Democrats Break Record for Receiving Most ‘Raw House Votes’ Ever in Midterms



Eddie Krassenstein has been a journalist and editor for various…
Prior to the midterm elections, there was a lot of talk about a “blue wave” helping propel Democrats. After the elections ended, however, there has been a lot of debate as to weather or not the seats picked up by Democrats were enough to constitute an actual “blue wave”.
Surely there is no absolute way to actually define what a blue wave is, but the latest stats compiled by David Wasserman & Ally Flinn of Cook Political Report would seemingly be all the proof someone should need to conclude that this mythical wave of liberal support actually did become a reality on November 6, 2018.
Democrats in the House actually broke a record for the number of ‘raw House votes’, not just for their own party but for all parties as well.
“Dems’ national lead in raw House votes – now 8.8 million – just broke the record for largest for either party in the history of midterm elections (previous record was 8.7 million set by Dems in 1974),” tweeted David Wasserman on Tuesday.
The actual numbers in the Cook Political ‘2018 House Popular Vote Tracker’ were 59,226,352 votes for Democrats versus 50,380,560 votes for Republicans, for a difference of 8,845,792 votes in favor of the Democrats.

A record breaking difference in the number of votes for Democrats vs. Republicans should in most assessments constitute a blue wave no matter what standards one uses. Currently Democrats have picked up a net total of 37 House seats, with several races still undecided.
In the Senate, however, it was Republicans who expectedly picked up seats, although, as of right now, it will only be a +1 or +2 increase.

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Eddie Krassenstein has been a journalist and editor for various news organizations ranging from politics to technology and entrepreneurship for the past 15+ years.