Why the Democrats routed the Republicans in the US midterm elections

US President Donald Trump spent the run-up to the midterm elections telling Americans they should vote as though his own name was on the ballot. They believed him. Americans on Tuesday delivered a damning verdict on the first two years of Trump’s second term in the White House, voting to give the Democratic Party control over both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democratic candidates campaigning relentlessly on bringing down the cost of living wrested House and Senate seats from Republicans across the map, including in conservative states that haven’t put a Democrat in the upper house in decades. Democratic victories in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina in particular are likely to send shockwaves through the Republican Party as the full force of the blue wave makes itself felt. Joseph Ura, the chair of Clemson University’s Department of Political Science, said that the night had been a historic victory for the Democrats. “All the early signs suggest that the Democrats are going to get everything they could have reasonably hoped to win,” he said. Read moreKey US Senate results: Democrats win upper chamber with victories in Texas and Iowa The cost of war The increasingly ...