With the midterm elections happening in the United States next Tuesday, political tension is higher than usual. Packages containing pipe bombs that were sent to prominent members of the Democratic Party last week have not helped to ease this tension.

The first package was sent to Democratic donor, George Soros, on October 22nd. Over the last week at least 13 packages bombs have been identified by law enforcement. This number could be as high as 15 since two more suspicious packages were intercepted.

Intended recipients include former US President Barack Obama, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. CNN’s building had to be evacuated when one was found intended for one of their guests.

Fortunately, no one was harmed by any of the bombs. All of the packages’ return address was to the office of the former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

On Friday the 26th police identified and arrested Cesar Sayoc of Plantation, Florida in connection to the bombs.

He has been charged with mailing explosives, threats against the former President, assaulting both current and former federal officers, and interstate transport of explosives. These are all federal offences.

Even though the man responsible is a supporter of Trump, some Trump supporters believe that this is part of a plot conducted by the Democrats to bolster support in the midterms. There is no evidence that points to that being true.

In the lead up to the midterms there has been a lot of talk on social media about a ‘’blue wave”. This “blue wave” refers to people voting Democrats in mass into the Senate and Congress, both of which are currently controlled by Republicans. If successful it could make it harder for Trump to push his agenda through. How likely is this to happen?

According to a poll from PBS out of the 35 states holding Senate elections, 21 are either likely or guaranteed to vote Democrat. Only 6 are likely or guaranteed to go to the Republicans and 8 could could go either way.

According to the same poll in the House of Representatives 203 seats are either likely or guaranteed to go to Democrats, while 202 are likely or guaranteed to go to Republicans.

To get a majority in the House a party needs 218 seats. If the parties split the remaining 30 states that could go either way, the Democrats would have a one seat majority.

In the 36 states holding Governor races only 10 are likely or guaranteed to go to Democrats, with 17 going to Republicans. In this case 9 states both parties have an even chance of winning them.

 

Photo by Ethan Hoover on Unsplash

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply