Fifty years ago | Democrats triumph in U.S. elections

Washington, Nov. 6: The Democrat Party routed the Republicans in the mid-term elections held yesterday, and for the next two years President Ford will face a theoretically veto-proof Congress dominated by his opponents. The voter hostility generated by the Watergate scandals, Mr. Ford’s pardon of Mr. Nixon, six per cent unemployment and 12 per cent inflation swept even incumbent Republicans out of office in State after State, including many of their traditional strongholds. The Democrat landslide led one mournful Republican to exclaim that the country was in for at least two years of a “Democratic dictatorship”.

Before yesterday’s elections the Democrats were already in control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and a majority of the Governors’ mansions. In an off-year election the party with a President in White House usually loses a few seats. But what happened yesterday was an extraordinary sweep which netted the Democrats at least 40 to 50 seats in the Lower House (where all seats were at stake) four more in the Senate and as many as eight more Governorships. In the Lower House the switch to the Democrats was a phenomenon which had not been witnessed in this century.

When the final count is in according to expert projections this morning the Democrats are expected to have 290 seats in the 435-member Lower House, 62 of the 100-member Senate, and probably as many as 40 of the 50 Governorships — because the Democrats have been able to wrest the State houses in New York and California and seven other most populous States.

Published - November 07, 2024 01:57 am IST