In Tuesday’s elections, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have held duelling rallies to fire up voters as campaigning for Tuesday’s midterm elections is slated to end on Monday.
On Sunday, while Biden spoke at a rally in New York to support Governor Kathy Hochul, Trump made his last-minute plea to voters in Miami.
Addressing voters at the Sarah Lawrence College, the President called the upcoming election “an inflection point” that will determine the next 20 years, adding that the people were choosing between two “fundamentally different visions of America”.
In his address that lasted for over an hour, Trump slammed the Democrats for leading the country towards “communism”.
“Democrats want to turn America into communist Cuba or socialist Venezuela… To every Hispanic American in Florida and across the land, we welcome you with open open open arms to our (Republican) party,” the BBC quoted the former President as saying.
He again hinted on his possible run for the White House, telling the crowd to “stay tuned” for his rally on Monday in Ohio.
Also on Monday, Biden will appear at a rally in Maryland, a state normally considered a Democratic stronghold, while First lady Jill Biden will be in Virginia to support incumbent Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton.
In Tuesday’s elections, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.
Thirty-nine state and territorial gubernatorial elections, as well as numerous other state and local elections, are also up for grabs.
The results will determine the 118th US Congress.
In the Senate, the Democrats and Republicans split 50:50 with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the edge for the Democrats with her tie breaking vote.
In the House, Democrats have a wafer-thin majority of 220 seats and Republicans 212, with three seats vacant.
Recent polls have suggested that Democrats are however, likely to lose their majority in the House of Representatives, while control of the Senate will probably rely on the results of extremely tight races in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, reports the BBC.
Over 40 million ballots have already been cast during the early-voting period so far.
In the first national election since the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, the final days of the campaign focused on fundamental questions about the nation’s political values.
Campaigning in New York for Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday, Biden said Republicans were willing to condone last year’s mob attack at the Capitol and that, after the recent assault of Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some in that party made “light of it” or were “making excuses.”
“There’s never been a time in my career where we’ve glorified violence based on a political preference,” the president said.
Meanwhile, a Sunday evening Trump rally in Miami, a reference to Nancy Pelosi prompted changes of “Lock her up!” — a stark reminder of the nation’s deep divide.
Trump was campaigning for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s reelection, but also focused on his own political future. After telling a crowd in Iowa last week that he’s “very, very, very probably” going to run for president again, he again teased the possibility on Sunday and encouraged supporters to watch his Ohio rally.
“I will probably have to do it again, but stay tuned,” Trump said, teasing the Monday event. “We have a big, big rally. Stay tuned for tomorrow night.”
Not attending the Miami event was Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who is running for reelection against Democrat Charlie Crist and is widely considered Trump’s most formidable challenger if he also were to get into the White House race.
DeSantis held his own, separate events Sunday in other parts of the state where he stuck to the centerpieces of his reelection campaign, including railing against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The governor’s counter political programing avoided antagonizing Trump — meaning it didn’t deliver the dueling 2024 events that could be in his and Trump’s near future.
Trump said Sunday that Florida would “reelect Ron DeSantis as your governor.” But he was more confrontational during a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, referring to Florida’s governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
It’s a rivalry that’s been simmering for more than a year as DeSantis has taken increasingly bold steps to boost his national profile and build a deep fundraising network — even as Trump remains unquestionably the party’s most popular leader.
For national Democrats, meanwhile, the focus is on their narrow control of the House and Senate, which could evaporate after Tuesday.
Voters may rebuke the party controlling the White House and Congress amid surging inflation, concerns about crime and pessimism about the direction of the country. History suggests the party in power will suffer significant losses in the midterms.
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