Mid-term results produce a split convention

The result creates new hurdles for the GOP Chair over the next two years. Democrats should launch important investigations into his government and will have the means to hinder major elements of his legislative agenda, such as the crackdown on illegal immigration.

The results reflected the divisions within the electorate about the president and all the major issues facing the country, with health care and immigration top of mind.

Mr Trump grew after provoking a storm in the country by telling supporters that he wanted the interim elections to be a referendum on him. Voters understood the message: 64% of respondents said that he had played a decisive role in their vote, and more expressed their opposition than their support, according to AP VoteCast, a pre-election poll and conducted the polling day with about 90,000 people. voted at mid-term or with the intention of doing so.

When the returns arrived, Mr. Trump invited longtime friends, cabinet members, administrative assistants and Republican strategists to a quiet meeting in the East Room of the White House.

At the beginning of the party, the president's guests were afraid that the Republicans would have a worse night than the one that turned out to be theirs. Late in the evening, when it became clear that the GOP would organize the Senate, Mr. Trump sent a tweet describing the evening as "a tremendous success."

Around midnight, the president called California Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leader, to tell her that her party had taken control of the chamber. Prior to the appeal, Ms. Pelosi had greeted supporters in Washington. "Tomorrow will be a new day in America," she said, promising that a democratic house would "restore the balance of power" of the Trump administration.

The election results, a mosaic of disappointments and victories for both sides, portray two parties in realignment. The Republicans, who largely reconquered as Trump's party, created large margins among rural voters and white men. This cost them suburban spaces like the one occupied by GOP representative Barbara Comstock in the Virginia suburb of Virginia, D.C. She became the first Republican incumbent to lose early Tuesday night; she was defeated by Democrat Jennifer Wexton.

Democrats, meanwhile, have won the support of young people, commuters, people of color and women. They worked to reaffirm themselves in the states that Mr. Trump narrowly won in 2016, including Michigan, where Gretchen Whitmer defeated Republican Bill Schuette as governor. In the Senate, re-elected Democrats include Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), who said his party in 2020 should learn from its success in economic areas .

"We will show America how we celebrate unions and all workers," said Mr. Brown. "This is the message coming out of Ohio in 2018 and this is the project of our country in 2020".

But Democrats have failed in Trump's fortresses like Indiana, where Republican Mike Braun toppled Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly despite his efforts to portray himself as a centrist capable of working with a popular president in his state. They also lost a high-profile bid for a win in Texas, where incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz defeated Beto O'Rourke.

Jeff Horwitt, a Democratic poll adviser, said the most important thing for Democrats was to take control of the House and make gains in the state's homes. Democrats needed a net gain of 23 seats in the House for the evening.

"In this respect, mission accomplished," he said. "At the same time, Donald Trump managed to divide the country and gain ground in Red America."

Micah Roberts, a survey expert with the GOP, said that a gain of 30 seats in the House of Representatives was not as bad as the one to which the party had prepared, although the The final number of Democrats vans was not announced Tuesday night. "We know what an angry electorate can do for a party in power, and it does not really scare what a really angry electorate can do," he said.

There were also 36 polls to the governorship and thousands of seats in the legislature, bastions of power that will be essential to redefine the political lines after the 2020 census.

Democrats are striving to recover from the overwhelming defeats suffered by their party over the past decade, when it has lost nearly 1,000 legislative seats. Before the elections on Tuesday, the Republicans held 33 seats of governor of the country and the Democrats 16. A governor is independent.

The elections were held at a time when the electorate was generally optimistic about the state of the economy: 65% of the PA voters indicated that the situation of the state of the economy was not good. economy was excellent or good. Of these voters, 37% voted for Democrats and 59% voted for Republicans.

The survey suggests that Democrats did well to make health care their biggest problem: it was the main problem for voters. About a quarter of respondents said that it was the most important issue, followed by immigration, an issue that Mr. Trump has raised in recent weeks. The economy and employment completed the first results in 3rd place.

The survey suggested that the gains in democracy would be partly fueled by a large gap between men and women: women beat between 56% and 38% in favor of Democrats, a difference of 18 points. Men preferred Republicans to Democrats 49% to 46%.

Democrats also won among young people, with 61% of voters aged 18 to 29. The party also won voters aged 30 to 44 and 45 to 64, groups that together accounted for almost three-quarters of the electorate. Republicans wore only voters aged 65 and over and by one percentage point, 49% to 48%, the survey showed.

The survey highlighted one of the main reasons why Republicans had a good chance of staying in the Senate: most of these competitive races were held in predominantly rural states like Montana and North Dakota. The survey found that 56 percent vote for Republicans, while 39 percent favor Democrats.

On the other hand, the opinion group was much weaker among suburban voters who constituted a much larger share of the electorate and were at the center of the struggle for control of the House. They split 52% -43% in favor of Democratic candidates.

The survey also revealed a deep division in the way members of the two main parties see race in American society. Of those who think that whites have more advantages than blacks, 81% are Democrats. Among those who believe that the split is reversed and that Blacks have more advantages than whites, 77% are Republicans.

The Republicans had hoped that the Senate's fight this fall against Justice Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court would further encourage his constituents to participate in the mid-term elections. The survey suggests it was more important for Democrats: 54% of those who said Kavanaugh's candidacy was important for their vote were pro-Democrats; 42% of them supported the Republicans.

-Peter Nicholas and Reid J. Epstein contributed to this article.

Write to Janet Hook at [email protected]