Americans vote this Tuesday in the legislative elections that could decide the political future of President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who in the last hours of the campaign hinted at a possible candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections.
The Democratic president called on the country to “defend democracy” shortly before his Republican predecessor promised a “big announcement” next week, heralding a new run for the White House.
In the country, polling stations will open at six or seven in the morning (11:00 or 12:00 GMT) depending on the state, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, according to the tradition of national elections in the United States.
Up for grabs are the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and a host of governorships and local offices. There are also referendums on abortion rights in four states: California, Vermont, Kentucky and Michigan.
After a tough campaign focused on inflation, Republicans are confident they can strip Joe Biden of his majorities in Congress on November 8.
“If you want to end the destruction of our country and save the American dream, you must vote Republican tomorrow,” former President Donald Trump, omnipresent in this campaign, said during a rally Monday night in Ohio, one of the country’s industrial strongholds.
Surrounded by a tide of red caps, the 76-year-old millionaire announced that he would make “a big announcement on Tuesday, November 15 at Mar-a-Lago,” his Florida residence, knowing that a victory for his lieutenants at the polls this Tuesday could offer him the ideal springboard for a candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.
– Inflation-
Held two years after the presidential elections, these elections become a de facto referendum on the tenant of the White House.
The president’s party is rarely spared the punishment vote. Until the end, Joe Biden’s Democrats tried to attract the vote from the left and center by saying that the Republican opposition is a threat to democracy and social achievements, such as abortion rights.
“Our democracy is in danger,” the 79-year-old president declared during a final rally Monday night in Maryland, outside Washington.
But the rise in prices – 8.2% on average – remains by far the main concern of Americans and Joe Biden’s efforts to pose as “president of the middle class” do not seem to have paid off.
According to the most recent polls, the Republican opposition has a chance of winning at least 10 to 25 seats in the lower house, more than enough to have a majority.
There is less clarity about the fate of the Senate, but the Republicans could get it too.
Losing control of both houses of Congress would have serious consequences for the Democratic president, who has so far said that he “intends” to run again in 2024, which would be a duel like the one in 2020.
On Monday night, the president said he was “optimistic” about the outcome of the vote, although he acknowledged that maintaining control of the House would be “difficult.”
As a sign of Americans’ interest in these elections, more than 43 million of them had already voted on Monday night, by early ballot or by mail.
The results of some of the closest duels could take days to announce.
– Adjusted duels –
Specifically, the midterm elections are played in a handful of key states, the same as in the 2020 presidential elections.
All the spotlights are on Pennsylvania, a former steel industry stronghold, where millionaire Republican surgeon Mehmet Oz, backed by Donald Trump, is up against small-town Democratic former mayor John Fetterman for the most contested seat in the Senate.
Because the balance of power in the upper house, with immense power, very possibly depends on this seat.
As in 2020, Georgia is also in the spotlight. Democrat Raphael Warnock, the first black senator elected in this southern state with a strong segregationist past, is seeking re-election against Herschel Walker, a former African-American athlete, backed by the former president.
Arizona, Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin and North Carolina are also the scene of fights between the Democrats and Donald Trump’s candidates, who swear absolute loyalty to the former White House occupant.
Some duels at the blow of hundreds of millions of dollars that made these mid-term elections the most expensive in the history of the United States.