Abstract. Midterm elections in the US traditionally bring defeat to the president’s party, ranging from losing some seats in the House and/or in the Senate to losing control of the whole Congress. The results usually directly reflect the success of the president himself: the higher the rating, the more chances his party has to reduce the scale of losses. Therefore, the midterm elections are usually called a referendum on the president. However, in 2022, the referendum was held not only on the incumbent President J. Biden, but on his predecessor D. Trump, and the results turned out to be much less triumphant for his party than expected at the beginning of the year. The incomplete victory was a serious signal to the Republican party from a polarized society, half of which is not at all ready for the rightwing conservative agenda that is being imposed by the Party now through the Supreme Court.