How Joe Biden and the Democratic Party defied midterm history

President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have pulled off a midterm election for the record books.

Democrats have retained the Senate – doing no worse than holding steady at 50 seats and potentially gaining one – and look likely to keep any net losses in the House in the single digits.

Midterms are supposed to be the time for the opposition party to shine. That should especially be the case when there is once-in-a-generation inflation and when the vast majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

Instead, Biden and the Democrats are in a position to have one of the four best midterms for the party controlling the White House in the last century.

So just what happened? It’s pretty clear that general election voters punished Republican candidates they saw as too extreme – on issues such as abortion and/or for being too closely tied to former President Donald Trump.