‘Everything matters and everything is at stake’: Democrats’ election hope

THE day of reckoning for American politics has arrived.

Voters today will decide the $5bn (€4.4bn) debate between US President Donald Trump’s take-no-prisoner politics and the Democratic Party’s super-charged campaign to end the Republican monopoly in Washington, DC and statehouses across the nation. There are indications an often-discussed “blue wave” may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of Congress.

But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, nothing is certain in the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency.

“I don’t think there’s a Democrat in this country that doesn’t have a little angst left over from 2016 deep down,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, which spent more than ever before – nearly $60m (€52.6m) in all – to support Democratic women this campaign season.

“Everything matters and everything’s at stake,” Ms Schriock argued.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for re-election.

There are also 35 Senate seats in play, as are almost 40 governorships and the balance of power in virtually every state legislature around the country.

And Mr While he is not on the ballot, Trump himself has acknowledged the 2018 midterms, above all, represent a referendum on his presidency.

‘Angst left over from 2016’

Should Democrats win control of the House, as strategists in both parties suggest is likely, they could derail Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years.

Perhaps more importantly, they would also win subpoena power to investigate the controversial president’s many personal and professional missteps.

Today’s elections will also test the strength of a Trumpera political realignment defined by evolving divisions among voters by race, gender and especially education.

Trump’s Republican coalition is increasingly becoming older, whiter, more male and less likely to have a college degree.

Democrats are relying more upon women, people of colour, young people and college graduates. The political realignment, if there is one, could re-shape US politics for a generation.

Just five years ago, the Republican National Committee reported the GOP’s very survival depended upon attracting more minorities and women.

Those voters have increasingly fled from Mr Trump’s Republican Party.

One Republican analyst, Ari Fleischer, acknowledged that Republican leaders never envisioned expanding their ranks with white, working-class men.

“What it means to be Republican is being rewritten as we speak,” Mr Fleischer said.

“Donald Trump has the pen, and his handwriting isn’t always very good.”