The 2018 Midterms: Why the House Moved Left and the Senate Moved Right

President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on Nov. 5, 2018. Right: Nancy Pelosi Jim Watson/AFP; Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The 2018 Midterms are done except for some of the counting.  The House moved Left and the Senate moved Right. Simplistic reviews will say that this election was just a referendum on Trump. Yes, the President was a factor. But it was not just about Trump.

Indeed, six factors were at play that matter far beyond this presidency, and here they are.

1. History

Since Eisenhower (the television era), the President’s party has lost House seats in the first Midterm election EVERY time—but once. In 2002, Bush 43 and the Republicans picked up 8 seats in the unifying wake of 9/11. That particular 2002 dynamic, hopefully, will never be repeated.