NEWS ANALYSIS: What Happens now that Democrats took the House?

Democrats won big in the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6 when it comes to the House of Representatives. With recounts and too-close-to-call races dragging out final vote tallies for weeks, Democratic candidates ended up winning 40 Republican-held seats to take a sound majority in the House, but the GOP retained its majority hold in the Senate. Historically, the president’s party often loses control of some houses of Congress during midterms, but Democratic control could spell trouble for the Trump Administration.

According to a Nov. 11 report from Time, many Democrats  are reluctant to start talks of impeachment for fear of driving away potential voters from either side of the spectrum. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.),said he and other Democrats plan to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia and their president Vladimir Putin. In an ABC interview, Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that he would not like to go to war with the Trump administration, and does not plan to use any subpoena power over him, which would require him to testify in court.

According to the report from Time, Democrats  such as Nancy Pelosi have said that they are willing to work together to find “common ground” with Trump, while keeping him under check.  Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) says that the party will make sure that investigations will not stop the House of Representatives from their normal duties, and that Congress will be able to balance the work.

AP U.S. History teacher Caitlin Jozefczyk said that the widely increased overall voter turnout for the midterm elections is a sign of healthy democracy in action.

“I think that the amount of people that turned out to vote in the midterm election and the resulting change in control of the House shows that more people are educating themselves about politics and realizing that they can help make a change,” Ms. Jozefczyk said.

As Republicans still have control of the Senate, the Democrats will still face an uphill battle in terms of accomplishing overarching party goals. Compromises have been hard-fought in the current political climate, but if the midterm election results are any indication, voters felt more comfortable with having the parties on more equal footing in Congress rather than one-party rule.