Republicans have held a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives since 2011. Before the elections on Tuesday, most political experts expected them to increase their majority in the House. In the next Congress, there could be more Republicans in the House than at any time since the end of World War II 二战60 years ago.
President Obama has lost popularity受欢迎度 since he was reelected再选 in 2012. Only about 40 percent of those Americans asked say he is doing a good job. Some voters do not think he is a good leader.
Allan Lichtman is a political historian and a professor at the American University in Washington, D.C. He says Mr. Obama*s unpopularity hurt political candidates竞选人 who supported his policies. Professor Lichtman spoke to VOA on Skype.
"It*s not as if the Republicans in this election represented grand ideas, inspiring solutions to national problems. They were simply pinning every Democrat to an unpopular Democratic president."
In this mid-term election, some Democratic candidates did not ask the president to campaign拉选票 for them. Some of them said they disagreed with his health care医疗保健 and energy能源 policies.
The Center for Responsive Politics has estimated that almost $4 billion was spent by candidates and groups supporting and opposing反对 them in this year*s midterm election. That is the highest amount数量 spent on congressional elections in the country*s history.
