Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill debated in St. Louis.

The 2018 midterms were atypical for several reasons – not only were they the most expensive midterm elections in United States history but voter numbers were record-high as the Democrats took the House and the Republicans retained control of the Senate.

Locally several ballot initiatives were passed, records were broken and new representatives were elected as several incumbents were voted out of office.

Missouri

In Missouri Josh Hawley (R) defeated incumbent Claire McCaskill (D) to represent the state in the Senate. Support for Hawley, who received 51.5 percent of the vote came mostly from rural areas, whereas McCaskill – who received 45.5 percent of the vote – fared better in cities.

Map of Senate election results in Missouri. Courtesy of The New York Times.

A self-proclaimed “constitutional conservative,” Hawley has served as the Attorney General for Missouri since 2017 and has built a reputation as an advocate for religious liberty and reduced government. Hawley has been involved in lawsuits against several prominent companies, including search engine Google and drug companies Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Endorsed by a number of conservative groups – including the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and the National Rifle Association, Hawley is a strict believer in traditionally right-wing ideals.

Hawley believes both the Affordable Care Act and abortion are unconstitutional and that human trafficking can be blamed on the women’s sexual revolution of the 1960s. He has been endorsed by President Donald J. Trump and has vocally supported the current administration’s actions, including implementing a child-separation policy at the Southern border, the impositions of trade-tariffs and the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court.

Hawley will serve on the Senate as the representative for Missouri for the next six years and will be up for re-election in 2024. He will serve alongside Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who will be up for re-election in 2022.

The other elected representatives of Mo are:

State Auditor: Nicole Galloway, D

And, for the House of Representatives:

Within Clay County, in which William Jewell College is located, several ballot initiatives passed.

Amendment 1 passed with 62 percent of the vote – thereby restricting the value of campaign contributions that candidates can accept from individuals or entities and mandating that legislative records and proceedings be open to the public.

With 65.5 percent of the vote, Amendment 2 passed legalizing marijuana for medical purposes with a 4 percent tax. Revenue collected from this tax will be dedicated to health care services for veterans. While Amendment 2 passed, Amendment 3 and Proposition 2  – both seeking to legalize medical marijuana  – both failed.

With 52.4 percent of the vote, Amendment 4 passed removing language limiting bingo game advertising and enabling members of licensed organizations to manage games after only six months, as opposed to the currently enforced two years.

Proposition B passed with 62.3 percent of the vote, decreeing that the minimum wage will be immediately raised to $8.60 and increased by 0.85 cents per hour annually until 2023, when the state minimum wage will be $12.00 per hour. This proposition also exempted government employers from the wage increases and increased the penalties for paying employees less than the minimum wage.

Proposition D, a 2.5 cent per gallon gas tax to be imposed for four years beginning July 1, 2019 to raise money to prepare roads within the state, failed to pass with only 46.4 percent voting in favor.

Kansas

The Senate seat in Kansas was not up for grabs in this year’s midterm election and incumbents Pat Roberts (R)  and Jerry Moran (R) will be up for re-election in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

For the House of Representatives:

The election of Sharice Davids (D) from the third district broke records as  – along with Deb Haaland (D) from New Mexico  –  she will be the first Native American woman elected to Congress. Additionally, Davids is the first openly LGBT member of Congress elected in Kansas.

In a contentious race, Democrat Laura Kelly was elected as the governor of Kansas, defeating Republican nominee Kris Kobach. Incumbent Sam Brownback (R) was unable to run for re-election due to term limits, however, he may run again in 2022.

Incumbent Derek Schmidt (R) was elected to be the Attorney General of Kansas with 59.3 percent of the vote, Scott Schwab (R) was elected to be the Secretary of State with 52.9 percent and incumbent Jack LaTurner (R) was elected to be the Treasurer with 58.1 percent.

No measures were listed on the Kansas ballot in this year’s midterm election.

Photo courtesy of Carolina Hidalgo/St. Louis Public Radio.

Capitol building with Republican donkey and Democratic elephant.

The 2018 Midterm elections took place across the nation Nov. 6. In the election 35 U.S. Senate seats, all 435 U.S. House of Representative seats and 36 governorships, as well as thousands of state legislature seats were on the ballot.

In the Senate, Republicans maintained and expanded their majority, with Democrats facing a historically bad Senate map – having to defend 24 seats to the Republicans’ eight.

Seats were flipped in the following states: Indiana, North Dakota, Nevada and Missouri where Democrat Joe Donnelly, Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, Republican Dean Heller and Democrat Claire McCaskill, respectively, all lost their bids for reelection.

The loss of the three incumbent Democratic Senators marks a rare occurrence where an incumbent opposition party senator loses reelections, the first time such an event has occurred since 2002.  

In Arizona, after a close vote count that was not resolved until earlier this week, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won over Republican Martha McSally, flipping a traditionally red seat.

As of the time of writing, the Senate race in Florida has not been called while Mississippi heads to a run-off election. The Florida race is in the process of a recount with outgoing Governor Rick Scott maintaining a narrow lead over incumbent Bill Nelson.  

In Mississippi, Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith will face former Rep. Mike Espy in a run-off election. Whatever the final total, with wins in Missouri, North Dakota and Indiana, Republicans increased their majority in the Senate.

In the House of Representatives, it is clear the much trumpeted ‘blue wave’ materialized – though not as powerfully as many Democrats had hoped. The Democrats had a nine point lead in the nationwide popular vote and gained roughy 30 seats – an exact total remains elusive as some races have yet to be called. Exit polls show an expansive defection among suburban voters away from Republicans and towards Democrats.

Whatever the final total determines, it is definitive that Democrats will control the House of Representatives at the start of the new session – a move with far-reaching implications as it breaks unified Republican control of Washington.

Presumptive Speaker and current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has called for bipartisanship, but many of her committee leaders have vowed vigorous investigations into the conduct of the Trump Administration. The president has replied to such claims that if the Democrats investigate him in the House, he will have his allies in the Senate investigate them. How exactly a new relationship between the House Democrats and the Trump Administration will play out will only become fully clear come January.

In gubernatorial races, Democrats netted eight seats gaining the governor’s mansion in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Kansas, New Mexico and Maine, while the Republicans gained the formerly independent governorship of Alaska.

Notable among the races are the victory of Democrat Laura Kelly in traditionally red Kansas against her opponent and ardent Trump supporter, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and in the hotly contested race in Wisconsin where Democrat Tony Evers frustrated Scott Walker’s bid for a third term.

As it stands now Democrats will control 23 governorships in 2019 to a Republican total of 25, with Georgia and Florida contested. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp appear to be heading towards a runoff election in December, though it is possible that Kemp will still prevail outright.

In Florida, Democrat Andrew Gillum initially conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis, but as votes continued to be tabulated and DeSantis’s lead narrowed, Gillum revoked his concession. The gubernatorial race in Florida is also in the process of a recount.

At the state level, Democrats began the process of recovery from their 2010 decimation gaining statehouses in Maine, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, New Hampshire and New York.

These state level gains, both for governorship and the for state legislatures, are especially significant considering restricting that will happen after the 2020 election.

Overall, the emerging consensus is that the Democrats did well on Tuesday, but not superb. Beto O’Rourke, the charismatic challenger to Ted Cruz in Texas’s Senate race, lost on Tuesday, though it is significant that O’Rourke lost by a far tighter margin than recent elections in Texas, and may have well positioned himself for a presidential run in 2020.

This midterm election is also notable for the diversity of the candidates elected. Colorado became the first state in the nation to elect an openly gay governor. In Michigan and Minnesota, voters elected the first female Muslim congresswomen and in Kansas and New Mexico voters elected the first Native American congresswomen in history.  

Meanwhile, Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) will be the first openly bisexual senator elected to Congress and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is the youngest woman elected to Congress.

On a wider scale, the 2018 midterms resulted in a record-breaking number of women winning election to Congress, with over 100 women poised to serve in the House in the next Congress.

Photo courtesy of  Samantha Lee/Business Insider; Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images.