The 2022 midterm elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. During this cycle, all 534 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs. The stakes can’t be higher for both Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, currently holding a majority in both chambers albeit a razor thin one in the upper chamber, and the Republican Party, led by the domineering figure of former President Donald Trump. Different polls show increasingly mixed political signals. Democrats, being the party that controls the White House, are trying to pull off a historic rarity. According to substantially consistent precedents, however, they should not able to do well in the coming cycle, given the dwindling popularity of Joe Biden and the perceived deterioration of his health.
In an interview, aired by CBS on July 18, 2022, Biden would not commit to running for re-election in 2024, although he said “that was the plan currently.” ‘My intention is that I would run again,’ he added. ‘But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.” Many have seen in Biden’s lack of resoluteness, a subliminal message through which he invites his party’s establishment to look for a replacement for 2024. Others think that Biden senses that the outcome of the coming midterm elections will not be particularly flattering, and is signaling that he does not having it in him to fight one fight too many.
A sizable portion of the Americans, including Democrats, are really down on the idea of President Biden seeking a second term, while former President Donald Trump continues to dominate the news cycle. Many Americans say they don’t want Biden or Trump to have a second term. But the question remains, is there any way for others to break through in both parties and challenge Biden and Trump? While Trump looms large on the GOP field sucking all the air there is, it’s almost impossible to find a viable alternative to Joe Biden. The democratic party is desperately in need of something that would amount to the Second Coming of Barack Obama.
Just as many seem to think that 2024 nominations are Biden’s and Trump’s if they fancy a go at it again. The lack of an up-and-coming heir apparent among the Democrats puts Biden and the party leadership in a serious predicament. The closest thing is Vice President Kamala Harris, but she’s not going to run against her own running mate. Plus, she is not popular at all within both the party and the base.
In the meantime, and according to an Axios report, Former President Trump’s close allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions told Axios.
The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, according to sources close to the former president, quoted by Axios. During his presidency, Trump often complained about what he called “the deep state.”
In an attempt to hinder Trump in his plans, Joe Biden wants the midterm elections to be a choice between Trump and himself, and not just a referendum on inflation that would very likely morph into stagflation. The odds are Biden thinks by dragging Trump into the ballots, he has a shot at keeping a majority at least in the senate, the house of representative seems to be heading towards to a GOP laying the ground to an even more polarized political landscape in the US, and a gory presidential election in 2024.