On Nov. 6, the nation will head to the polls to vote in the 2018 midterm election, and whether you are right, left or somewhere in the middle, a lot is at stake.
Midterm elections are responsible for choosing members of Congress. All 435 representatives will be up for election, along with one-third of all U.S. senators. In Ohio, Jim Renacci and Sherrod Brown are the main party candidates for Senate positions. 43 candidates from Ohio are running for House positions.
In terms of state senators and representatives, there are 35 state senate candidates and 200 state representative candidates.
Ohio will also be holding its election for governor.
The direct popular vote used in the midterm election can cause elections to run extremely close. The race for the Ohio House District 12 seat was up for a special election this past August and the election was too close to call; due to a margin of only 17 hundred votes. That race will be re-run and is up for vote in November.
With this election, the controlling majority of both houses of Congress could change, and the political agenda of the current administration could be stalled. Some opportunities that could arise from a flipped House include a Russia investigation and Democrat-controlled U.S. Supreme Court appointments.
But if Republicans maintain control of Congress, their agenda could also become the standard political agenda until the next election.
The voice of college students has never been more important, and sorely missed, from political discourse.
College students have the power to swing the election and make up the majority of eligible voters. Unfortunately, a Pew research study predicts that it's likely college students aren’t going to be the majority voters this November due to past low turnout in elections.
According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, only about 14 percent of people under the age of 30 voted in the midterm election in 2014.
We at T&C Media encourage college students to vote in the upcoming election. No matter your political affiliation, college students have the potential to influence governmental change.
Take a stand this November. Our nation is counting on you.
