Biden and Trump make final pitches ahead of midterm elections

In the closing hours of a stressful midterm election season, candidates and high-profile supporters made a final appeal to voters.

Republicans are excited about the prospect of winning back Congress, while President Joe Biden insists that his party will “surprise a lot of people.”

Democrats argue that a Republican victory could have far-reaching and detrimental effects on the country, eliminating abortion rights nationwide and posing a broad threat to the future of American democracy.

Republicans say the public is fed up with Biden’s policies due to high inflation and fears about crime.

“We know in our bones that our democracy is in danger,” Mr. Biden said at an evening rally in Maryland, where Democrats have one of the best chances to retake the Republican-controlled gubernatorial seat.

“I want you to know that we will meet at this moment.”

Returning to the White House shortly after, Mr. Biden said candidly: “I think we’re going to win the Senate. I think the House is tougher.”

When asked what the reality of governing would look like, he replied: “It’s harder.”

Events in Maryland followed Mr. Biden’s late campaign strategy of sticking mostly to his party’s stronghold rather than bogging down in more competitive fields that could ultimately dictate control of Congress.

Mr. Biden won Maryland with more than 65 percent of the vote in 2020, joining 44-year-old Rhodes scholar Wes Moore, who could become the state’s first black governor.

“Imagine what we can do in a second term if we stay in control,” the president said at an earlier virtual event.

Most political prophets don’t think Democrats will — and predict Tuesday’s outcome will have a major impact on Biden’s presidency for the next two years, affecting policy on everything from government spending to military support for Ukraine.

In their first national election since the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, Democrats are trying to focus their key campaign on fundamental questions about the nation’s political values.

At the center of much of the Jan. 6 debate, former President Donald Trump is in Ohio for the final rally of his 2022 campaign — and is already thinking about his future in 2024.

He has joked that he may officially launch a third presidential bid at a rally with Senate candidate JD Vance on Monday night — a final pledge from Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida next week. -Lago) estate holds a “major announcement”.

“If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American dream, then tomorrow you have to vote Republican in the huge red wave we’ve all heard of,” Trump said at his rally Monday night.

He also went after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying “I think she’s an animal,” just days after her husband Paul was severely beaten by assailants at the couple’s San Francisco home.

First Lady Jill Biden was in Maryland with her husband but was also campaigning for Democratic Representative Jennifer Wexton in northern Virginia earlier Monday.

The first lady told about 100 people outside a home in Ashburn, about 30 miles from Washington, that votes for the race could drop by a narrow margin. In Congress, she warned, “the Republican majority will attack women’s rights and health care.”

Mr. Trump’s support for Mr. Vance in Ohio this year has been critical in helping the writer and venture capitalist — and one-time Trump critic — secure the Republican nomination for the Senate seat. He now faces Democrat Tim Ryan.

“When I think about tomorrow, it’s about making sure the American dream continues to the next generation,” Mr. Vance announced at Dayton International Airport to thousands of cheering supporters, some wearing Trump 2024 hats and T-shirt.

While Republicans like the chance to overthrow the House, control of the Senate may come down to a handful of key races. Among them are Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania, where Democratic Gov. John Fettman is battling Republican celebrity surgeon Mohamed Oz.

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who has quarreled with Republican Herschel Walker, has tried to cast himself as pragmatic — even with more power in the GOP, he Can also be successful in Washington.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., also tried to take a softer tone. He praised the state’s late Republican Sen. John McCain, while noting that he did not ask Mr. Biden to run with him, but would “welcome the president here at any time.”

Mr Kelly’s Republican rival, Blake Masters, called the senator “just a rubber stamp vote on Joe Biden’s losing agenda”.

Elon Musk, whose acquisition of Twitter has made waves in the social media world, used the platform on Monday to support the Republican Party, writing: “Given the President is a Democrat, I recommend voting for a Republican Congress.”

For the more than 41 million Americans who had already voted early, it was too late.