Democrats close in on US House, make gains in Senate

WASHINGTON: Polls began closing on Tuesday (Nov 3) in the US midterms with Democrats poised to seize the House and potentially the Senate, threatening to shatter US President Donald Trump's grip on Washington and curtail his power for the rest of his presidency.

Republicans losing the House would give Democrats the power to stall Trump's legislative agenda and launch sweeping investigations of his administration. A Senate defeat would also threaten his ability to appoint Supreme Court justices and senior officials.

The election amounts to a nationwide judgment on Trump at a time when the mood is turning sharply against Republicans over soaring living costs and the war against Iran.

All 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats were at stake, along with governorships in 36 states. Democrats need only three House gains and a net four seats in the Senate to wrest both chambers from Republican hands.

As the first polls began closing in Kentucky and Indiana, House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters in Washington that the country was "on the brink of a dramatic change of direction".

"We're on the brink of Democrats taking back control of the House of Representatives," he predicted.

Trump returned to office last year promising to bring down prices, but inflation, tariffs and fuel costs inflated by the Middle East conflict that he launched have squeezed Americans.

The 80-year-old's approval rating has hovered near the low 30s, making him one of the most unpopular presidents in history.

Taylor Cook, a Los Angeles voter, told AFP that affordability and reining in the Trump administration were the two biggest election issues. 

"Rent, groceries, utility bills, and property taxes keep climbing, and I want people in Congress who will actually do something about costs," the 24-year-old said.

ECONOMIC DISCONTENT

Trump defended his record in a final TV phone-in pitch to voters on Tuesday, saying he had rebuilt the country through his immigration crackdown, war on Iran and tariffs.

"We have to keep America great. We're great now. We were terrible two years ago," Trump told Fox & Friends.

Republicans insist that Trump's tax cuts and anti-migrant stance will benefit voters, and they have portrayed Democratic candidates as left-wing radicals -- a message that has seemed to resonate with some voters.

"Democrats used to be decent in the past but they became very socialist," Maru Restrepo, a 70-year-old voter of Colombian origin, told AFP in Miami. 

Trump has campaigned to help Republicans but polls show he may have weighed them down instead.

In his final public appearance on Monday, Trump barely touched on the election and gave a rambling talk about his problem-plagued renovation of Washington's Reflecting Pool.

"He's done everything that was needed. Republicans are in a better spot now than they were four weeks ago," a White House official told AFP.

But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer branded Trump's final speech "pathetic".

DISPUTED RESULTS?

The Senate is a steep hill for Democrats to climb.

While Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, the angry mood had extended the battlefield into once reliably conservative states like Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska.

But Democrats must defend competitive seats, including in Michigan, where a bitter internal dispute saw congresswoman Haley Stevens endorse Republican Mike Rogers rather than the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.

Decision Desk HQ's final forecast projected 241 House seats for Democrats against 194 for Republicans, and a narrower 52-48 Democratic Senate majority.

The campaign has attracted more than US$11 billion in political advertising, and mega-rich Trump ally Elon Musk has poured nearly half a billion dollars into Republican efforts.

Concerns were high that Republicans, especially Trump, will refuse to accept results if they lose.

Trump, who tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, has repeatedly alleged widespread voter fraud and accused Democrats, with no evidence, of cheating.

Voting machines malfunctioned in a hotly contested House race in New York state on Tuesday, prompting right-wing influencers to fling unfounded allegations of fraud even as local election officials insisted all ballots would be counted.