The crucial US midterms are just days away and both Democrats and Republicans are fighting for every vote they can snatch from the other. The campaign trail is still hot with US President Joe Biden, former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump holding rallies across the country.
Biden told rallies in New York and Florida that a Republican win in Tuesday’s midterm elections could weaken the US democracy. The Democrats, according to experts, are in a vulnerable position to lose control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If the Republicans gain hold of even one chamber of the Congress, Biden will be left looking at a tough two years ahead.
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The Republicans have used inflation and rising crime rate as reasons to slam the Democrats, factors that look set to turn the tables in favour of the former. The Democrats held early leads in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada, but that has all but effectively vanished now.
Meanwhile, Biden has been talking about how several Republican candidates are gearing up to take a page from Trump’s book and deny election results. “Democracy is literally on the ballot,” he told students at Sarah Lawrence College, north of New York City. “You can’t only love the country when you win.”
Despite widespread anger over the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, following Trump’s questioning of the election process, several Republicans still question Biden’s win. An NBC poll says 65 per cent of Republican voters still view Biden’s presidency as illegitimate.
Meanwhile, Trump has used the last few campaigns to drop hints about a possible rerun in 2024. First in Iowa, he told the crowd in Sioux City that he will “very, very, very probably do it again” in 2024. He also brought up the topic of election fraud yet again, saying that he won by a huge margin in 2020.
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“I ran twice. I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. And likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far,” Trump said.
Then on Sunday night, campaigning for Senator Marco Rubio in Miami, Florida, Trump said, “I will probably have to do it again, but stay tuned.” However, he stopped short of criticising Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, after earlier taking potshots at him during a rally in Pennsylvania, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
Notably, DeSantis is expected to be Trump’s biggest rival in the race for 2024 if both of them decide to run the race for Republican nomination for president. Reports suggest that Trump is likely to announce his bid for 2024 sometime around mid-November.
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Meanwhile, several Democrats have moved beyond the topic of election deniers and taken up more practical matters, such as their work to lower prescription drug prices and defend Social Security. Abortion rights also remain a prominent topic, although opinion polls show that has faded as a top voter concern.
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Chicago and said Democrats could pass national abortion-rights legislation there if they can add to their margins in the Senate. “If we pick up two more senators, the president can sign it into law,” she said.
(With inputs from agencies)
