As voters went to the polls on November 6, they were not only choosing a new president, but also all 435 seats in Congress – which passes laws – and the 34 seats in the US Senate. Both chambers must be controlled by one party to function effectively as a check on the White House.
Amid a crowded field of 17 GOP candidates, Donald Trump easily won the Republican nomination, defeating former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, businesswoman Carlie Fiorina and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. His biggest challenge was winning the Electoral College, which allocates votes based on each state’s congressional districts with two exceptions: Maine and Nebraska, where the winner-takes-all system encourages states to support the same party as their presidential candidates.
With Hillary Clinton’s lead narrowing in recent weeks, Democrats are looking to win back 10 of the 33 Senate seats that President Trump won in 2016, as well as pick up seats in Arizona and Nevada – both trending blue — and flip a few in traditionally red states like Tennessee or Texas. They are also seeking to cut into Republicans’ two-seat majority in the House, where a Democratic victory would require them to retain their current 10 seat advantage and add four seats from states that are more competitive, including Montana and Ohio.
In the Democratic race, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading Democratic contenders Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. Newsom has ramped up his criticism of Trump to a level not seen in the primary yet, and recent polling shows that he is ahead of both Harris and Buttigieg among men under 50 – a group that helped propel Trump to victory in 2016.
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