34 of the 50 U.S. states elect their governors for four-year terms during midterm elections. Vermont and New Hampshire elect governors to two-year terms in both midterm and presidential elections. Thus, 36 governors are elected during midterm elections. Many states also elect officers to their state legislatures in midterm years. There are also elections held at the municipal level. On the ballot are many mayors, other local public offices, and a wide variety of citizen and legislatively referred initiatives.
Special elections are often held in conjunction with regular elections, so additional Senators, governors and other local officials may be elected to partial terms.
Midterm elections historically generate lower voter turnout than presidential elections. While presidential elections have had turnouts of about 50–60% over the past 60 years, only about 40% of those eligible to vote go to the polls in midterm elections. Historically, midterm elections often see the president's party lose seats in Congress, and frequently see the president's opposite-party opponents gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
Background and rationale
While Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution sets the U.S. president's term of office to four years, Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 sets a two-year term for congressmembers elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Article I, Section 3, Clause 1 then sets a six-year term for those elected to the U.S. Senate, with Clause 2 dividing the chamber into three "classes", so that approximately one-third of those seats are up for election every two years.
Midterm elections historically generate lower voter turnout than presidential elections, along with a different age, partisan, or racial representation of voters who may also generally vote differently in years without a presidential coattail effect. Media coverage is also typically lower during midterm elections because they lack a single, high-profile race that dominates the national news and public interest. While the national news media may cover the overall party control and the relatively few high-profile races, most of the individual state and local elections must rely on the local news coverage, which has declined in the 21st Century due to financial cutbacks and the loss of readership/viewership. Therefore, some state and local governments may hold their races during midterm election years due to the political calculations of incumbent politicians. The lower turnout also benefits well-organized special interest groups that often make up local political machines, making it easier for their favored candidates to capture more of a government.
For other state and local jurisdictions, it may have been because they simply started their four-year cycle at the very first even-numbered year after their constitution or relevant law went into effect, regardless if that was a presidential and midterm year. Still, a number of state and local governments instead schedule their races during odd-numbered "off-years", which historically generate far lower voter turnout than either presidential or midterm years.
Historical record of midterm
Midterm elections are regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance.
The party of the incumbent president tends to lose ground during midterm elections. Since World War II, the president's party has lost an average of 26 seats in the House, and an average of four seats in the Senate.
Since direct public midterm elections were introduced, in only eight of those (under presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden) has the president's party gained seats in the House or the Senate. Of those, only two (1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 2002, George W. Bush) have seen the president's party gain seats in both houses.
The losses suffered during a president's second midterm tend to be more pronounced than during their first midterm, in what is described as a "six-year itch".
External links
"Q&A: US mid-term elections". BBC News. November 8, 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
