Will Joe Biden manage to keep his slim majorities in Congress?
Or will he return control of the Senate and House of Representatives to Republicans, who will try to obstruct the president's policies?
Answer Tuesday, during the US midterm elections.
On November 8, voters will notably choose the parliamentarians to sit in Washington and in practically all the local assemblies, as well as their representatives within the States.
Organized two years after the presidential election, these mid-term elections, the “midterms”, are in fact converted into a referendum on the occupant of the White House.
In more than 160 years, the president's party has very rarely escaped the sanction vote.
Who do we elect?
The Democratic president will not be on the ballot this fall.
As is the case every two years, all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are up for grabs. In the Senate – and its 100 elected members – terms last six years.
More than a third will be renewed on November 8: 35 seats.
The newly elected will begin their term on January 3, 2023.
A whole series of local elected officials, who decide their state's policies on abortion and environmental regulation, will also be chosen.
Some 36 out of 50 states will elect their governors, such as California, Texas, Florida and New York State.
In 27 states, residents will choose their secretaries of state, who are responsible for overseeing the organization of elections.
Thirteen are in the running on the Democratic side, 14 for the Republicans.
In addition, 133 local referendums are organized and relate, for example, to taxes, education, health, abortion or infrastructure.
What are the issues ?
The impact of these elections will be decisive throughout the country.
Joe Biden implores Americans to entrust him with sufficient majorities to circumvent parliamentary rules that currently prevent him from legalizing abortion nationwide or banning assault rifles.
This election is “a choice”, he launches in almost every one of his speeches.
On the result of the vote will depend the future of abortion, firearms, the health system, insists the president.
For their part, the Republicans promise to lead a fierce fight against inflation, immigration, crime and to continue their offensive against transgender sportswomen.
Some of them are also considering cutting Washington's aid to Ukraine.
The “Grand Old Party” candidates have also promised to open a series of parliamentary investigations into Joe Biden, his pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci and his Justice Minister Merrick Garland, if they were to win a majority. Bedroom.
They also plan to bury the work of the parliamentary committee investigating the attack on the US Congress carried out by supporters of Donald Trump.
Moreover, although Joe Biden's name does not appear on the ballots, many Americans perceive this election as a referendum on the president.
But this election is also a life-size test for the political future of Donald Trump, who threw himself headlong into the campaign, multiplying meetings across the country.
For these two men, who are flirting with a candidacy for the 2024 election, the result of the "midterms" could foreshadow a possible remake of the 2020 presidential election.
What are the polls saying?
According to the most recent opinion polls, the Republican opposition has a good chance of winning at least 10 to 25 seats in the lower house - more than enough to be in the majority there.
Pollsters are more mixed about the fate of the Senate, but the Republicans seem to have the advantage there too.
On Monday, more than 40 million Americans had already voted in advance in the midterm elections, surpassing the level of the 2018 legislative elections, according to the US Elections Project.
However, it is impossible to say who benefits from this trend, even if historically, early voting leans towards the Democrats.
decisive states
The ballot is being played out in a handful of key states - the same as in the 2020 presidential election. All the spotlights are thus on Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Carolina North.
All these states are the scene of intense struggles, involving hundreds of millions of dollars, with Republican side candidates dubbed by Donald Trump, who swear absolute loyalty to the former tenant of the White House.
In total, nearly 17 billion dollars will have been spent for this election according to the Opensecrets site, a record.