Midterm elections a referendum on Trump’s 2nd term

Voters struggling with high prices and angry over an unpopular war with Iran yesterday went to the polls in midterm elections that would serve as a referendum on US President Donald Trump’s second term.

Democrats were cautiously optimistic about their prospects as they watched Republicans spend the campaign’s final stretch pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and districts that Trump won handily just two years ago. They are betting that discontent over Trump’s failure to deliver on his promise to tackle rising costs and perceptions that he has been more focused on gilding the nation’s capital than their pain at the pump would depress Republican turnout and drive their own voters to the polls.

Republicans held out hope that their overwhelming money advantage would help stem the tide, but they were bracing to lose control of the US House of Representatives and fighting to hang onto the US Senate — an outcome that seemed unlikely earlier this year, given a map widely seen as favoring their party.

People line up to vote during the US midterm elections at the Scelebrations, a quinceanera boutique in Chicago, yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

Still, the margins are tight in both chambers, and just one or two seats could tip the balance. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the 100-member Senate to win the majority, an uphill climb because many of the most competitive races are in historically red states. In the 435-member House, they only need three.

As of Monday, more than 57 million people had already cast ballots, with turnout surpassing the early vote four years ago in many closely watched states.

Trump, whose party has struggled when he is not running to turn out the low-propensity voters who have fueled his victories, has told voters to act as though he is, even as many Republican candidates have tried to keep their distance.

Birds fly past the US Capitol in Washington yesterday.

Photo: Bloomberg

“I really want you to pretend I’m on the ballot,” he told the crowd in Salina, Kansas, on Sunday evening at the final of several dozen rallies in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Trump’s aggressive schedule included stops in the reddest states, including Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, underscoring his party’s challenges.

He has also continued to make false claims about voting fraud, such as insisting noncitizens are casting ballots en masse. His administration has already filed lawsuits in Alaska and California, and Democrats fear interference and voter intimidation as the Department of Justice threatens to prosecute local election officials.

Polling shows that only 35 percent of US adults approve of Trump’s performance as president, according to the most recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, with the majority blaming him for high prices as they struggle to afford gas and groceries.

Only 25 percent of US adults now say they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. Overall, about 7 in 10 say the country is heading in the wrong direction.