On Tues., Nov. 8, the 2022 Midterm elections took place, with all 435 House of Representative seats, 35 Senator seats and 36 governor positions up for election. With the Democrats controlling the House, and the Senate chamber evenly split, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie breaking vote, plenty was up for grabs on election day.

Predictions were set that the Republicans were going to win the House while the Senate was a toss-up between the two parties. Since the overturning of Roe V. Wade over the summer, democrats had picked up momentum going into the final stretch before Election Day. However, Republicans were still leading the polls weeks up to November in hopes of a “Red Wave” across the country. 

However, the “Red Wave” republicans had predicted, was totally wrong. They were hoping to win the House of Representatives by a huge majority, nonetheless, that is far from what happened. Multiple House races have still not been called across the country. We do know the majority of the House is going to be way slimmer than expected, while the Speaker of the House will be Kevin McCarthy after winning his party’s vote. 

On Sat., Nov. 12, the Senate was called when incumbent, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won her very tight race securing the majority for the Democrats. The Ga. Senate race will head to a runoff on Dec. 6, where incumbent Democrat, Reverend Raphael Warnock takes on former NFL player Herschel Walker. 

Walker has been known for his pro-life and conservative campaign throughout the last year. Even so, scandals have arisen after multiple women came out stating that Walker had asked them to receive an abortion. Following these rumors, Walker’s son Christian Walker, who is a conservative social media star on TikTok, came up with an explosive video denouncing his father and his actions. 

“But how dare you lie and act as though you’re some ‘moral Christian upright man.’ You’ve lived a life of destroying other people’s lives. How dare you,” Christian Walker said. “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over six times in six months running from your violence.” 

Fla. election results came in within just an hour or two, after polls closed. Incumbent Governor Ron Desantis was re-elected defeating former Republican governor turned Democrat, Charlie Crist. While Senator Marco Rubio was also re-elected over former Orlando Police Chief and democratic congresswoman, Val Demings. 

Gov. Desantis flipped the longtime democratic counties of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, which ensured his win on Tuesday night. There is now not one state-wide elected democrat in Florida, which once again shows the Republican majority over the former swing state. 

Although most of Fla. is conservative, Fla’s. 10th Congressional House District just voted in the first Generation Z (Gen Z) member of congress ever, Democrat, Maxwell Alejandro Frost. Congressman-elect Frost is from the Orlando-based district, where he will be taking over for former Congresswoman Demings. 

Frost is currently the face of Generation Z in congressional office, and Gen Z accepts him with open arms. His new policies have reached countless amounts of young people where he encourages voting for all. His campaign has run on gun reform, pro-choice legislation, affordable housing and more progressive polices, young voters find important. 

As the midterm election season comes to a close, it is valid to point out the red wave that was expected, never occurred  due to the young voter turnout. Gen Z voted extensively this midterm in order to keep democracy, abortion rights, gun reform and more. We are the historic generation and we will continue to vote on issues that arise across the country.

In the next weeks, the United States Senate will vote to codify same-sex and interracial marriage. Gen Z kept the Senate democratic and hopefully will ensure love is love, once again by codifying this law. Gen Z helped get to this point, and we will not stop fighting for what we believe in. 

“Across the country, threats to abortion access and direct engagement on their issues from candidates motivated them to vote—a dynamic that likely voter polls missed for young people. And in Florida, even amid a Democratic wipeout, the first Gen Z-er was elected to Congress,” TIME said.