Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Nov 3: US President Donald Trump and congressional candidates made their final appeals to voters on Monday, on the eve of the midterm elections, with control of Congress hanging in the balance and contentious election-related disputes unfolding in several states.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are being contested in Tuesday’s elections. Democrats are widely favoured to regain control of the House, while their prospects in the Senate remain more challenging. A loss of control in either chamber would limit Trump’s ability to advance his legislative agenda during the final two years of his presidency. It would also give Democrats greater powers to investigate his administration, while control of the Senate would allow them to block presidential nominees to federal courts.
Trump devoted his final major in-person campaign appearance to promoting renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington. Speaking at its belated reopening, he spent considerable time discussing the renovation work, including pipes, joints, caulking, granite resurfacing, algae and leaks. He also referred to other projects planned for the capital, including improvements to the White House grounds, a new Marine One helipad and a proposed triumphal arch that is facing a legal challenge.
Later, speaking by telephone on Fox News’ Hannity programme, Trump urged Republican supporters to turn out in large numbers, asking them to vote as though he himself were on the ballot. “We have to vote. If our people vote, we win in a landslide,” he said.
According to the White House, Trump campaigned in 20 states over the past 32 days. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found that 46 per cent of registered voters intended to support Democratic candidates in congressional elections, compared with 38 per cent for Republicans.
Early voting has also reached record levels, with 57 million ballots cast by Monday afternoon, compared with 45 million votes recorded throughout the 2022 midterm elections, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Election disputes featured prominently in California, where the US Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to temporarily prevent the counting of mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials suspected of being non-US citizens. California had argued that the federal action risked disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters based on unsubstantiated allegations and an error-prone identification process. A federal judge separately ordered the administration to stop demanding that the state segregate ballots cast by people appearing on lists of suspected noncitizens.
In Michigan, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is seeking to become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. The physician and former public health official is facing Republican candidate Mike Rogers in a closely watched contest. The race intensified after US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed, announced her support for Rogers over the weekend. El-Sayed’s campaign subsequently reported raising $2.4 million on Sunday, its biggest single-day fundraising total, largely through small-dollar donations.
El-Sayed, an Egyptian American born in Michigan, has faced attacks from Trump and other Republicans, who have questioned his loyalty to the United States and accused him of sympathising with terrorists without providing evidence. He has described such allegations as shameful. Speaking on Fox News’ Hannity, Rogers described El-Sayed as “just too extreme”. At a campaign rally, Rogers maintained that the election was about political philosophy and ideology rather than religion.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, appealed for unity, saying the country had an opportunity to bridge divisions involving geography, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and faith.
The election battle in Alaska has also been marked by controversy involving two candidates named Dan Sullivan. A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to prevent certification of the results if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses. The department had argued that voters could be confused by the presence of another candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., on the ballot.
The controversy intensified after reports that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign had been involved in recruiting the challenger as a potential spoiler. Peltola has denied involvement, while Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with her campaign. The incumbent senator said he would accept the results of Tuesday’s election, even as the Trump administration pursues a criminal investigation into the matter.
At a rally on Monday, he described Alaska as a crucial battleground for control of the Senate, saying the state was a “firewall for freedom for America”.
Meanwhile, Barry Bracken, a retired fisheries biologist from Petersburg, Alaska, said FBI agents questioned him about a $500 donation he had made to Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s campaign. Bracken said he told the agents that the contribution was intentional and that they left shortly afterwards.