CAMPAIGNS MAKE FINAL PUSH IN U.S. RACES
TEMPE, ARIZ. • The Republican, Rep. Martha McSally, wore a maroon-and-gold Arizona State University T-shirt and jeans as she belted out the national anthem at the school’s homecoming game Saturday. The Democrat, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, wore a canary-yellow dress and 8-inch platform shoes with cactus appliqué as she presided over the coin toss.
But the crowd of 46,000 greeted both U.S. Senate candidates the same way: with a mix of cheers and boos.
It was a fitting kickoff to the final weekend before the 2018 mid-terms, a campaign that seemingly launched the day after Donald Trump was elected president two years ago that is climaxing in the shadow of a bomb plot targeting Democratic leaders and the worst anti-Semitic shooting in U.S. history. Each side is doing everything it can to mobilize voters, warning of the dire consequences of failure.
Democrats are counting on wresting control of the House from Republicans and hoping for a long-shot series of wins to take back the Senate as well.
But Republicans are optimistic they can gain seats in a Senate map heavy on red states and haven’t given up on holding the House.
Neither side wanted to leave anything on the field in the final weekend.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $650,000 in the final stretch on advertising on African-American radio stations to mobilize black voters.
Voters in both parties said they were paying attention.
“I’ve never been so sleepless, so restless as I have been” since Trump was elected, Sudi Farokhnia, a risk manager in Orange County, Calif., said before leaving a rally to volunteer for Democratic congressional candidate Katie Porter, who is challenging Republican Rep. Mimi Walters.
Elsewhere in Orange County, Kellie Hachten, a 53-year old director of hospitality, drove to a special mobile polling station so she could cast a ballot for her embattled congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, and other Republicans.
Hachten is registered with neither party and voted for Barack Obama before siding with Trump in 2016. The Democrats’ opposition to Trump infuriates her. “They just hate him as a person so much they can’t see what he’s done for the country,” Hachten said.
Campaigns pulled out the heavy hitters. Trump continued to hopscotch the nation. On Sunday, hours before Trump was supposed to speak for his party’s gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, Brian Kemp, his supporters lined up for nearly half a mile while Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird played and vendors sold Trump gear.
Cindy West was adamant in her support for the GOP ticket. “I don’t want to be a state that gives sanctuary to illegals,” West said. “I’m a teacher, and I’ve watched our own students suffer because of Hispanic people coming into the system. The money it takes to educate them is being taken away from our own students.”
In West Palm Beach, Fla., just a few miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, legendary singer Jimmy Buffett tried to fire up Democrats for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and Sen. Bill Nelson. He tweaked the words to some of his old favourites.
“Come Tuesday, things will change,” Buffett sang, swapping the date in his famous song Come Monday. “Come Tuesday, we’re making a change. It’s been two insane years and it’s time to really switch gears ...”
Lately, as Trump has tried to raise fear of a caravan of Central American migrants trying to cross Mexico on foot to reach the U.S. border, McSally has taken to slamming Sinema on immigration. Those thoughts were on the mind of Stephen Ovanessoff, a retired church deacon and pathologist, at a church visited by Republican Rep. David Schweikert as part of the congressman’s own getout-the-vote efforts Saturday.
“There should definitively be a strong border, especially for a country like the United States,” said Ovanessoff, who emigrated from Iraq. “Because if you go outside to other countries, there are millions and millions of people everywhere that want to come and live in this country.”
In Tempe, outside Sun Devil Stadium, where thousands gathered for the game Saturday, Sinema was mobbed by well-wishers asking for hugs and selfies. Sinema teaches two courses on social work at the university and has multiple degrees from the school, and was widely recognized, even by ticket scalpers.