The midterms will change US politics. But NZ will keep feeling the Trump effect |
As New Zealanders begin voting in their own general election, Americans are also heading to the polls in Congressional midterm elections with major implications for the years ahead.
Despite being on the other side of the Pacific, what happens next in Washington DC will have potentially high stakes for New Zealand.
In the United States, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives (plus six non-voting seats from US territories) and 35 Senate seats are on the line.
Republicans control both chambers of Congress and have largely rubber-stamped President Donald Trump’s agenda for two years. The Supreme Court has also done its best to insulate the executive branch from legal liability for its actions.
Even taking control of one chamber in Congress would give Democrats real power.
The House could check a president who has already refused to spend money Congress appropriated. And it could use committees to summon officials to testify, a prospect that might trouble Trump appointees.
The Senate could confirm or withhold executive appointment of officials and judges, including any Supreme Court vacancy. All of this could affect US relations with small nations such as New Zealand. But to what extent?
The turning Republican tide
At his campaign rallies, Trump has made the midterms – like his presidency – about him. But midterm elections are historically a........