. I will put the blame on President Trump for those two losses. I liked that he fought until the end, but all the conspiracy theories did not help anyone. The press will look at President-Elect Biden winning the presidency and the Democrats winning the Senate and say the polls were right. They will all take their victory laps. They will do this while ignoring that they were wrong about almost every Senate race and swing state. I firmly believe that these were forms of suppression polls. If you looked at the polls a week out in Maine, North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona, and Michigan you would think there was no point in going out to vote for the Republican Senate candidate or President Trump. These races were over. Even Montana and Alaska were supposed to be close. Yes, Republicans lost Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia but these races were a stone throw away from going to the Republicans. I think this is an example of voters liking President Trump’s policy but not liking President Trump. They were willing to vote for President Trump’s allies, but they were not willing to vote for President Trump himself. Maine even sent a Republican senator who supported President Trump the last four years back to Washington but did not vote for President Trump.
Now on to the House of Representatives, where it looks like the Democrats will have a slim 222-213 majority. It looks like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will have a tough time getting her caucus on the same page over the next two years. On the other side, it looks like Kevin McCarthy has the House Republicans in lockstep. This is yet another prediction I was wrong on. I went into election night thinking that the Democrats were going to expand their House majority. Republicans ended up flipping 13 seats. Republicans also elected more women and minorities to the House of Representatives. This includes newly elected Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz who I will touch on later. This was one of the best outcomes House Republicans could have asked for. They do not have the majority, so the House Republicans will get none of the blame for what is passed or not passed out of the House for the next two years. This will set the House Republicans up to flip the House in 2022 and have a sizeable majority when that happens. If you told me House Republicans would be a 222-213 minority, I would have told you President Trump won the election. If you just look at the House election results Republicans had a great election. I will find comfort in these results.
The greatest place to be on election night was Indiana. Governor Holcomb and Lt. Governor Crouch were reelected with a sizeable majority. They ended up winning reelection by 20 points. In the State Senate, Republicans lost one seat and now hold a 39-11 majority. Senator Sandlin, the State Senator that I was working for, won his race handily. Sadly, State Senator John Ruckelshaus lost his reelection. He was one of the hardest working State Senators and his presence will be missed in the State Senate. The Senate Republicans could have lost up to four seats and ended up only losing one. The seat that was lost was an uphill battle and was a close race the entire time. A 39-11 majority is still very sizable, and Republicans will have a supermajority for years to come. Over in the House of Representatives, the Republicans expanded their majority by four seats and now have a 71-29 majority. The House Republicans in Indiana were expected to lose about five seats. The fact that they were able to net four seats is a sign of strength for Indiana Republicans. County elections were also held across the state and Republicans did well in all corners of Indiana. This is yet another prediction I was wrong about. I thought the Governor and State Senate would have good results. I thought the House Republicans would lose their supermajority though. Thankfully, I was wrong. This was one of the best elections Indiana Republicans could ask for. On top of all that, they kept the 5th congressional district by electing Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. She will replace outgoing Congresswoman Susan Brooks. Indiana Republicans hold every statewide seat, 7/9 congressional seats, and supermajorities in both the House and Senate. Two thumbs up for Kyle Hupfer and the Indiana Republicans. Thank God I live in Indiana.
It does not look like we will have much time between election cycles. Candidates and campaigns are already getting ready for 2022. Republican presidential hopefuls are also gearing up for 2024. I will preview these elections soon. I just need to get past the inauguration first.
Politics with Kegan Prentice 