Last night's midterm election saw historic turnout in many places across the country. While some races for the U.S. House of Representatives are still too close to call, it is clear that House Democrats have taken the majority. As of 8:30AM on Wednesday, the New York Times predicted that the final breakdown would be 229-206 in Democrats' favor. All signs point to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) once again assuming the gavel as Speaker of the House. This will be the second time in history that a woman has served as speaker, with Pelosi previously serving in the role from 2007-2011. On the committee front, a Democratic Congress means that Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) is poised to assume leadership of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
On the Senate side, Republicans have expanded their majority to at least 52 seats. Florida, Montana and Arizona are all considered too close to call as of 8:30AM on Wednesday, but Republicans are leading in all three states, which would give them a 55-45 seat majority. It is all but certain that Sen. Mitch McConnell will continue as majority leader. In terms of committee implications, this is likely to result in one additional Republican seat on each committee.
Specific to the CTE Caucus, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), both caucus co-chairs, were on the ballot and were both re-elected. On the House side, both CTE Caucus co-chairs, Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Jim Langevin (D-RI) were re-elected, as was Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), who cosponsored the Perkins reauthorization bill.
ACTE will continue to closely monitor the outstanding results in House and Senate races, and will provide additional updates on new Members of Congress, committee assignments, congressional priorities and more in the weeks and months to come.
In addition to the federal elections, the results are still coming in for other candidates and issues on the ballot. However, it appears that Democrats made a number of pickups in governorships and state legislatures. For additional insight into education-related election updates, particularly in the states, visit Education Week's dedicated election page.
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