This decade has been missing its big-impact midterm

Oct 24, 2026 · Ron Elving

Originally published by NPR News Read the original

This decade has been missing its big-impact midterm

New speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds the gavel during the opening session of the 116th Congress at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3, 2019.

Every other decade over the past hundred years has produced at least one midterm that made a big difference in Congress and in national politics more broadly.

(Image credit: Saul Loeb)