2014 United States elections

Barack Obama had already lost the House; in his second term he lost the Senate as well, when Republicans took nine seats from his Democrats and made Mitch McConnell Majority Leader. What that was worth became clear in 2016. When Justice Antonin Scalia died, McConnell refused Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, so much as a hearing, and the Supreme Court seat stayed empty for more than a year.