The America midterm elections as explained by a Pakistani journalist

My first encounter with democracy outside Pakistan took place on a freezing American night whose headlines rocked the world. Thirty-four-year-old Muslim democrat socialist, Zohran Mamdani, had beaten well-funded establishment figure Andrew Cuomo and was delivering his victory speech at the Brooklyn Paramount theatre as the youngest mayor of New York. For someone like me, who had just covered a general election in Pakistan, this was brain-altering.

I had come to the US to pursue a Master’s in data journalism and continue reporting. I had just published a comprehensive account of the widely alleged rigging in Pakistan’s general election 2024. And so I was even more keenly watching the lead-up to the New York mayoral race, how it unfolded, was reported and analysed. Thus far, the president had called the candidate “a Communist Lunatic,” questioned his American citizenship, and called Jews who voted for him “Jew haters.”

Donald Trump, a Queens native, and technically the most powerful person in the country, had been consumed by a bubbling hatred for Mamdani. Despite all that, Mamdani won, and in his first meeting as mayor of Trump’s city, at the Oval Office, Mamdani charmed Trump so thoroughly that when a reporter asked Mamdani whether he still considered the president a fascist, Trump told the young mayor he could just say yes. Speaking to the press on Nov 21, Trump congratulated the mayor-elect and expressed his desire to help the city beat the rising affordability crisis, Mamdani’s biggest campaign promise.

Even the most powerful person in the country was ultimately powerless before the people’s mandate.

Now I have the opportunity to report on another general election, the one the Americans call the midterms.

What are the midterms?

America’s central or federal arm of government that makes laws is called Congress, and like Pakistan’s Parliament, it has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The House is roughly the equivalent of our National Assembly. Its 435 members are elected from districts drawn by population, and each member serves a two-year term, so every seat is contested every two years.

The Senate has 100 members, two from each state regardless of size, serving staggered six-year terms, so about a third of these seats are up at each election. Unlike our Senate, which is chosen by the provincial assemblies, American senators are elected directly by voters.

Presidential elections are held every four years in the US. The congressional elections that fall halfway through a president’s term are called the midterms.

The midterms decide whether the Democrats (blue) or the Republicans (red) will control Congress for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. This will impact how Trump is able to implement decisions until the next presidential election in 2028.

Midterms are........

© Dawn Prism