# Can the Ds get 50 senate seats, 2022 edition.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-ds-get-50-senate-seats-2022-edition/835296>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [June 10, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-ds-get-50-senate-seats-2022-edition/835296 "2019-06-10T13:53:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-ds-get-50-senate-seats-2022-edition/835296/7 "2019-06-11T18:38:07Z")

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OP has a good point, as I alluded to 7 months ago:

> [@Gerrymandering: Why did the GOP win the Senate but not the House?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerrymandering-why-did-the-gop-win-the-senate-but-not-the-house/824191/30):
>
> As seen [on this useful graphic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Combined--Control_of_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives_-_Control_of_the_U.S._Senate.png), _ **Six years after a President is elected, the Senate tends to move against him!** _  
> Blue (Wilson) won WH 1912; six years later Senate changed from Blue to Red  
> Blue (Roosevelt) won WH 1940; six years later Senate changed from Blue to Red  
> Red (Reagan) won WH in 1980; six years later Senate changed from Red to Blue  
> Blue (Clinton) won WH 1996; six years later Senate changed from Blue to Red  
> Red (Bush) won WH in 2000; six years later Senate changed from Red to Blue  
> Blue (Obama) won WH in 2008; six years later Senate changed from Blue to Red
> 
> Obama won in 2012; therefore 2018 was always going to be a bad year for Democratic Senators up for re-election(\*). Six years after Trump’s 2016 election — the 2022 election — should be good for the D’s.
> 
> The reason is simple: In 2012 turnout was high to vote for President Voters clicked the D Senator while they were voting anyway; some D’s got in with narrow margins; but lost 6 years later in the lower-turnout midterms.
> 
> (Also shown on the graphic — or rather, _will_ be shown once it is updated — is that this next Congress will be first since Reagan years with a Red Senate and Blue House.)

So 2022 looks good! Still, it would be sweet to take control after 2020 rather than spending another two years in Purgatory.

It seems bizarre, but **RTFirefly** (“If they can’t win the Senate, better to lose the White House as well”) might not be wrong.

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