It’s no new information that most people, both right leaning and left leaning thought that the red wave was going to be massive during this midterm election. While president Biden’s approval ratings were incredibly low, it was completely reasonable to assume that the republicans would take much more during the election.

Why did this happen? The first conclusion that most people come to is the fact that a very influential court case, Roe versus Wade was overturned. This overturned the ruling that allowed for first trimester abortions to be legal under all circumstances. Roe v. Wade was a court case from 1973, and for decades people from both sides of the table have been passionately debating exactly what line should be drawn in the sand regarding abortion. 

The main difference between the two sides which were borne from such a landmark decisions, were pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-Choice, meaning that a woman should have the right to abort from pregnancy, is arguably a right to privacy that everyone should have. Pro-life, isn’t the exact opposite of this argument, with many people claiming that a woman should indeed have the right to make her own medical decisions, but what it argue’s is that the child which lives within the womb of the pregnant woman is living, and that it has a right to continue to do so. Pro-choice protects certain rights of the woman, while pro-life chooses to protect the child within her. 

The ruling of this court case evidently affects millions of people in the U.S, so it makes complete sense that it would affect how voting turns out. This midterm election is complete proof of that, as beforehand so many were sure that the red wave would be massive, yet the outcome was quite the opposite.

This happened despite how poorly the current president, Biden, is viewed from both sides. Every president both old and new endure criticism and hate from the public, nothing else could be expected. President Biden, though, takes this to a new height, as he bears the meaning behind the “Let’s Go Brandon” saying. Gas prices are egregiously high, inflation hasn’t been this bad-at around eight percent- in forty years, and there seems to be no end in sight. 

None of this explains though, the reason why the midterm elections turned out the way that they did. That’s because the math wasn’t really in support of a red wave. Republicans had to defend nearly sixty percent of their seats. They already had the majority of senate incumbents this election, so in order for a red wave to happen they would have to retain the 20 seats they already had, while grabbing a couple of the 14 democratic seats. The math wasn’t on their side. 

The reasons behind why there wasn’t a red wave this term election, making liars out of many commentators and politicians on both sides, are of a wide variety. The truth is that we truly can’t know, but what we do know is that the story doesn’t end here. It continues on to the next election in which the other part of congress is up for re-election. Changing the numbers, and possibly changing the outcomes.