There are a few basic building blocks that a political party needs to maintain a majority in Congress. To maintain a majority, a party needs money, a track record and established parties.
Voters are often creatures of habit.
Congress as a whole can remain deeply unpopular, but that unpopularity often does not extend to individual members of Congress. This dynamic makes it possible for Congress to receive an approval rating of 25 to 30 percent, while 98 percent of incumbent members of the House of Representatives are re-elected.
Having a sitting president is usually a pretty big advantage in elections for the House of Representatives.
However, incumbents are not stupid.
The minority in the House of Representatives is less powerful than the minority in the Senate. Life in the minority in the House of Representatives can be quite miserable, so if the incumbents feel that: There could be wave elections To drive the majority party out of Congress, many of them tend to retire and head for the exits.
Democrats have experienced their own retirement cycle, but Democratic retirements have been different. The Democrats who are retiring are in their 70s and 80s. The Democrats in the House of Representatives have been in the midst of a generational change for a few years now.
What happens to Republicans as 2025 turns into 2026 is different.
Republicans have latched onto Trump, but the president is an unpopular rock who threatens to sink all the vulnerable in the party.
The Republican party sees the wave coming, and many of them are breaking away from Trump and moving to higher ground.
The story continues below.
