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Trump, Democrats in frenzied final push ahead of US elections
CHATTANOOGA, United States, Nov 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Donald Trump, his
Republicans and their Democratic rivals steeled themselves for a final
frenzied day of campaigning Monday on the eve of contentious US midterm
elections, when voters render their verdict on the president’s first two
years in office.
Trump has seized on the nativist us-versus-them message that resonated
with his base during the fiery 2016 campaign as he races across the country
to secure votes, using inflammatory language as he paints a country under
threat from hordes of illegal immigrants, rampant crime and far-left
Democrats.
“They want to impose socialism on our country. And they want to erase
America’s borders,” Trump told a raucous rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee late
Sunday.
As Republicans aim to protect their majorities in the US House and Senate,
Democrats hope their strong grassroots enthusiasm can help them win back at
least partial control of Congress and thus thwart Trump’s agenda.
Fierce political battles were raging in races across the nation.
In traditionally red Texas, popular Democrat Beto O’Rourke is trying to
dethrone Senator Ted Cruz, while Republican Pete Stauber might flip a House
Democratic stronghold in Minnesota.
In Florida and Georgia, Democrats are aiming to become the states’ first
African American governors.
Monday will be a barnstormer for Trump, who will make stops in Ohio and
Indiana before a final campaign pitch in Missouri, where he is trying to
knock Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill out of office.
Trump was on a hectic schedule of campaign appearances for Republican
candidates Sunday, while former president Barack Obama made a last-ditch
appeal for an endangered Senate Democrat in Indiana.
– Election of ‘contrasts’ –
“You gotta get to the polls on Tuesday, and you gotta vote,” Trump
implored a crowd in Macon, Georgia, where he campaigned for the Republican
gubernatorial candidate in one of the country’s tightest major races.
“The contrast in this election could not be more clear.”
Obama also laid into the president for the investigations into Russian
interference in the US election that are weighing on his administration.
“They’ve racked up enough indictments to fill a football team,” Obama
scoffed. “Nobody in my administration got indicted.”
Political passions have risen to a rare peak, with early voting in some
states already running far ahead of normal levels.
“It’s all about turnout,” Senator Chris Van Hollen told “Fox News Sunday,”
as Democrats wage what polls say is an uphill battle to win control of the US
Senate.
Democrats are far better positioned for reclaiming a majority in the
House, experts and polls say.
But in the first midterm under Trump — an utterly unconventional
president — there are many unknowns, above all the bottom-line impact of a
president who has driven both supporters and foes to a rare fever pitch of
emotion.
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“I can’t speak to the blue, but I can speak to the red,” Trump said
earlier of Democrats and Republicans. “There is a lot of energy out there.”
– Democrats out front –
The party of a first-term president tends to lose congressional seats in
his first midterm. But a healthy economy favors the incumbent — and the US
economy has been growing with rare vigor.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll suggested that while Democrats retain
an edge in their battle for the House, Republicans could take advantage of
increasingly positive assessments of the economy and by Trump’s harsh focus
on border security.
It found registered voters preferred Democratic candidates for the House
over Republicans by 50 percent to 43 percent, but that was down from a 14-
point advantage in August.
A second poll, by NBC and The Wall Street Journal, also showed Democrats
holding the same seven-point advantage.
But in what could be a sharp warning sign for Republicans, that poll
reported college-educated white women — the so-called suburban moms seen as
crucial to the 2018 outcome — favor Democrats by a substantial 61 percent to
33 percent.
Another wild card: The campaign’s closing days come just a week after a
gunman, who allegedly hated immigrants and Jews, killed 11 people at a
Pittsburgh synagogue.
A fanatical Trump supporter was also arrested on charges of mailing pipe
bombs to prominent opponents of the president, including Obama.
The president’s critics say the highly charged atmosphere he has helped
create made the two attackers feel sufficiently comfortable to carry out
their crimes.
Republicans, trying to move past that, have been enthusiastically pressing
the economic argument.
But the president — to the unease of some in the party — has instead
used his nearly nonstop schedule of campaign rallies to keep the spotlight on
what he calls the security threat from migrants seeking to enter the nation
through Mexico.
“We’re not letting these people invade our country,” Trump declared.
– ‘Consequences’ –
Democrats painted sharp distinctions with Trump, insisting that only they
will protect the health care gains made under Obama, that Trump has employed
inhumane measures to keep migrants out, and that the divisiveness he has
fostered must end.
Obama meanwhile did what many Democratic candidates have refrained from
doing: directly challenging the president.
“There’s got to be consequences when people don’t tell the truth, when
words stop meaning anything. When people can just lie with abandon, democracy
can’t work,” he told a cheering crowd as he campaigned for Senator Joe
Donnelly.
“The only check right now on the behavior of these Republicans is you and
your vote.”
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