Biden Takes Victory Lap After Avoiding The Traditional Midterm 'Shellacking'
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden took a victory lap Wednesday after pulling off the best midterm election results in two decades.
“It was a good day, I think, for democracy. And it was a good day for America,” Biden said in remarks at a news conference in the State Dining Room.
Biden, in a rare formal question-and-answer session with reporters, was clearly pleased with the unexpectedly good showing from Democrats on Tuesday.
“This was supposed to be a red wave. You guys were talking about us losing 30 to 50 seats,” he said, using a handheld microphone to step around the lectern.
Biden said that the results show that many voters support his policies, and that he believes that support will grow as other pieces of his agenda, like caps on prescription drug costs or construction projects from his infrastructure law, come to fruition.
President Joe Biden called Tuesday's midterm elections "a good day for America." (Photo: Tom Brenner/Reuters)
“There’s a lot of things that are just starting to kick in,” he said, adding that he did not foresee changing course on his priorities. “I’m not going to change anything in a fundamental way.”
Biden said he was relieved that so many Americans, based on the election results, value democracy highly, and that will enter into his ultimate decision about seeking a second term. He said he was aware that former President Donald Trump, who attempted a coup to remain in power, was likely to announce another run for the White House, but that by itself would not be the deciding factor on whether and when to announce his own decision.
“I don’t feel in any hurry, one way or another ... no matter what my predecessor does,” he said.
Democrats will almost certainly lose the House, but in numbers nowhere close to the two or three dozen that had been projected as late as Monday. And the party could well hold the Senate if two of the three incumbent Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia wind up on top.
Biden’s outcome, nevertheless, is the best for any sitting president since Republican George W. Bush, who, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, picked up eight seats in the House and two in the Senate in the 2002 midterms.
Bush then lost 32 seats in the House and six in the Senate in his second-term midterms in 2006. Democrat Barack Obama lost 63 seats in the House and six in the Senate in 2010, and afterwards noted: “I’m not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like ... I did last night. I’m sure there are easier ways to learn these lessons.”
In his second midterm in 2014, Obama lost 13 House seats and nine Democratic senators.
Trump, in his only midterm election in 2018, lost 41 House seats and picked up two Senate seats. However, Republicans had expected to pick up as many as six in what had been the most favorable map for them in a generation.
Biden’s approval rating had risen somewhat in recent months, but was still seen by many Democratic candidates as too low to be helpful for them. He did wind up campaigning, but, with the exception of Pennsylvania, where he was born, did not visit states with highly competitive Senate races.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
