A deeply divided U.S. electorate delivers its verdict Tuesday on whether Democrats or Republicans have the right prescription to guide the nation through a bout of inflation, a looming recession and bitter splits on cultural and social issues.
Voters will decide control of Congress as well as state capitals across the country, but two politicians with the most at stake aren't even on the ballot: President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, who suggested at a rally on Monday that he would announce his third presidential run next week.
With worries about the economy at the top of voters' minds, Biden confronts daunting odds of staving off a Republican takeover of one or both chambers of Congress. That would stymie the rest of his unfinished agenda. For Trump, the election opens an opportunity to solidify his nativist ideology and election denialism in the GOP and pave the way for a comeback.
The final outcome may not be known for days or even weeks if races are as close as polls suggest and if losers challenge results. In several states, GOP nominees for top statewide offices are promoters of Trump's false claims of election fraud.
A flurry of pre-election lawsuits filed in almost three dozen states by Republicans and Democrats raise questions about virtually every aspect of voting.
Outrage Rules
The defining mood of the 2022 electorate is outrage. Democrats are angry about the Supreme Court's decision overturning the national right to an abortion and Republicans still are waging a fight over the 2020 election and promoting conspiracy theories.
The extraordinary discontent and partisan enmity has deepened the peril to the nation's democratic institutions. Lawmakers and other state and federal officials have received an unprecedented level of threats.
Barely more than a week before the election, a hammer-wielding assailant fractured the skull of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 82-year-old husband in their home. On the eve of the vote, Trump called Pelosi an "animal."
Polling and historical precedent suggests voters will turn the House and potentially the Senate over to Republicans, forcing Biden to spend the remaining two years of his term defending achievements such as climate funding and student debt relief from GOP attempts to undo them.
Biden made a series of stops over the past several days from California to New York. But the president has traveled comparatively less in the run-up to the election than his two predecessors, due largely to his low approval ratings. On Monday, he acknowledged that it would be "tough" for Democrats to keep control of Congress.
Representative Tim Ryan, the Democratic Senate candidate in Ohio, avoided appearing with Biden despite the president making multiple stops in the battleground state. Senators Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada likewise skipped campaigning with Biden, opting instead for former President Barack Obama to energize voters.
Trump also has been on the road campaigning for candidates he's endorsed, including a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday that was as much about promoting his own political future as it was Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
Democrats are hoping anger over the Supreme Court's June decision to end abortion rights will drive women and younger adults out to vote. They finished the campaign focusing on statements from some GOP leaders threatening cuts to Social Security and Medicare, cornerstone financial benefits for the elderly and middle-aged workers anxious about supporting themselves in retirement.
