With control of Congress at stake, President Donald Trump made his final scheduled public remarks Monday as candidates nationwide made closing appeals before Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections.
Voters were scheduled to choose all 435 House members and about one-third of the Senate's 100 seats on Nov. 3, according to USAGov. The California Secretary of State's general-election calendar also lists Nov. 3 as the election date. The Associated Press said the result could shift the balance of power during Trump's final two years in office.
The White House video archive dates Trump's remarks at Washington's Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to Nov. 2. AP described them as his final scheduled public speech before Election Day. Trump referred to the challenge presidents face in midterms, saying, “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot.” AP said the party outside the White House has typically benefited in midterm elections.
The White House said Trump held 30 events in 20 states over 32 days, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1. It counted 21 rallies during the 21 days from Oct. 12 to Nov. 1; those totals are the administration's accounting.
AP reported that Democrats raised economic concerns in Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Texas. Republicans, the news agency said, used language portraying their Democratic opponents as dangerous radicals. At an Austin rally, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico linked affordability and corruption, telling supporters, “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis,” CBS News reported.
AP counted more than 43 million early in-person votes and returned mail ballots across 47 states and Washington, D.C., through Oct. 29. The total did not indicate which candidates received those ballots, AP said. EconoTimes previously covered the early-vote count.
Midterm elections fall halfway through a presidential term. All House seats are contested every two years, while Senate terms are staggered, USAGov says. Election Day was Tuesday, Nov. 3.
