How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate

A Senate split evenly at 50-50 after the midterms would leave no clear answer about which party runs the chamber. Chamber rules offer nothing to resolve such a deadlock, and the Founders built in no mechanism for it. Nor is there any written provision handing the majority to the president's party. Fox News frames the gap by comparing it with sports, where soccer uses penalty kicks and hockey and baseball have overtime procedures to force a winner, including a five-overtime 2020 playoff game that Tampa Bay won over Columbus 3-2.

The vice president does have a role on individual votes. As president of the Senate, the vice president can break a tied roll call, though no vote is needed when the tie already favors the outcome that person wants, because under Senate rules a tied vote fails. That power applies to legislation, not to deciding which side holds control.

Precedent exists for evenly divided chambers. The Senate was tied in 1881 following resignations and political maneuvering, and again for a stretch in 1954. Mortality also reshaped the 1953 to 1955 Congress, when close to ten percent of senators died while serving.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →