In meeting after meeting, the 80-year-old Republican president, whose popularity has fallen, has thrown everything he has into this hard-fought battle, warning of apocalyptic consequences in the event of a Democratic victory, a prospect he again claims the polls will prove wrong.
This tense, twist-filled campaign, followed like a global soap opera, will it end with a punitive vote in the world’s largest economy? Will the 250 million potential voters make Donald Trump pay for the rise in the cost of living, aggravated by the war against Iran that they did not ask for?
Defending his record Tuesday morning on Fox News, he urged voters “to preserve the greatness of America.”
“We are great today. Two years ago we were in a catastrophic situation,” he said, insisting, despite the numbers, that inflation had been “solved.”
Polling stations opened at 6:00 a.m. local time (11:00 a.m. GMT) in many eastern states, where AFP reporters noted long queues forming in places.
Signe de l’enjeu, près de 58 millions de citoyens ont déjà voté par anticipation, un record pour des élections de mi-mandat.
Two Years of Nightmare
In Portland, Maine, Tom Walsh, 59, a medical worker, says he wants to end with “two years of nightmare.” “It’s exhausting. I’m tired of hearing that I am anti-American, a loser,” says AFP, this voter leaning Democratic.
“I think it’s mainly a matter of cost of living, of gas prices, that kind of thing. It has to change for ordinary people,” explains Donta Comer, 38, encountered in Atlanta, Georgia (southeast).
Historically, the party occupying the White House loses ground in Congress during the “midterms,” and among the Democrats, the hope for a “blue wave” (their color) is real.
Polls foresee their victory in the House of Representatives, fully renewed on Tuesday.
But the Senate could also tilt, in favor of races in traditionally Republican states: from Maine to Alaska, via Texas, Ohio or Kansas. In some strongholds of the right, such a result would have been unimaginable a few months ago.
Across the country, 36 governorships are also at stake, while 145 referendums will be held in various states, on topics ranging from abortion rights to income tax reform or even the foie gras ban.
Pathetic
“I have kept more promises than I have made,” the Republican president said in Washington on Monday in a rambling address during which he spent more time discussing his monumental projects in the federal capital than the elections.
Taking control of the House would give Democrats more influence over the federal budget, but also the possibility of launching parliamentary investigations, including into corruption accusations against Donald Trump and his close associates.
A Democrat-majority Senate could block presidential nominations, particularly in the event of a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
The American president, who will watch the results Tuesday night from the White House, warned that in the event of a Republican defeat, he would veto “everything.”
Socialism
Even in the final hours of the campaign, the rallying cry was mobilization.
The Republicans contend that tax cuts and Trump’s anti-immigration stance benefit Americans, and they portray Democratic candidates as radical socialists, a message that seems to resonate with Daryl Ruley, an 84-year-old voter living in Austin, Texas.
“Many young people nowadays think that socialism is the path to follow,” says Mr. Ruley to AFP. “If they believe that, it shows they do not understand history.”
Whatever the results, these elections mark the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s career as a statesman, but also the start of a frenetic race, among Republicans and Democrats alike, to find a successor in 2028.
