On Nov. 6, the U.S. held its midterm elections — which take place at the halfway mark of a presidential term, where the people cast their ballot for their local, state, and national officials. All 435 seats of the members in the House of Representatives, as well as 35 of the Senate,  were up for election. In addition, numerous city mayor, 36 state governor, and three U.S. territory governor positions were made available for a wide variety of candidates.

The midterms are an important aspect of the political process in the U.S., as their main purpose is to determine which political party will hold the majority within the legislative branch. Depending on the victor in the House and Senate, it may either further or hinder the executive branch’s power for the remainder of the president’s term. For control, each party has to obtain at least 51 seats in the Senate and 218 in the House.

For the first two years of the Trump presidency, all three branches of the government were, for the most part, Republican. The 2018 midterms saw the Democrats attempt to regain lost ground, with the House of Representatives being a beacon of hope for the left. The polls have proven to be accurate in predicting the results; aside from the House, the federal government is still under the jurisdiction of the GOP. Gubernatorial seats were also taken mostly by the right.

NPR reports that this year’s midterm has set a historic precedent— voter turnout was the highest it had ever been in the last 50 years, with more than 47% of all eligible voters participating; the total was “more than 110 million Americans [who] cast a ballot for their congressional representative” The most prominent cause for this intense surge of public participation is the Democrats’ resistance towards President Trump. As the Pew Research Center points out in their study, “The stark demographic and educational divisions that have come to define American politics were clearly evident… There were wide differences in voting preferences between men and women, whites and nonwhites, as well as people with more and less educational attainment.” Racial divisions saw minorities such as African Americans voting with an overwhelming 90% majority for the left. An age gap was also quite prevalent, as younger voters between 18- and 44-years-old tended to vote liberally, while the older demographic tended to be evenly divided between the two major parties.

As for candidates, there were quite a few milestones that were reached. Massachusetts championed its first black Congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley, who ran unopposed. Marsha Blackburn is now the first female Senator in the state of Tennessee, obtaining a victory against the previous governor, Phil Bredesen, by ten points. The U.S.’ first openly gay governor Jared Polis is now serving his state of Colorado. Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids are now the first two Native American Congresswomen, serving New Mexico and Kansas respectively. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be the first two Muslims to serve the U.S., while New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been recorded as the youngest woman ever elected to the Senate, at age 29.

In California, a pre-established blue state has stuck with poll predictions to elect Gavin Newsom to the governor’s mansion, while the highly popular Senator Dianne Feinstein retakes her seat in Congress. With that, the Golden State will now most likely oppose President Trump on key issues regarding climate change, immigration, health care, etc. In the 49th district, Democrat Mike Levin snatched the victory from former Republican Assemblywoman Diane Harkey by a mere five points. Korean-American Republican candidate Young Kim suffered defeat at the hands of Democrat Gil Cisneros in the 39th District. Meanwhile, Representative Duncan Hunter has been re-elected while facing allegations of redirecting campaign funds for personal expenditures— and despite having labeled his opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar a national security threat and a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, to much public dismay.

In the press conference held immediately after the midterm elections on Nov. 7, President Trump remarked that “Candidates who embraced our message of low taxes, low regulations, low crime, strong borders, and great judges excelled last night… On the other hand, you had some that decided to ‘let’s stay away.’ ‘ Let’s stay away.’ They did very poorly. I’m not sure that I should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it.”