On November 3, voters nationwide will decide all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate, a vote widely seen as a referendum on the Trump Administration and a crucial opportunity for Democrats to regain prominence on the national stage.
Republicans won majorities in both chambers in 2024 and currently hold 53 seats to the Democrats’ 45. With two independents caucusing, Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win a majority. In the House, Republicans hold 218 seats to the Democrats’ 214, with one independent and two vacancies, so Democrats need a net gain of four seats to reach the required 218 for a majority, while a net loss of one would cost Republicans theirs. With such fine margins potentially determining a complete upheaval in Congress, many voters throughout the nation and EA’s student body have placed a larger emphasis on this year’s elections than years past.
REDISTRICTING WARS: California and Texas have led the way for numerous redrawn congressional maps.
Photo courtesy of ABC7 San Francisco
The main obstacle on the path to a Republican victory is President Donald Trump’s approval rating, which has dropped significantly over the past two years and has shown no sign of improvement leading up to the midterms. According to US national polls compiled by the NY Times, Trump sits at an overall approval rating of roughly 37%, the lowest for any president this far into their term since the Truman administration. This approval rating can largely be attributed to Trump’s perceived inability to respond to issues that matter to voters, perhaps illustrated best by the war in Iran and the consequent rise in gas prices. In response, Democratic candidates such as North Carolina’s Roy Cooper and Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed have increasingly centered their campaigns on topics such as health care and rising grocery prices.
Religion Department Chair and world religions teacher Michael Sheehan ’04 shares his thoughts on whether the trends favoring the Democrats will hold, saying, “I think polling is a very inexact science . . . I know there is a lot of data and number crunching and metrics that go into those sorts of predictions. I also recognize them as predictions, and predictions have the possibility of being inaccurate.”
The debate around redistricting has also been at the forefront of conversations as the midterms approach. In August 2025, the Texas Legislature bypassed the traditional 10-year cycle following the federal census to pass a historically unusual mid-decade congressional map. Under the new map, five districts that previously favored Democrats are now more likely to lean Republican. In response, civil rights groups and voting activists such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) sued the state of Texas, arguing that the map discriminates against Black and Latino residents. The case was brought up to the Supreme Court, which deemed the map valid and allowed its use in the 2026 midterm elections. This decision prompted a chain of similar mid-decade redraws throughout the country across party lines, most notably demonstrated by the Democratic gerrymander of California. As a result of these redistricting efforts, both Texas and California are estimated to gain between two and five seats in the upcoming elections.
In 2024, the ability of states to redraw congressional districts to the detriment of minority voters was strengthened by the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the 2024 Louisiana congressional map and removed one of the two majority-Black districts. The Court’s ruling weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices and makes it easier for states to redraw maps around districts where voters of color have power. Though both parties have acknowledged that partisan gerrymandering is an issue, neither one seems willing to take significant action against it. Sam Slye ’27 shares her dissatisfaction with the current voting atmosphere, saying, “I’m really disappointed by the continued polarization within the midterms. I feel like people are grasping at straws so that they can gain voter support, and disagreement points are becoming excuses to target groups of people. And at the end of the day, it limits the average Joe.”
President Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting in an attempt to reduce voter fraud have also been a main controversy of the midterm elections. On March 31, the Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s executive order for stricter policing of mail-in ballots, ruling there was insufficient time to implement the changes before midterms. This is a point of contention among voters, as many believe that mail-in voting is less reliable than in-person voting. Upper School history teacher Michael Whalen ’08 notes, “I think in-person voting is more secure. I also think a lot of those ballot issues that developed were at a time when we were in a COVID pandemic, and I think what happened is…those policies have continued outside of the time period that they probably should’ve existed in.”
SHIFTING MOMENTUM: Trump’s plummeting approval ratings have created an opportunity for the Democratic party to regain power.
Photo courtesy of The Brennan Center for Justice
At the same time, many people are concerned about the fact that Trump may simply be trying to limit mail-in ballots because they traditionally support Democrats far more than Republicans. Upper School history teacher Kris Aldridge notes, “I think that mail-in ballots significantly disadvantage the president’s party for a variety of reasons. So, it’s a political tactic. I think it’s like lots of political tactics that are done by lots of politicians—that doesn’t strike me as all that odd.”
When asked what he thinks about the responsibilities of EA’s new voters, Upper School Spanish teacher and Center for Teaching and Learning Research Coordinator Andrew Shimrock says, “I think people should vote, and I think that people before they go vote, I think they should be looking at the ballot and educating themselves on who they’re actually voting for…I think what’s the most difficult in elections is that you show up and you look and you know the big name candidates that are on the ballot, but then you don’t realize who else you’re voting for.” Shimrock’s remarks are reflected throughout the student body, with Slye commenting, “I know it’s a busy time for most people who are 18 and seniors, but I think it is a stressed value here at EA to be an upstanding citizen and do [your] duty of citizenship.”
Given the broader consequences of this year’s midterms both on the state and national level, the push to vote at Episcopal has become increasingly prominent, with a voter stand regularly set up outside the Center for Teaching and Learning office. As Grace Christie ’27 says, “Of course, I think that if you’re over 18, you should immediately register to vote. Your voice counts. This is a democracy, and a true democracy takes into account all voices and all opinions. And if you’re not voting, your voice is not being heard.”