Why Should I Care About the Midterms?

While the presidential election is the big, flashy election, the midterms are no less important.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the 100 Senate seats are decided in the midterms. These are the people who can put checks on executive power, vote for bills that impact our day-to-day lives, and protect our civil liberties. 

While the president has a responsibility to represent the country as a whole, our local officials and state senators have much smaller constituencies and it’s their job to speak on behalf of each district and state at the federal level. 

The Midterms Shape the Balance of Power
Which party has a majority in either the House or the Senate has huge influence on which policies are heard, how they are voted on, and the direction the government moves in for the second half of the president’s term. 

If we’re unhappy with the way things are going, this is our chance to make that known and elect people who will make decisions that benefit us and our country. 

Plus, midterms include local seats, which cannot be overlooked. Local decisions often impact our daily lives more than federal decisions, even if we don’t always notice. This is where most legislation comes from including decisions on local infrastructure, school board decisions, taxes, and our human rights. For example, even after the Dobbs decision (which overturned Roe v. Wade,) legislators in many states were able to protect reproductive rights by enacting state-level policies.

Checks and Balances 
You may remember from school that our government functions as a series of checks and balances where the three branches of government, the legislative branch (which includes the Senate and House of Representatives), the executive branch (which includes the president) and the judicial branch (which includes the Supreme Court and all lower courts) balance and put checks on each other to ensure that no one branch (or one person) has too much power. 

When we have an opportunity to vote for officials in any of these branches, we are not only influencing what happens in that branch, but in each of the other branches as well. 

Your Vote Matters
Voter turnout rates for midterms normally sit around 50%. That means that these elections are decided by only half of all eligible voters! That’s millions of people who are giving up their say in how our government works. 

Our elected officials make decisions that influence every aspect of our lives, from infrastructure, to school policies, food safety regulations, taxes, and our involvement overseas. We feel the effects of their work everyday. It’s important that we elect people who are going to fight for what we need. 

We all have a voice and opportunities to make decisions that support ourselves, our communities, our country, and our world. 

No matter what, your vote matters.