The stakes are high in the political theatre as the Midterm Elections are today, and according to RealClearPolitics, the Republicans will gain a seat in the Senate whilst the Democrats will take a majority in the House, taking thirty-three seats.

In the Senate, the Republicans have 50 leaning, safe, and uncontested seats, whilst the Democrats only have 43. The real race though breaks down to seven “toss up” seats. These seats are currently held by two Republicans and six Democrats.

Currently, these toss ups are in the Republican seats of Arizona and Nevada, and the Democratic seats in West Virginia, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Montana.

The polls indicate that the Republicans have the edge on the Missouri race by .6 points. The Democrats all have small leads in the other seats. 

Democrats too have tricky races ahead. Flake’s old seat in Arizona has Democrat Kyrsten Sinema leading by only a tenth of a point. Meanwhile, the races in Florida and Montana have the Democrats ahead by more than three points. Nevada and Indiana have their Democrat candidates ahead at a point or less.

However, the North Dakota race has Democrat Incumbent Heidi Heitkamp losing by nine points, which is a whopping margin. If the polls hold out, this will bring the Republicans back to 51 seats, the Democrats, 49; however, there is a 50% chance that the Republicans will make another gain (according to fivethirtyeight.com).

But still, these polls can change drastically, and it would not be improbable for the Democrats to have a majority in the Senate, although the website FiveThirtyEight puts this event at 19 percent chance of happening.

Despite that, the house seems to be a much more positive situation for the Democrats. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Democrats are likely to have a net gain of seats. According to RealClearPolitics, there are thirty-one toss up seats, only two of which have incumbent Democrats. The Democrats are also expected to flip fifteen seats, while the Republicans will most likely flip two.

Again, these races are still bound to change; however, the overall results seem to have small margins for the underdog parties of pulling out a win.

In addition, the country has 36 Gubernatorial seats up for election. The poll index expects the Democrats to pick up eight seats, five of them in the Midwest. The Republicans are likely to flip one seat.

That is significant because Trump had won the election in 2016 because he was able to flip the rust belt, which is often referred to as the Midwest. In 2016, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio had all voted in favor of President Trump. It should be said that the polls are well within the margin of error, and these seats could still go red.

The results of these elections will decide how the next two years of American politics will look. And with the next Congressional elections in the Presidential year of 2020, this is the last major vote Americans will have before what some believe will be one of the most heated campaigns in electoral history.