Trump faces midterm verdict with control of Congress and Senate at stake

US voters struggling with high prices and angry over an unpopular war with Iran will decide whether to drastically shift power in Washington in midterm elections today that will serve as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term.

Democrats are cautiously optimistic about their prospects as they’ve watched Republicans spend the campaign’s final stretch pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and districts that Trump won handily just two years ago. They are betting that discontent over Trump’s failure to deliver on his promise to tackle rising costs and perceptions that he has been more focused on gilding the nation’s capital than on their pain at the pump will depress Republican turnout and drive their own voters to the polls.

Republicans hold out hope that their overwhelming money advantage will help stem the tide, but they are bracing to lose control of the US House and fighting to hang onto the Senate — an outcome that seemed unlikely earlier this year, given a map widely seen as favoring their party.

Still, the margins are tight in both chambers, and just one or two seats could tip the balance. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the 100-member Senate to win the majority, an uphill climb because many of the most competitive races are in historically red states. In the 435-member House, they only need three.

More than 57 million people had already cast ballots as of Monday, with turnout surpassing the early vote four years ago in many closely watched states.

Trump, whose party has struggled when he is not running to turn out the low-propensity voters who have fueled his victories, has told voters to act as though he is, even as many Republican candidates have tried to keep their distance.

“I really want you to pretend I’m on the ballot,” he told the crowd in Salina, Kansas, on Sunday evening at the final of several dozen rallies in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Trump’s aggressive schedule included stops in the reddest states, including Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, underscoring his party’s challenges.

The president has also continued to make false claims about voting fraud, such as insisting noncitizens are casting ballots en masse. His administration has already filed lawsuits in Alaska and California, and Democrats fear interference and voter intimidation as his Justice Department threatens to prosecute local election officials.