Early voting is already underway in many states. The talk of a “blue wave” coming in November dominants many 24-hour news stations. So, what is a “wave” election? Reality is no one can agree on what a “wave” election actually is.

<p>By Julie Schrei, Director, Political Affairs, Food Marketing Institute<br /> <img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/blue-wave.tmb-large-350-.jpg?sfvrsn=a8254e6e_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="Blue wave" title="Blue wave" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" /></p> <p>Early voting is already underway in many states. The talk of a &ldquo;blue wave&rdquo; coming in November dominants many 24-hour news stations. So, what is a &ldquo;wave&rdquo; election? Reality is no one can agree on what a &ldquo;wave&rdquo; election actually is. Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report said that wave elections occur when the out-of-power party wins, &ldquo;significantly more seats than they need to win control.&rdquo; In the U.S. House of Representatives, that could happen. Given the challenges Democrats face this cycle, that&rsquo;s extremely unlikely to happen in the U.S. Senate, governor&rsquo;s mansions and state legislatures.</p> <p>So, is this blue wave coming? There is no doubt a wave is being formed, but the question remains: how will it break? Will it be a breaking wave and collapse on top of itself, leading to only modest Democratic gains? Or will it be a plunging wave and explode when it reaches the beach, dramatically changing the dynamics in Washington and statehouses?</p> <p>Historically, we know that the President&rsquo;s party loses on average 25 seats during a midterm election. <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Wave_elections_(1918-2016)">Ballotpedia.com</a> did an in-depth analysis of historical elections and applied their definition of a wave election to the 2018 midterm:</p> <ul> <li>U.S. House- Democrats gain 48 seats</li> <li>U.S. Senate- Democrats gain 7 seats</li> <li>Gubernatorial races- Democrats gain 7 seats</li> <li>State legislative races- Democrats gain 494 seats</li> </ul> <p>The gains the Republicans made in 2016 will be like all waves and eventually recede, being pulled back into the ocean.</p> <p>Visit our <a href="https://fmiaction.mmp2.org/">Voting Resources</a> webpage to find your polling times, locations and details on absentee voting.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://fmiaction.mmp2.org/" class="button-secondary">Voting Resources</a></p>

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