THE "SEINFELD MIDTERM" OF 1990 AND THE "DISCO MIDTERM" OF 1978

There's an expectation that every midterm will be a wave. 2026 well could be, in line with 1994, 2014 or 2006. But it's not automatic. In this episode we discuss the modern reality of midterms. Party losses are getting lower on average, and what a wave is has changed.

In this episode we focus on 1990, the so-called Seinfeld Election (or a midterm about nothing * which to observers seemed to have no result) and Carter's "Disco Midterm" of 1978. Like a disco record, it went round and round, expected to be a blowout for his party, but it wasn't. Not that it was great for Carter, but it wasn't a big loss as expected.

What defines these kind of non-wave elections is that both parties could point to something. In 1990, a Minnesota GOP Senator unexpectedly looses, but a Democratic New Jersey Senator gets a frightening scare.

A look at the non wave elections, that still had consequences.

* to be clear it was named so in a POLITICO article in the 2000s, long after Seinfeld began airing as a show.

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