The two major political parties in the United States, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, will engage in a close competition next year aimed at controlling the three levers of Washington's electoral power - the House of Representatives, Senate, and presidential positions.
This situation is not common. Until 1995, the Democratic Party had held a majority in the House of Representatives for 40 years, with an average seat difference of over 80 seats. They won a majority in the Senate in 1954 and held it until the 1980 election. This year, the Democratic Party's control over the Senate and the Republican majority in the House of Representatives are both in jeopardy, while polls show that the presidential race will be very intense.
Although control in the Senate has changed hands more frequently than in the House of Representatives over the past 50 years, the number of contested seats between the two parties is decreasing. This makes it almost impossible for any party to win enough seats to prevent potential delaying tactics that obstruct legislation.
In the presidential election, the vote counting results of the electoral team may make the results appear more unbalanced than the actual situation. A more useful measure comes from the 'critical point state'. If the states are ranked from the Democratic Party with the highest vote advantage to the Republican Party with the highest vote advantage, the state that allows the candidate to obtain the required 270th caucus vote is the critical point state. Other states where the candidate won with a smaller advantage were just icing on the cake by increasing the total number of electoral votes received.
The intensity of the entire election can be seen from the vote gap of the critical point states.
With the passage of time, the scope of fiercely competitive House districts and swing states has narrowed, and competition in a few places has become more intense. Split voting has rarely appeared, thus focusing on fewer and fewer swing voters.
The control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives in the United States may ignite a few contests. The presidential position will depend on six to eight states. The Republican Party only needs to recapture one or two seats (depending on the number of votes) to regain the Senate. The Democratic Party only needs to reverse six constituencies to regain the House of Representatives. It is expected that only a few states will face fierce competition in all three aspects.