Battle for America’s soul

> Divided nation prepares to deliver verdict on Trump

WASHINGTON: US voters decide today whether President Donald Trump will keep his Republican majority in Congress or face a hostile Democratic majority after a bitter campaign for midterm elections described by both sides as a battle for America’s soul.

For almost two years, Trump’s rulebreaking, sometimes chaotic administration has enjoyed a largely free hand from the twin Republican-controlled chambers, but the midterms could finally see his wings clipped.

The entire 435-member House of Representatives and a third of the 100-seat Senate are up for grabs.

According to nearly all pollsters, the Democrats have a good chance of winning the House, while the Republicans are likely to retain the Senate.

But with turnout a key unknown factor and pollsters still unsure about the effect of Trump’s maverick style on voters, both sides admit they may be in for nasty surprises.

After a campaign in which Trump was accused of race-baiting with repeated and unsubstantiated references to an “invasion” of undocumented immigrants bent on rape and murder, left-right divisions in America could not be deeper.

Although not on the ballot, Trump made himself the focus of the entire contest, jetting around the country to hold rallies, including in three states on Monday alone.

Trump declared “the Republican agenda is the American dream” and at his final event, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he called on supporters to seize their “righteous destiny as Americans”.

Democrats saw the election in equally historic terms.

Voters will “define the future, not just of Texas, but of this country, not just of this generation but every generation that follows”, said Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Senator Ted Cruz in traditionally deep-Republican Texas.

At every rally, Trump has vowed that they will “win, win, win”.

But as he arrived in Indiana for the second leg of his final-day tour on Monday, even Trump conceded that the House may slip from his party’s grasp.

“We’ll just have to work a little bit differently,” he said when asked how he’d live with a Democrat-controlled lower chamber.

The party of a first-term president tends to lose congressional seats in off-year elections.

However, a healthy economy favours the incumbent, so the 45th American president may yet defy the historical pattern.

New figures on the eve of the polls confirmed that job growth is soaring and Trump gives himself credit for the “hottest economy on Earth”. – AFP