With the elections Tuesday, will the Democrats secure a majority in the House?
11/2/2018 10:30
Republicans have held the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past eight years, but as Election Day approaches, Democrats are confident that math and history are on their side to recapture the House.
Since 1912, the party that holds the White House has experienced substitutional losses in both chambers of Congress during the midterm election, Vice President of Congressional and Political Affairs Rae Ann Bevington reports in Collector magazine. Could this be the election that helps the Democrats recapture the House?
In the 2018 House races, we are already seeing Democrats trying to gain control of the chamber by capturing 25 seats currently held by the Republicans. If Democrat candidates across the country perform as well during the midterm election as political pundits forecast, their party will be in line to regain its majority in the House.
Currently, Republicans hold a 236-193 majority in the House of Representatives, with six vacancies. Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to reach a majority in 2018.
If the Democrats accomplish their goal of retaking control of the House of Representatives in November, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would most likely become the speaker of the House. A Democratic majority would mean major changes because there would be a swap in who controls powerful House committees.
By contrast, the Senate election map is extremely favorable to Republicans; the GOP could conceivably pick up Senate seats even if Democrats take the House of Representatives. If the Republicans gain one or two Senate seats during the midterm election, it would have a profound effect on enacting the administration’s agenda.
In the upper chamber, 10 of their open seats this year are in states carried by President Donald Trump in 2016. Democrats are still the underdogs in the 2018 battle for the Senate, but the political landscape could change.
A lot, however, depends on voter turnout, Bevington reports. Democrats want to focus their gains in areas populated by upper-middle-class suburban moms, while the Republicans want to encourage the working class to vote as they did for the 2016 presidential election.
If you are traveling to Chicago Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, for ACA International’s 2018 Fall Forum and Expo, there is still time to plan ahead and vote early or through an absentee ballot. Visit this website to learn more: https://www.usa.gov/absentee-voting
To shed more light on the upcoming elections and potential changes to the political landscape, Kim Coghill, ACA International’s vice president of communications, interviewed ACA’s Vice President of Government and State Affairs Andrew Madden on the new ACA Cast to discuss state and the potential impact to the accounts receivable management industry.
ACA International just released an additional podcast focusing on the outlook for the federal elections and impact on advocacy efforts. Visit the ACA Cast website to listen to recent episodes and read more from Bevington’s outlook for the midterm elections in the October issue of Collector magazine.
Subscriptions to the Collector magazine digital edition and email notifications for each new issue are available for ACA International members by logging in to ACA International’s website here. Members and nonmembers can also purchase a print subscription. Nonmembers can create a guest profile on ACA’s website to subscribe to available publications.