How midterm elections are conducted in the United States

MIAMI (AP) – Republicans are counting on major gains The election is on Tuesday and a call to supporters over the last weekend of the campaign to punish Democrats for high inflation and rising crime rates in some parts of the country. President Joe Biden and his last two Democratic predecessors in the White House warned that GOP victories could undermine the very future of American democracy.

More than 39 million people have already voted in the election that will decide control of Congress and key governorships. Biden campaigned in suburban New York on Sunday night, a day after former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did closing cases for voters.

Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic House campaign manager, is in a tough fight for his seat north of New York. But he insisted on Sunday that Democrats “will do better than people think on Tuesday”, adding that his party is “not perfect” but “we are responsible adults who believe in this democracy”.

“I think this race is very close, and I think everyone who cares about the extremism in this MAYO movement — racism, anti-Semitism, violence — should get out and vote, and it’s not just Democrats, it’s independents and fair-minded people.” Republicans are in the mood,” Maloney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” referring to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who heads the Republican Senate campaign, countered: “We have great candidates. People go to vote.”

“There’s no energy on the Democrats’ side,” he said on NBC. “This election is about the Biden agenda.”

Trump gathered in Miami on Sunday night with the hope that a strong Republican Party on Election Day would provide momentum for 2024 year that it is expected to launch this month.

“I’ll probably have to do it again, but stay tuned,” Trump said, teasing the former president’s event with his Ohio Senate candidate, JD Vance, on Monday. “We have a big, big rally. Stay tuned tomorrow night in Ohio.”

Trump also told the crowd that “every free and loving American must understand that the time has come to stand up to this growing left-wing tyranny,” while urging his supporters to reject “radical left-wing maniacs” and adding that Latinos will be strong for Republican candidates.

Scott attended the rally. The Republican governor of Florida was not invited, Ron DeSantiswho is running for re-election against Democrat Charlie Crist and is considered Trump’s most formidable challenger should he also enter the race for the White House.

On Sunday, DeSantis held his own separate events in another part of the state, where he stuck to the centerpieces of his re-election campaign, including his opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and an “awakening” in schools and other parts of the community. The governor’s anti-political programming avoided antagonizing Trump, meaning it didn’t lead to the 2024 dueling events that could happen between him and Trump in the near future.

Trump, however, did not respond to this service. On Saturday night, the former president said he hoped the Republican Party would win a “historic victory” in the midterm elections. But he also referred to Florida’s governor as “Ron Desanctimonios.” It’s a rivalry that’s been simmering for more than a year as DeSantis has made increasingly bold moves to raise his national profile and build a deep fundraising network.

By most measures, Trump remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party. But many Trump supporters are looking forward to DeSantis being able to run, seeing him as Trump’s natural successor, without Trump’s significant political negatives.

The former president privately resented DeSantis for not saying definitively that he would not enter the race.

When Joe O’Dea, the Republican Senate candidate in Colorado, said he would prefer someone other than Trump as his 2024 nominee and referenced DeSantis and others, Trump blasted O’Dea on social media: “MAGA don’t vote for stupid people with big mouths.’

Days later, DeSantis endorsed O’Dea.

For national Democrats, meanwhile, the focus is on the fate of their narrow control of the House and Senate.

Voters may rebuke the party that controls the White House and Congress amid rising inflation, worries about crime and pessimism about the country’s direction. History shows that the party in power will suffer significant losses in midterm elections.

First Lady Jill Biden attended church services while campaigning for Democrats in Houston on Sunday.

“There is so much at stake in this election,” she said. “We have to talk about justice and democracy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said on the campaign trail in Chicago, “These attacks on our democracy will not only directly affect people in our country, but perhaps around the world.” She said America’s democracy “will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it, and that’s why we’re all here today,” adding, “because we’re willing to fight for it.”

Trump long ago falsely claimed he only lost the 2020 election because the democrats cheated and even started raising the possibility falsification of elections this year. Federal special services warn about the possibility of political violence from far-right extremists.

President Biden an intermediate step focuses on defending his administration’s major legislative achievements while warning that abortion rights, voting rights, Social Security and Medicare are at risk if Republicans take control of Congress.

Obama, who joined Biden in Philadelphia on Saturday, noted that generations of Americans have died for democracy and said, “You can’t take that for granted.” Biden himself said: “We must reaffirm the values ​​that have long defined us.”

At a rally in New York for Gov. Cathy Hachul, who is running for her first full term, Clinton said the Democrats’ loss of control of the House and Senate would have “tremendous consequences.”

Rona McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said Democrats are “in inflation denial” in an effort to deflect another party’s labeling of her party as anti-democratic. rejecting the results of the 2020 free and fair presidential election simply because trump lost.

“When we take back the House and the Senate, the American people will say to Joe Biden, we want you to work on our behalf, and we want you to work across the aisle to solve the problems that we’re dealing with,” McDaniel said. told CNN’s State of the Union.

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation’s largest public employee union with 1.4 million members, has been traveling the country advocating for Democrats. He said: “It will be difficult, it will be difficult, but we are not losing hope.”

“Obviously, people are concerned about the economy,” Saunders said. But voters are also “concerned that their liberties are being taken away, whether you’re talking about voting rights or women’s right to choose.”

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Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report.

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