"If the elections are administered fairly, I believe conservatives will oust many opponents in the House and Senate, as well as in races for governor, attorney general and other state-level positions," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. "As such, the 2022 election could prove a true mandate for responsible renewal of our constitutional republic. And, if so, the US stock market will rise even higher."
"On the other hand, if there is widespread election chicanery and fraud, I believe the stock market will crash and that there will be even worse civil disorder inside America. So, much hinges on the outcome of these imminent elections," the Wall Street analyst added.
35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for election on November 8, 2022. Prior to the midterms, US pollster Patrick Basham, head of the Democracy Institute, a politically independent research organization based in Washington and London, told Sputnik that the GOP has high odds of taking both chambers of the US Congress. In particular, he projected a 44-seat gain in the House of Representatives for the Republicans.
When it comes to the US Senate, the pollster suggested that the GOP has a 75% chance of gaining a majority of the seats in the upper chamber. According to him, the Republicans may gain a 53 to 47-seat majority in the Senate.
"We expect the Republicans to hold all of the seats they are currently defending, including the most competitive of those seats, such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania," Basham told Sputnik on October 23. "We think incumbent Senator Ron Johnson will be reelected in Wisconsin, JD Vance will win the open Republican Senate seat in Ohio, and Dr. Mehmet Oz will win the open Republican Senate seat in Pennsylvania. We also project the Republicans to flip three seats currently held by the Democrats."
Inflation, economic concerns, and crime remain the major focus of US voters in the November midterm elections. On November 1, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 26% of respondents ranked inflation as the most important issue influencing their voting preferences, while another 22% named the economy as the top matter. Other pressing issues included abortion rights (19%), illegal immigration (8%), climate change (8%), and violent crime (7%).
On the eve of Election Day, Rasmussen Reports admitted that more Democrats than Republicans had voted early. At the same time, the pollster noted that more Republicans said that they would "definitely" vote in these elections.
Meanwhile, pollsters have drawn attention to the fact that more and more American voters have been identifying themselves as Independents in recent decades. In October 2022, 33% of American respondents identified themselves as Republicans, 29% said they were Democrats, while 35% called themselves Independents, according to Gallup.
What's more, Monmouth University's October study showed that more Independents gave preference to economic issues (61%), along with Republicans, than to threats to democracy and human rights (29%).
"Independents are likely to swarm to the polls and vote out incumbents in both parties who have enriched themselves in our manifestly corrupt system but failed to advance the common economic and national interests of Americans," Ortel said. "This likelihood is not captured in polls because observers see how the Biden administration targets its opposition and because too many Republicans side with Team Biden and also are against the long overdue and required changes that Trump and his very large group of supporters are determined to see implemented."
Meanwhile, if the GOP takes one or both chambers of the US Congress, Joe Biden will turn into a "lame duck president," whose bold landmark initiatives concerning climate change, electoral laws, gun control, etc. would never materialize. One might wonder whether the largely Republican Congress and the Democratic White House will end up in a stalemate.
"I suspect Democrats in places like West Virginia (Senator Manchin for example) may switch party affiliation, bargaining to receive choice Committee assignments, staffing and funding that come to the majority party," Ortel explained. "This likelihood, evidence of a true mandate unlike the 2020 result, and the fact that the Biden administration has no ‘mojo’ left should combine to bring the Biden administration back closer to reality, and abandon their unwinnable and indefensible hard left programs. If so, then legislation may pass with support from conservative Republicans and moderate Democrats."
In addition to that, Ortel expressed hope that "under conservative leadership, America will conduct fair and deep investigations into matters that have so divided us in the past, concentrating upon the epic corruption involving both parties in the spending of outsized (and ineffective) COVID relief, infrastructure and inflation reduction bills."
When it comes to foreign policy, there is a chance that a conservative majority in Congress "will impose tough conditions upon incremental Ukraine spending," according to the analyst. Ortel further emphasized that the US "will continue to be tough against China."
"Any broad and general rethinking will not occur until after we go through the national debate and presidential election of 2024," the analyst concluded.