Connor Kay

Staff Writer

On Tuesday night, Nov. 8, the Gait hosted the viewing of the U.S. midterm elections. The most popular race of the night that seemed to draw everyone’s attention was former NFL player Herschel Walker running as a Republican senator in the state of Georgia. Walker has had allegations brought forward for pressuring past girlfriends and partners into abortions. This may have been the deciding factor for his loss, pulling in 48.5 per cent of the votes.

Within the participating crowd of involved students, who discussed politics in good spirits, were professors from the university whom I had the chance to talk to for further information on the midterm elections. Dr. Jacob Robbins-Kanter, a new professor at Bishop’s University, when asked about the midterms, was more than glad to explain the U.S. legislature. The US Congress is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which have seats up for elections on the federal level as people are voting for their representatives and senators depending on the state. People also vote at the state level for state representatives and governors, as well on referendums, which could include topics such as the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana or stricter emission standards to combat pollution.

Dr. Robbins-Kanter explained that the southern U.S. is generally a dominantly Republican area which makes the race less competitive in areas like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. However, states like Georgia, Texas, and Florida are becoming more politically balanced but still lean to the more Republican side of the scale. On the flip side, the northern states are most often found to be Democratic, although there are the exceptions of some tight races in New Hampshire and Maine while the majority of the Northeast remains blue.

Overall, in the United States, Dr. Robbins-Kanter found that Wisconsin may be the closest race in the country as the governor’s race involves Tim Michels, who denies the outcome of the 2020 election against Tony Evers, representing the Democratic party, who gained 51.2 per cent of the vote over Michels’ 47.8 per cent. Not only was the governor’s race extremely close but the Senate race was very tight between Republican Ron Johnson and Democrat Mandela Barnes. Johnson has been noted to be among the 2020 election deniers but managed to pull ahead in the polls with 50.5 per cent of the vote over Barnes.

When asked how the results of the polls will affect the next presidential election, Dr. Robbins-Kanter stated that generally, the party in power after the presidential election loses seats during the midterms which applies to both Democrats and Republicans. Though parties will lose seats in the midterms, it will not always affect the outcome of the next election as seen during Obama’s presidency when the Democrats lost many seats, but Barack Obama was reelected for a second term.

In closing my conversation with professor Robbins-Kanter, he mentioned that the elections feel different this year just from the mail-in ballots that may come in late and take up to a few days depending on state regulations. For example, Pennsylvania does not count their early ballots until the polls have closed which even further draws out the tension of the midterm elections.