Waiting with held breath senior Nick Cummings watched as the votes came in for the Missouri Senate race. Earlier in the night Claire McCaskill had been leading quite heavily but now Josh Hawley and McCaskill were fighting for the lead. Then it happened. As the votes were counted later in the night Hawley began to pull ahead. More and more votes propelled him to the lead. When all the votes were counted Hawley won out. By 6 percent.

“I’ve been feeling high like a kite,” Cummings said. “Been walking on my toes for a couple of days now, feels really good to contribute to something.”

Once Hawley is inaugurated into office, voters expect him to deliver on his campaign promises.

“He said he would vote yes on the wall, he said he would repeal and replace Obamacare,” Cummings said. “Lower tax cuts, improving immigration policies, gun rights, and to protect the right to life as much as he can.”

With midterm elections over Congress has lined up with Democrats taking the House majority and Republicans holding onto their Senate majority. Sophomore Sam Chen, along with other AP Government students, made predictions about the outcome of the midterm elections.

“[My predictions] were about half wrong and half right,” Chen said. “I did predict Hawley would win [in Missouri].”

Junior Patrick Simoni, another AP Government student, also made his own predictions about the midterm elections and has found that the class has made him more interested in the political sphere.

“I looked at what people’s opinions about each candidate were and what their policies were, basically what they brought to the table,” Simoni said. “I think I understood what the policies would do and how they would affect me and other people a lot more.”

Although it may seem obvious now that Hawley had this election in the bag because of Trump’s endorsement and his energy to win the campaign, those at the local level had their own role to play in the election.

“I had a rather small effect,” Cummings said. “Basically what I did was door knocking and phone calls. And every time you knock on someone’s door they’re 6 percent more likely to vote. And while that 6 percent might not be a whole lot, when it comes down to it reaching out to 10,000 people then that’s a huge amount of people you just got out to vote.”

With the midterm campaign season over there was record high voter participation in Missouri. A grand total of 68 percent all over Missouri, the previous record being 56 percent. With the highest voter turnout that Missouri has ever seen, it brings mass representation. It shows that the majority of voters wanted a change for Missouri; that is exactly what they’re going to get.