The forces shaping the 2022 midterm story
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
With key states holding primaries this week, we ask the big question for the 2022 midterms: Will Republicans take back control of Congress? And, the GOP lawmakers who have echoed the racist conspiracy theory used to justify the mass shooting in Buffalo.
Read more:
The 2022 midterms are ramping up. On Tuesday, voters in five states, including Pennsylvania and North Carolina, will vote in primary elections.
Meanwhile, in races around the country, Republicans are pushing anti-immigrant sentiments that echo the “great replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy theory that motivated a mass shooter in Buffalo on Saturday.
Congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor breaks down Republican strategy and how Democrats might hold on to their slim majorities in Congress.
Check out The Washington Post’s guide to the 2022 midterm elections.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.8 | We know we're as divided as ever as a country. We know President Biden has a low |
| 0:22.8 | approval rating and that people are tired of COVID, of inflation. So what does it all mean for this question? |
| 0:30.9 | What is the story of the 2022 midterm election? My colleague Mariana Sotomayor covers Congress |
| 0:37.0 | for the post and she says the story of this year is still coming into view. Every single election, |
| 0:44.4 | especially midterms has one. You saw in 2010 the Tea Party movement going against then President |
| 0:52.2 | Barack Obama and a lot of voters focused on the economy. Some election nights are more fun than |
| 0:58.3 | others. Some are exhilarating. Some are humbling. In 2018 you had suburban women who were turned |
| 1:07.6 | off by Trump turning out in droves and electing a blue wave into Congress. For a former real estate man |
| 1:15.1 | this is not the house he wanted but President Trump will have to deal with it. And now the question is |
| 1:22.1 | what are the levels of power that are going to change? And there's a number of issues affecting it. |
| 1:27.8 | Immigration, high prices, inflation, and now abortion. And it really depends on the week |
| 1:36.3 | and what is happening in real time that at the end of the day is going to inform voters |
| 1:41.4 | on who to vote for in November. And I think about the things that are on voters' minds right now. |
| 1:49.9 | You know, obviously we have the the prospect that Roe v Wade seems likely to be overturned by the |
| 1:54.9 | Supreme Court. We have yet another mass shooting that happened over this past weekend. This one |
| 2:01.0 | racially motivated. So thinking about those issues, I mean how is that playing a role in the midterms |
| 2:07.2 | as we're starting to see this season really pick up with primaries happening over the next few weeks? |
| 2:12.5 | I think the lesson from those examples are anything can happen at any time, right? So it's hard to |
| 2:18.7 | predict when a shooting, a racially motivated shooting is going to happen and how that's going to |
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