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What's up today · by Rafael Almeida · 2026-11-04

Democrats take both House and Senate: what actually drove such a big swing?

npr.org

NPR's six takeaways from election night: Democrats won control of both chambers, and Hakeem Jeffries looks set to become the first Black Speaker. Midterms usually go against the party in the White House, but this swing was bigger than most forecasts I saw. Was it mainly cost of living, turnout, candidate quality, or something else? Curious how people read it from different parts of the country.

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Comments

Angel Reyes · 8 likes

every exit poll i saw had prices and housing at the top. people vote their grocery bill

Rafael Almeida · 9 likes

thats been true for like 40 years tbh, it's just the scale this time thats wild

Priya Nair · 7 likes

Worth remembering the losing party almost always overreads these. 2010 and 2018 both looked permanent at the time and weren't

Aoife Murphy · 0 likes

my state had a 4 hour line at one precinct so turnout was clearly not the problem lol