A year and a half ago, when we were young, jubilant, and blissfully unaware of the future phone policy, on November 5, 2024, 174 million Americans rushed to the polls to vote for the presidential candidate. On the same day, voters also had the opportunity to decide the identities of every member of the House of Representatives along with 34 members of the Senate.
While voters braced for the results of the presidential election, the results for the legislative branch went under the radar. Along with securing the presidential seat, Republicans quietly snatched a 220-215 majority in the House, and a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
While the Senate has two senators per state regardless of the state’s population, the House has a member from each district, which are drawn based on populations throughout certain states. These district lines are redrawn every 10 years during a census, the next one occurring in 2030. However, after Texas recently redrew their district lines to help Republicans gain five more seats in the House, California followed up by passing a bill to redraw their own districts to favor Democrats. Washington doesn’t have plans to redraw their lines before 2030, so most Lakesiders live in the 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 9th districts, each with a Democrat in the House.
This year, it’s up to voters to again decide the next 435 representatives in the House along with 35 out of 100 members of the Senate. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, from 1934 to 2018, the incumbent president’s party lost an average of 28 seats in the House of Representatives and four seats in the Senate. Comparatively, in Trump’s first midterms the Republicans gained one seat in the Senate and lost 42 in the House of Representatives. However, Trump’s approval ratings have dropped from -12 in March 2018 to -18 on March 28, 2026, mostly because of how he’s handled the issues of immigration and tariffs.
“In the House, everything is a simple majority,” explains Katie Piper, teacher of the Upper School history elective Government, Politics, and Policymaking. “It’s one reason why the House has been more partisan [recently].” On the other hand, the Senate is allowed unlimited time to debate, which they can do by suggesting a filibuster which brings the address of the bill to a halt until 60 senators vote in favor of moving forward. The Senate then has 30 more hours of discussion until the final vote, where a simple majority is required. If there is a tie in the Senate, the vice president votes. So while Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, they don’t have the necessary number of senators to pass laws without independents or liberals voting on their side.
This particular midterm is especially significant, and when asked to rate the importance of this midterms on a scale of 1 to 10, the average response on the Tatler poll was a 7.5. Though the majorities in the House and the Senate don’t impact Trump’s ability to create executive orders, they can aid or hinder his ability to pass bills. One of the largest bills that Trump has passed is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in the Senate with a 51-50 majority and a 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives (Three seats in the House of Representatives are vacant: two from resignations and one from death). This bill relocated money spent on welfare programs and environmental protection to the military and immigration control — including giving 75 billion dollars to ICE.
“This is the election to decide the future. If Democrats are able to win in the Senate and the House [with] multiple Republican senators who have turned on Trump, there’s such a large possibility for impeachment,” explains Gus L. ’28. While the House requires a majority vote to officially impeach an official, the Senate needs two-thirds of its members to vote in favor of the official being removed from office. Despite Trump being impeached twice, the Senate didn’t vote to convict him. If Democrats win seats in the Senate, it could put Trump in danger. Trump has expressed concern about this to House Republicans when he said, “You’ve got to win the midterms. If we don’t win the midterms, they’ll find a reason to impeach me.”
However, despite many Lakesider’s believing these midterms are important, when asked on a scale from 1 to 10 on how much they’ve kept up with midterms, the average response was a 3.4. Yet this sentiment isn’t just Lakeside-specific — midterms are notorious for having low voter turnout. Less than 40% of eligible voters vote during midterms, which is far fewer than the average 60% of voters during presidential elections. “It might make all the difference whether or not there’s high turnout,” Ms. Piper explains. “Will [Democrats] be able to mobilize voters? Polls show the Democratic Party is really unpopular with voters too, and young voters aren’t into the Democratic Party as they once were.”
A measure that could significantly impact voter turnout this midterms is the SAVE America (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act, which requires any voter to come to an election office with proper documents. The rationale behind this act is to ensure only American citizens are voting in elections, which is already an enforced law but not to the extent the SAVE Act would make it. However, registration through mail has become increasingly popular as 21 million citizens lack easy access to updated documentation, particularly those of low income, people of color, and currently or previously married women. While the SAVE Act has passed through the House, a current filibuster in the Senate has prevented it from being voted on.
The midterm voting dates are on a state-by-state basis, with each state having its own process. For example, states like Texas have primaries for each party, after which, if a single party member isn’t able to secure over half the vote, a runoff election is held in May. In Washington, selecting a candidate to run in the general election — also known as voting in the primaries — takes place on August 4, while the general election itself takes place on November 3. This midterm election, Washington has no senators up for reelection, but voters from each of the 10 districts can vote for a representative.
Anyone wanting to register to vote must do so up to eight days before the election. “People who will be 18 by the actual election [in November 3rd] can vote already in the primary, even if they’re only 17 then,” Ms. Piper says. “People should think about their vote as being especially powerful in a summer primary because people don’t really pay attention to [them].” The voting registration link will be available on the Tatler website.
Meanwhile, keeping up with midterm news can help with understanding how much power Trump might have in his final few years in office and provides context for future actions in the legislative branch. “If you can’t [vote], it’s good to understand what’s happening now so eventually when you’re able to vote this will be your context for that,” says Gus L. ’28. Additionally, anyone can contact their senator or future representative to encourage them to vote or advocate for various issues.
The voter turnout in these midterms can greatly impact the party makeup of the House and the Senate. Meanwhile, the results can determine everything from immigration to possible impeachment, which will have drastic impacts on Americans both within and beyond Lakeside’s community.
Voting Registration Link:
https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/voter-registration/register-vote-washington
