By Our Reporter
Americans are heading to the polls today in US midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidency and a chance for opponents to rein in his untrammeled power.
Democrats and Republicans have scrambled in recent days to deliver their final pitches to voters, with control of the US Senate and House of Representatives – both currently held by the Republicans – at stake. Also on the ballot are 36 governor’s races, as well as control of state legislatures, sheriff’s races and ballot measures.
The campaign has been overshadowed by Trump, who has staged several dozen rallies across the country while urging his make America great again (Maga) base to vote for Republican candidates and pretend his name was on the ballot.
The party holding the White House typically loses congressional seats at midterm elections, and Democrats are hoping Trump’s nose-diving popularity can be exploited to generate a “blue wave” groundswell of popular opposition that will win them the Senate and the House.
They are seeking to wrest control over both chambers of Congress to put a brake on Trump’s presidential power, which has gone largely unchecked as he launched a fierce immigration crackdown involving mass arrests and deportations, waged war on Iran, imposed tariffs on foreign imports and embarked on vainglorious building projects, including a White House ballroom.
Opinion surveys have suggested the Democrats are well positioned to win the House. The party faces a tougher task to regain control of the Senate, although it has targeted several Republican-held seats including Ohio, Texas and Maine.
“There has to be a better way for everyday people to be able to live their lives out here,” said Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate, Troy Jackson, in final pitch to voters on Monday. “And if we quit wasting money on foreign wars, if we quit giving money to billionaires, if we quit doing these dumbass tariffs and things like that, we can make people’s lives better by prioritizing what we want to do in this country to help regular, everyday people, and that’s what this race is about. I’m tired of watching elected officials cater to people like Elon Musk.”
The final stretch of the campaign was not without drama for the Democrats, however. In Michigan – widely seen as a crucial pillar to either party’s ambitions of control in the Senate – the Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost her party’s Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, on Sunday.
Stevens was widely condemned by fellow Democrats over the move, which followed a feud with the El-Sayed campaign over an outside group’s campaign ad that blamed the high cost of living on US support for Israel. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, described her endorsement of Rogers as “a despicable betrayal”.
“Whatever they’re trying to distract you, it’s because they’re picking your pocket,” El-Sayed told hundreds of supporters in Royal Oak, Michigan, on Monday.
Trump has put himself center stage by crisscrossing the country to deliver a succession of speeches for Republican candidates, despite opinion polls showing his approval ratings falling to record lows of between 33 and 37%.
In his final public campaign appearance on Monday, Trump spent most of the time in a rambling talk about his problem-plagued renovation of Washington’s reflecting Pool. “This is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm I believe in our lifetime,” he said, 26 minutes into the speech, before quickly returning to talking about renovations. Schumer called it a “pathetic closing message”.
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