Two years after Trump’s victory, one-party control appears to be over

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times News Service

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018 | 2 a.m.

While the vaunted blue wave that Democrats hoped for failed to fully materialize, the days of one-party control in Washington appear to be over. President Donald Trump’s strength in rural areas kept the Senate in Republican control, but voters in urban and suburban districts across the country sent the White House a clear message: They want a check on the president.

When the new Congress is sworn in this January, Democrats will be able to curb Trump’s legislative ambitions and, armed with subpoena power, flex their oversight muscles to initiate investigations into allegations of misconduct by the president and his administration. If the special counsel, Robert Mueller, finds substantial evidence of illegal conduct during the 2016 election, he now would have a receptive wing of government to pursue his findings.

But after eight years in the minority, Democrats hoping to reclaim the White House in 2020 will also have to prove they are interested in governing — and temper the liberal ambitions of the party’s most ardent left-wingers.

“It’s like being the rescue team at an 88-car pileup — who knows where to begin?” asked Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “I think the key principle is that we’ve got to make progress on the real problems of the country.”

Democratic leaders have already said they plan to use their first month in the House majority to advance sweeping changes to future campaign and ethics laws, including outlawing the gerrymandering of congressional districts and restoring key enforcement provisions to the Voting Rights Act. They also intend to press for infrastructure investment and legislation to control the climbing costs of prescription drugs — initiatives that will test whether Trump is willing to work with them.

But without overwhelming numbers, Democrats will not have the strength to push many of the initiatives their left flank ran on: a single-payer health care system, boldly expanded college access and at least reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Democrats will also have to balance legislative ambitions with their efforts to satisfy the desires of their base to investigate the president. That could lead to gridlock.

“The expectation is that we will behave as a real branch of government and not just a supplicant to Trump, which this current Congress has been for the last two years,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz. “There’s an expectation that we’re a check and a balance so that means a stalemate.”

Midterm elections are always a referendum on the president, and never more so than in 2018, when Trump told voters across the country that he was on the ballot. Historically, the party out of power picks up seats in the first midterm of a presidency, and Democrats followed that pattern this year.

Unlike the midterms of 2006, when President George W. Bush declared that Democrats had delivered “a thumping,” or 2010, when President Barack Obama described Republicans’ victory as “a shellacking,” the Democrats did not score an overwhelming victory Tuesday night.

But they do have a lot to celebrate. Democrats not only won the districts they were favored in, but locked up many where they were not. In New York, Max Rose, a health care executive and Army veteran, ousted Rep. Dan Donovan, the only Republican member of New York City’s congressional delegation, in a race that analysts had said leaned Republican.

In Texas, Colin Allred, a former National Football League player and civil rights lawyer, defeated the incumbent Republican, Pete Sessions.

And in Illinois, Lauren Underwood beat Rep. Randy Hultgren, a Republican who won by 19 points in 2016.