Trump’s wrap-up rallies.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — President Donald Trump on Monday closed out an us-against-them midterm election campaign that was built on dark themes of fear, nationalism and racial animosity in an effort to salvage Republican control of Congress for the remaining two years of his term.
Trump’s fiery, invective-filled campaigning produced what may be the most polarized midterm contest in modern times as he played to tribal rifts in American society in a way that no president has done since the civil rights era. The divisions exposed and expanded over the past few weeks seem certain to last well beyond Election Day.
On Tuesday, voters will choose a new House, decide one-third of the seats in the Senate and select new governors for battleground states that will be critical to the 2020 presidential campaign. On the line for the president will be his ability to legislate, appoint new judges and ultimately set the stage to run for a second term.
More than most midterms, this election became a referendum on Trump, as he himself has told his audiences it would be. The president’s energetic rallies appear to have bolstered Republicans who were trying to match Democratic fervor, and 36 million ballots were cast even before Election Day, with early voting higher than four years ago in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
Fueled by anti-Trump zeal, Democrats appeared poised to recapture control of the House and governors’ mansions in key Midwestern states, but Republicans were confident they would hold onto their razor-thin majority in the Senate and possibly even build on it. A split decision could set the stage for two years of partisan warfare led by subpoena-powered Democratic committee leaders intent on investigating everything from his taxes to Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.
Trump has generated overflow crowds of red-hatted supporters wherever he has gone in these final days, drawing energy from their adulation as he exhorted them up to head to the polls. His thundering warnings about “left-wing mobs” and a migrant “invasion” have inflamed the passions of a country, energizing conservatives he hopes to mobilize to hang onto control of Congress while exasperating opponents who accuse him of fear-mongering and demagogy.
The president spent Monday barnstorming the Midwest on behalf of allies in close races, drawing loud and enthusiastic crowds of thousands. At rallies in Cleveland; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and finally in Cape Girardeau, Mo., his remarks were laced with his usual, acerbic attacks on his adversaries — “radical,” “left-wing socialists,” “corrupt,” “the Democrat mob” — and accusations that Democrats would raise taxes, destroy Medicare and enact a socialist takeover of the American health care system.
But he again reserved his most vitriolic language for immigration, repeatedly prompting loud boos as he warned that if Democrats win, they would invite murderers to come into the United States to kill men, women and children.
“Democrats are inviting caravan after caravan, illegal immigrants to flood into our country,” Trump boomed. He falsely said that Democrats want to give health care benefits to unauthorized immigrants and are openly encouraging undocumented immigrants to vote.
Led by President Barack Obama, who has attacked his successor in a more systematic way than any former president in decades, Democrats sought to make the vote a choice not just on immigration, health care and other issues but a test of the nation’s values.
“The character of this country is on the ballot,” Obama, his voice hoarse from days of campaigning, said during an appearance Monday in Virginia on behalf of Sen. Tim Kaine and Jennifer Wexton, a top House prospect.
“Who we are is on the ballot,” Obama said. “What kind of politics we expect is on the ballot. How we conduct ourselves in public life is on the ballot. How we treat other people is on the ballot.”
Other presidents have waged fierce campaigns during midterm elections, often demonizing the other side. When he was in office, Obama painted Republicans as zealots ready to sacrifice Medicare, education and other priorities on the alter of tax cuts for the rich. George W. Bush accused Democrats of being willing to wave the white flag of surrender to terrorists.
But Trump has gone even further, not only taking on individual Democratic officeholders by name, which most presidents avoid, but ridiculing them and insulting them with playground-style taunts. Describing himself as a “nationalist,” Trump has vilified immigrants, both legal and illegal, in racially charged language that was once considered unacceptable in national politics.
“What you didn’t have” in past midterms “was a systematic and very personally addressed series of attacks and very inflammatory and frankly untrue images and arguments being used,” said Anita Dunn, a Democratic consultant working on races in Ohio and elsewhere.