Polls open in the US for the Midterm elections, with which the entire House of Representatives (435 deputies) and a third of the Senate (35 senators out of 100) are renewed every 4 years
.
Over 41 million Americans have already used early postal voting, an all-time record.
This method of voting traditionally favors the dem and is a reason for protest by the Republicans.
Another record of this round of voting was the money spent in the electoral campaign: 17 billion dollars.
Mid-term elections usually penalize the party that occupies the White House: since 1934 only two presidents, Roosevelt and Bush the son (in 2002), have won seats.
The polls predict that the Republicans will regain the House, with a probable 'red wave', their color: currently the dem have 222 seats (4 more than the quorum) against the 212 of the Grand Old Party.
The fate of the Senate (now 50 to 50 but the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris breaks the parity in favor of the dem) hangs on some head-to-head challenges in 'battleground' states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, but uncertain duels appear also those in Wisconsin, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
The first results are expected after 6pm East Coast time (one in the morning in Italy) but for the overall final results it may take several days,
especially in some states.
Joe Biden, at the lowest in popularity (just over 40%), played the campaign by launching the message that democracy and rights are at stake (starting with abortion) and boasting the successes of his agenda on the welfare front. , the environment, education.
If he also loses a Chamber he risks becoming a lame duck for the remainder of the term
.
Republicans, on the other hand, have ridden skyrocketing inflation, fears of a recession and the crime alarm.
Yesterday Biden and Trump launched their last appeals to the voters, hours before the opening of the polls, with tones and accents that express the
radical polarization of the US political scenario.
"The time has come for you to stand up for democracy," Biden in Maryland said at the last rally before the election.
"We viscerally know that our democracy is in
danger - he added - but we will be there.
Power in America is where it has always been: in your hands, the hands of the people", According to the American president, the wing trumpiana del artito Republican concentrates "some of the darkest forces we have ever seen
in our history "." These Republicans Maga (acronym of the Trumpian slogan Make America great again, ed) are made of another dough, this is not the Republican party of our fathers, it is a different thing ".
Trump, for his part, in a rally in Ohio returned to refer - but always indirectly - to his new presidential candidacy, and to the alleged risks of electoral fraud.
"I will make a huge announcement on November 15 in Mar-a-Lago"
, promised the tycoon, thus avoiding to anticipate the announcement of his re-nomination.
Addressing the crowd for about two hours, Trump again showed the slide of a poll of possible Republican candidates for the White House that credits him with 71% against 10% of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, followed
by former Vice President Mike .
Pence at 7% and Liz Cheney at 4%, given the latter in which he said he did not believe.
Some republicans close to the tycoon, moreover, have already begun to issue
the warning that the results of the Midterm elections should arrive by night and that if they were to delay it would be very suspicious
.
This is the case of Rudy Giuliani, the former tycoon's lawyer, and of Christina Bobb, one of the current lawyers of the former US president.
"We need an avalanche victory, so that the dem do not steal or rig up the elections," warned Trump, hoping that the outcome of the Midterm consultation will arrive soon and calling early voting "worrying".
The tycoon foresees a "republican red wave" in Congress and takes the opportunity to attack the current speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Nancy Pelosi, who he defined "
"He put me under impeachment twice, for nothing,"
he added, as if to justify himself.