November 5th, 2002. The House Goes Blue and the Senate Gets Bluer:
The Midterm elections that took place on November 5th, 2002 proved to be good for the Democratic party. In the House, they saw a gain of 25 seats, giving them a majority of 237-197 (238 if you count Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont). This would mark the first time in eight years that the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Despite speculations that he would step down from his position as the leading Democrat in the house for the sake of focusing on a potential Presidential campaign, Dick Gephardt said in his speech that night that "I look forward to working with the President and members of Congress of both parties as the next Speaker of the House to solve the problems that face America." Even before the elections, sources in Capitol hill suggested that if he were to seek the position as Speaker of the House, Gephardt would not face any challenges from members of his party.
The Democrats saw a gain of two seats in the Senate,
one in Colorado where Tom Strickland defeated Republican incumbent Wayne Allard and in New Hampshire where Jeanne Shaheen defeated Republican Candidate John Sununu. Democratic incumbents Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Max Cleland of Georgia,
and Jean Carnahan of Missouri managed to fight off tough challengers and hold on to their seats as well. The Democrats now, with Independents Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee caucusing with them, had 55 seats in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said that "with a bigger majority in the Senate and now a majority in the house, the work of the people can be done."
In the Governors race, the Democrats managed to narrowly keep the Governorships in
Alabama and
Vermont and also managed to gain the Governorships in Illinois,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Michigan, Arizona, Maine, and Kansas. Despite his brother's low approval ratings, Jeb Bush managed to get re elected in Florida. The Republicans also managed to pick up the governorships of Maryland, Georgia, Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
President Bush congratulated all those that were elected or re elected and said that he looked forward to meeting with Speaker Designate Gephardt and Senate Majority Leader Daschle at the White House in the coming days. The President's approval rating on election day was at 42%, just as it was throughout most of October.
Will President Bush be able to work with a fully Democratic Congress? Will he be willing to Compromise? Will the Newly elected Democratic majority work with the President and make some concessions? Stay tuned to find out?
Italics= Races that went the other way OTL.