Mid-term Elections 2022

The Mid-term elections are the real test to gauge political trends across the USA every four years. In Washington, the focus is on the control of Congress, that is, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legistative branch of the constitution. In 2022, the key political issues were democracy and abortion rights for the Democrats, and the economy and crime for the Republicans, but what was really at stake was the political fight to control key local offices across the country, like state attorneys and governors of swing states like Georgia, Pensilvania, Arizona or Nevada, which will oversee the fairness of the next presidential election in 2024, The New York Times editorializes in this opinion article.

The results of the Mid-term elections show a country that is split into two halves, with minimum gains for the Republicans in the House of Representatives (please, google "Midterm Elections 2022 Results" for the latest update). The Democrats keep control of urban areas and traditionally progressive "blue" states like Massachusetts, New York or California, whereas the Republicans win in conservative, rural areas like the Mid-West and the South, including large "red" states like Texas or Florida.  The case of Florida is particularly interesting because Ron DeSantis's landslide victory has placed him in a top position to fight for the nomination of the Republican party in 2024, as you can read in this BBC article. Other local political leaders that have gained international projection with their victories are Josh Saphiro governor elect of Pensilvania, according to NBC News, and stroke survivor, John Fetterman, who has been elected senator also for Pensilvania, BBC News reports.  The first open lesbian governor, Maura Healy, has won her race in Massachusetts AP News announced; the first native American senator since 2005, Markwayne Mullin, has won a seat from Oklahoma -this story can be read in Indian Country Today, and 25-year old Maxwell Alejandro Frost, has become the first generation-Z elected to Congress, NPR covered this generational change.

All these articles talk about local and national political issues which are sometimes hard to grasp for a foreign learner of English, so they can be suitable for C2 students and teachers. In these stories you will find interesting words like the following from the New York Times editorial: at stake, to resonate, to cast a vote, to overturn [the results of the 2020 election], claims of wrongdoing, to oversee, a bid, the ballot, to address the issues, to win control of Congress, to pledge, a showdown, debt ceiling, a bargaining chip, to crack down on [tax fraud], to repeal [a law], a cap for payments [for insulin], to roll back [benefits].