Americans are voting on Tuesday in crucial elections serving as a referendum on Donald Trump, with the Democratic opposition hoping to regain the majority in Congress and thus limit the action of the man who has been upsetting all the political codes of the United States for ten years.
Meeting after meeting, the 80-year-old Republican president, who saw his popularity drop, threw all his strength into this bitter battle, predicting apocalyptic consequences in the event of a Democratic victory, suggested by polls that he once again promises to deny.
Defending his record in a phone call early Tuesday on Fox News, he called on voters “to keep America great.”
“We are great today. Two years ago, we were in a catastrophic situation,” said Donald Trump, elected in 2024.
Will this tense campaign, with multiple twists and turns, followed like a global soap opera, end with a sanction vote in the world’s largest economy? Will the 250 million potential voters make the unpopular master of the White House pay for the rising cost of living, aggravated by the war against Iran that they did not ask for?
Polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local time (12 p.m. in Switzerland) in many eastern states of the country. A sign of the stakes, nearly 58 million citizens have already voted in advance, a record for mid-term elections.
“Two years of nightmare”
In Portland, Maine (northeast), Tom Walsh, 59, a technician at a local hospital, says he wants to put an end to “two years of nightmare.” “It’s exhausting. I’m tired of hearing that I’m anti-American, a loser,” this Democratic voter told AFP.
“I think it’s mostly a question of cost of living, price of gas, that sort of thing. “It has to change for ordinary people,” explains another voter, Donta Comer, 38, a research manager, met in Atlanta, Georgia (southeast).
Historically, the party that occupies the White House loses ground in Congress during the midterms and among the Democrats, the hope of a “blue wave” (their color) is there.
Opinion polls predict their victory in the House of Representatives, completely renewed on Tuesday.
But the Senate could also change, thanks to votes in traditionally Republican states: from Maine to Alaska, including Texas, Ohio and even Kansas. In certain bastions of the right, such a result was still unimaginable a few months ago.
“Pathetic”
“I kept more promises than I made,” the Republican president said in Washington on Monday in a disjointed speech during which he spent more time discussing his monumental projects in the federal capital than the elections.
A final speech described as “pathetic” by the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, who sees it as a symbol of the billionaire’s disconnection with the reality of Americans.
Taking control of the House would give Democrats more weight over the federal budget, but also the possibility of launching parliamentary investigations, particularly into accusations of corruption against Donald Trump and those close to him.
A Democratic-majority Senate could block nominations by the president, particularly in the event of a Supreme Court vacancy.
“If we lose Texas…”
Until the last hours of the campaign, the watchword was mobilization, as for Jane Callum, met by AFP in the suburbs of Atlanta in the middle of a door-to-door campaign for outgoing Democratic senator Jon Ossoff.
“I truly feel an obligation to do everything I can to change the direction our country is taking at the moment, and put it more on the path to democracy,” explained this 77-year-old retired teacher.
On the Republican side, the tone is more sullen.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say that if we lose Texas, we lose America,” alarmed Sunday the Republican candidate for the Senate, the ultraconservative Ken Paxton, with a career punctuated by scandals.
Whatever the results, these elections mark the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s career as a statesman, but also the start of the frantic race, among Republicans and Democrats alike, to find him a successor in 2028.
