U.S. Political Update
Matt Giacona, IADC, Director – Government & Industry Affairs
In what was expected by many to be a landslide election for Republicans, the 2022 midterms ended up producing a narrow Republican house majority, featuring dozens of races that simply never quite reached the level of competition that many pundits had predicted. The same goes for the Senate, with Democrats retaining their 50-50 tie dependent on this week’s Georgia run-off. In Texas, Moderate Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalo held their seats and were able to stave off Republican challengers. In New Mexico, Rep. Yvette Herrell was unable to hold off rising star Democrat Gabriel Vasquez, a key loss for the oil and gas industry. In all, it seems polling and turnout estimate models were somewhat flawed again, though not quite as bad as in 2020, and Republicans will spend the rest of the year scratching their heads wondering how some of these districts slipped away. As we await the result in Georgia, which will determine Democrats’ true legislative control going forward, both parties are already positioning themselves to operate in a low-margin political environment for the next two years leading up to the 2024 presidential elections.
