MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Democrats seek to retake Congress in Tuesday’s US midterm elections

Trump has headlined 28 rallies during the campaign, all in Republican-leaning states, urging supporters to vote “as if I were on the ballot”

The United States holds midterm elections on Tuesday in which the Democratic Party hopes to regain control of Congress, with the polls in its favour. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats, in a vote shaping up as a test of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Democrats lead Republicans by 51% to 42.6% on the generic ballot, according to a polling average from surveys collected by The New York Times. Polls suggest Republicans will lose the House and do not rule out their losing the Senate as well, a possibility considered remote before the summer. The Cook Political Report has moved races towards the Democrats in recent weeks, with close Senate contests in states such as Texas, Michigan, Kansas and Iowa.

Trump has headlined 28 rallies during the campaign, all in Republican-leaning states, urging supporters to vote “as if I were on the ballot”. Early voting has passed 51 million ballots, pointing to high turnout. Elon Musk has spent at least US$267 million supporting Republican candidates, according to The New York Times.

Polls list the cost of living, the war with Iran and immigration policy among voters’ main concerns, against a backdrop of low presidential approval ratings. Congress has an approval rating of 14%, one of the lowest recorded ahead of a midterm election. A Democratic majority in either chamber would allow the opposition to block White House initiatives and open investigations into the first half of the term.

Besides Congress, Americans will elect thousands of state and local officials and vote on hundreds of ballot measures, including a proposal to tax billionaires in California and a Montana initiative to curb the influence of undisclosed money in campaigns.