The American Republican Party Seized both the Senate and the House

US media including the CNN reported using the interim finding of ballot counting and their own analysis systems that in the US Interim Election held on the 5th (local time), the Republican Party won both the Senate and the House.

The CNN reported through its ballot counting broadcast that the Republican Party secured the Majority position again and regained the Majority in the Senate. The broadcast counted that as of 3:30 in the morning the Republicans got 226 seats in the House and the Democrats got 200. In order to be the Majority in the House, which reelects all 435 Congressmen, a party must secure 218 or more seats.

The broadcast also analyzed that in the Senate election, which was electing one third of its 100 senators, 34, the Republicans got 21 seats, the Democrats got 10 seats, and they were still competing in 3 electoral districts. If we include other Senators, we can count the seats in the Senate as 50 for the Republicans, 46 for the Democrats, 2 for independents, and they are still competing for 2 seats.

And in the Governor elections, which are electing 36 Governors, the Republicans, who got 25, are leading the Democrats with 19.

There has been a tendency so far that an opposition party used to win the US Interim Elections because of psychological matters to check the party in power, but that was not the case in this election.

The distribution of the seats before the Interim Election was △the Republicans 49, △the Democrats 49, and △Independent 2 in the Senate, and △the Republicans 223, △the Democrats 208, △Independent 1, and △three empty seats in the House.

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com