WASHINGTON: Democrats won the House of Representatives on Tuesday, ending one-party rule in the United States after two years of a wild ride for President Donald Trump who trampled on all opposing forces.

But the Trump charm worked in the Senate, where Republicans outperformed expectations, expanding their lead in the 100-seat body.

The results of these mid-term elections leave the political picture even more blurry than it was before Tuesday. If it was a referendum on Mr Trump’s performance, as predicted during the campaign, the results confirmed that he remains hugely popular among his voters, middle-aged, working class whites.

Trump claims his popularity ‘defies history’

But his divisive policies also united his opponents — women, immigrants, LGBTs, liberals — who came out in record numbers to show their resentment. The New York Times estimated that some 114 million ballots were cast this year, well above the 83 million votes cast in 2014 and 91 million ballots cast in 2010.

This surge — particularly among suburban voters — propelled Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House after eight years, heralding a new era of divided government in Washington.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Democratic Party had picked up more seats than the Republicans. So far, Democrats have won 220 seats in the House while 194 have gone to Republicans. The House has a total of 435 seats. In the Senate, Republicans maintained majority of 51 out of a total of 100. Democrats now have 45, down from 49 in the previous Senate.

Some results were still awaited.

Since all 435 seats in the House were up for grabs, it’s easier for Democrats to take advantage of anti-Trump feelings among some voters. But they did not have the same advantage in the Senate where elections were held for only 35 seats.

President Trump called his rival in the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, late Tuesday night and congratulated her on regaining a Democratic majority in the House, congressional staffers said.

Ms Pelosi, the minority leader in the previous House, is set to be the majority leader after the newly elected members take oath.

Her deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill told reporters that Mr Trump also acknowledged Ms Pelosi’s call for bipartisanship in her victory remarks.

Some political pundits say that Tuesday’s result could also decide whether Mr Trump would be a one- or two-term president.

Although an outsider in 2016, Mr Trump now leads the ultra-right conservatives in the Republican Party. His victory in 2016 encouraged conservatives across the globe, bringing wins for them in several European countries as well. Liberals hope that a Republican defeat in the mid-term elections could halt this trend.

In the past two years, Mr Trump enforced several key points of his conservative agenda — a ban on Muslim visitors, scrapping the Iran nuclear deal, undoing health reforms, appointing conservative judges — also because Republicans control both the House and the Senate.

He promised to do the rest — taking away the birthright to citizenship, building the Mexico wall — in the remaining two years of his four-year term.

Democrats believe that losing the House would prevent Mr Trump from finishing such an agenda, which in turn could stop him from winning a second term in 2020.

Some political pundits also say that Democrats will use the House to keep Mr Trump unsettled, starting a string of investigations into his administration that could stymie the president in the lead up to 2020.

But analysts warned that the shockingly high turnout offered hopes to both sides for 2020. The loyalty of Trump voters reconfirmed that he remains the person who had fundamentally reshaped the electorate in 2016. Many of the trends that helped elect Mr Trump, even as he lost the popular vote, held true.

Like in 2016, rural voters in 2018 turned out in droves to elect Senate candidates in states Mr Trump won, like Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and even purple Florida.

But Mr Trump’s divisive politics did catastrophic damage to Republicans in the suburbs, once a traditional source of strength for the Republican Party. From Fairfax, Virginia, to Dallas, Texas, these angry voters enabled Democrats to win majority in the House.

Democrats lost more Senate seats than expected and won some House seats no one saw coming, including shock races in Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Trump-friendly Staten Island.

President Trump’s effort to present economy as the only issue also failed. In exit polls, 41 per cent of voters cited health care as the most important issue, while 23 per cent named immigration. Just 21 per cent named the economy and a significant 11 per cent named gun policies.

Two-thirds said Mr Trump was important to their vote, either to show their support or opposition. Only a minority of voters — 44 per cent — said they approved of Mr Trump’s performance and 55 per cent said they disapprove. One per cent voters were neutral.

In a post-poll news conference at the White House, Mr Trump claimed his popularity “defied history”, as for the first time in recent history the ruling party gained seats in the Senate. This, he said, was a “tremendous success” for his style of politics.

But he urged Democrats to work with the administration on joint legislative policies.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2018