[3][4][5] Midterm elections typically see the incumbent president's party lose a substantial number of seats,[6][7] but Democrats outperformed the historical trend and a widely anticipated red wave did not materialize.

Democrats increased their seats in the Senate by one, as they won races in critical battleground states, where voters rejected Donald Trump-aligned Republican candidates.

[36][37] Issues that favored Democrats included significant concern over perceived extremism and threats to democracy among many Trump-endorsed Republican candidates, the unpopularity of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion that reversed Roe v. Wade, the weariness of a potential Trump 2024 campaign, and backlash over the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

[47][48][49] Democratic overperformance in these elections are considered to have played a factor in the party's defeat in 2024, with its results misinterpreted as support for President Joe Biden's initial bid for re-election.

[69][70] Going into 2022, Republicans capitalized on high inflation,[71][72] crime,[73][74][75] and gas prices,[76][77] and gained a substantial lead in the election climate towards 2022 results similar to the red wave of 2010.

[78] The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States in the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision led to a spike in Democratic voters' fervor, which narrowed the gap despite Biden's underwater approval ratings,[79] amid better-than-expected election results during this period;[80] this led some observers to wonder whether the 2022 midterms could break the incumbent president's losses and reflect the 1998 United States elections, as well as the 2002 United States elections, both of which showed increased support for the incumbent president, amid the impeachment of Bill Clinton (1998) and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks (2002).

[98][99] Trump issued primary endorsements to 37 candidates who ran in the general elections in November that were rated as competitive by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

[119][120] Following the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Democrats outperformed Biden's results in the 2020 U.S. presidential election in several House special elections, with abortion cited as a major contributor to their victories,[121] as many Republican-controlled states passed restrictive abortion laws, including a total or near-total ban on the procedure.

[111][122] Some Democrats, including party strategists and pollsters,[123] were divided on whether this could help them or if focusing on the economy and inflation, as the latter seemed to grow a bigger concern among voters in the fall, was a better strategy.

[135] After Dobbs, Republicans attempted to pass several anti-abortion laws at the state level where they were not fully banned, including removal of incest and rape exceptions, but suffered from internal division on the issue.

[147][148] Republicans blamed the increase in violent crime and homicides in 2020 and 2021 on progressives and liberals, as well as attempts to "defund the police",[149] a slogan supported by racial justice protesters but eventually rejected by Biden.

[168] Their warning that Greens could divide progressive voters and give Republicans wins in tight races nonetheless received widespread criticism,[169] and Hoh appeared on the ballot.

[174][175] House minority leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to "recover lost learning from school closures" during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

[181] Progressive Democrats pushed for legislation to combat the negative effects of climate change, including incentives towards the adoption of renewable energy and electric cars.

[111] Since Biden revealed a plan for student loan forgiveness in August 2022 through an executive order based upon the Higher Education Relief Opportunities For Students Act of 2003,[196][197] both parties sought electoral gains from the decision, with Democrats potentially attracting young voters who would benefit from the program, and Republicans targeting blue-collar workers who likely did not go to college and would be unwilling to help subsidize the education debts of others.

[211][212] His ratings briefly increased after several legislative victories in August and September 2022;[213][214][215] by October, they again plateaued when voters focused back on the state of the economy.

[5] Two special elections took place in 2022 to replace senators who resigned during the 117th U.S. Congress:[233] In early December 2022, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced she would leave the Democratic Party and register as an independent.

[21] As a result of victories in state legislative and gubernatorial elections, Democrats gained government trifectas in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota.

[322] Major U.S. cities saw incumbent mayors re-elected, including Fort Smith, Arkansas (George McGill);[323][324] Little Rock, Arkansas (Frank Scott Jr.);[325] Tallahassee, Florida (John E. Dailey);[326] Lexington, Kentucky (Linda Gorton);[327] Flint, Michigan (Sheldon Neeley); Reno, Nevada (Hillary Schieve);[328] Newark, New Jersey (Ras Baraka);[329] Charlotte, North Carolina (Vi Lyles),[330] and Raleigh, North Carolina (Mary-Ann Baldwin);[331] Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (David Holt);[332] Clarksville, Tennessee (Joe Pitts);[333] Murfreesboro, Tennessee (Shane McFarland);[334] Denton, Texas (Gerard Hudspeth);[335] and Washington, D.C. (Muriel Bowser).

[355] Bass succeeded two-term incumbent Eric Garcetti,[d] and in doing so became the first woman and the second Black person (after Tom Bradley) to be elected mayor of Los Angeles.

[356] In San Bernardino, California, city worker Helen Tran was elected to replace incumbent John Valdivia, who was defeated in the blanket primary.

[360] In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, acting mayor Cavalier Johnson defeated Bob Donovan in a special election to complete the term of Tom Barrett, who resigned in December 2021 to become the U.S.

[412][413] Many factors have been attributed to the lack of a red wave and better-than-expected performance for Democrats,[32][414][415] including the quality of candidates,[416] youth turnout,[12][44] and some vote splitting in key races.

[409][420][421] Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democratic House coalition's fundraising arm, lost his reelection bid after ten years in Congress.

[12] Democrats performed better than expected in states like New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania,[32][8][455] where Fetterman improved on Biden's 2020 results from white voters without a college degree.

Gerrymanders in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Ohio, gave Republicans an advantage in the House, while Democrats won 24 of 30 seats, or 80 percent, in Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon, with 54% of the popular vote across these four states.

Since 2016, Republicans made gains among minorities who are working class or Hispanic and Latino Americans; at the same time, Democrats continued to improve among college-educated whites, which helped them win in 2020.

[47][49] In 2022, Republicans made further gains among working-class peoples of color,[26] and also among Hispanic voters,[494] though not to the extent they expected,[426] as Democrats continued to win a majority of their vote.

[425] Compared to 2018, which was a blue wave election and saw higher turnout among Democrats, Republicans made gains among women, older people, suburban voters, and whites without college degrees.

[526][527][528] On November 18, attorney general Merrick Garland announced that he appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to run part of the Department of Justice's probe into the January 6 Capitol attack, which could affect his eligibility under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as argued by some legal experts, as well as the FBI investigation into Trump's handling of government documents.