Americans will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in consequential midterm elections that could hobble U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for the next two years.
A total of 35 Senate seats are up for election this cycle, along with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Trump and his Republican Party are facing political headwinds — the president’s approval ratings are reaching historic lows, and the Democrats are hoping he drags his party down with him.
Cost of living remains top-of-mind for 47 per cent of American voters, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters, followed distantly by democratic values (26 per cent) and immigration (12 per cent).
It remains to be seen whether voters will lay the country’s economic woes at the feet of Trump, whose war of choice in Iran has caused economic turmoil across the world and sent fuel prices skyrocketing.
The president’s unpopularity and the country’s economic trouble, coupled with Americans’ propensity to vote against the administration in midterm elections, has led Democratic voters to hope for a “blue wave” that would give the party control of at least one or possibly both chambers of Congress and theoretically hobble Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years.
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Even if he loses control of both chambers of Congress, Trump would still maintain significant amounts of power from his continuing role as president to act via executive orders.
Democrats need 51 seats in the Senate, which would involve holding their current 47 and convincing a significant number of Americans that voted for Trump to switch over.
The party’s best hopes lay in tight races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
Going into Tuesday, the Republicans held 219 seats in the House of Representatives — a slim one-seat majority that will be difficult to defend in midterm elections, which typically punish the party that controls the White House.
As of Oct. 26, 47 per cent of respondents told Ipsos they intended to vote Democrat in their congressional district, to just 36 per cent who planned to vote Republican.
A further 11 per cent said they were still undecided.
The full results of the cross-country elections will not be known until early Wednesday morning, with the last polls closing in Alaska at 1 a.m. Eastern.
Global News will have full coverage throughout the day and into Wednesday morning on globalnews.ca.
With files from Reuters and the Associated Press.
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