Less than 24 hours before Election Day, President Donald Trump railed against the Democratic Party and contended that if his supporters show up to the polls, Republicans “will win in a landslide.”
Speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday afternoon, Trump said that this year’s midterm election is “the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime.” He levied a number of attacks against Democrats, including claiming that the party has “nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history.” He accused Democrats of having a “radical agenda” and criticized their stances on policies ranging from transgender rights to immigration.
“We have to keep our Congress strong, free, a little bit of apple pie,” he said.
Trump went on to say that he “won many states” in the 2024 election and urged his base to vote on Election Day. He said that “America is ready to go. They’re ready to vote. I hope they’re ready to do the right thing.”
“Because if the people that voted for me and voted in the last election, where we had such a great victory, if they go out and vote, just a good portion of them, we will win in a landslide,” the President said. “Now, that doesn’t happen because usually, whoever the sitting President is, Republican or Democrat, good or bad, good President, great President, bad, for some reason, the sitting President doesn’t win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot.”
It’s true that the political party in control of the White House typically loses seats in Congress in the midterms. In a previous interview with TIME, Michele Swers, a professor of American government at Georgetown University, compared a midterm election to “a referendum on how things are going with the presidency,” saying that voters tend to take their dissatisfaction with the President out on his party during the midterms.
This year, Republicans are facing a particularly challenging political climate on that front. Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a historic low ahead of Election Day; the last time the leader in the Oval Office saw their approval rating drop to a comparable level ahead of a midterm election was in 1946, during Harry Truman’s first term.
Polling has also offered promising signs for Democrats as they seek to regain control of Congress in the midterms. Most generic ballot polls show that the majority of voters plan to back Democrats over Republicans in the coming elections. Even in states long led by Republicans—such as in Texas and South Carolina—polls in recent weeks have indicated that GOP candidates are struggling to keep their usual edge.
The final set of New York Times/Siena polls released before Election Day shows Democratic Senate candidates outpacing their Republican opponents in several critical states, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, James Talarico in Texas, Troy Jackson in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Adam Hamilton in Kansas.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 57.5 million Americans had already cast their ballots ahead of Election Day, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab. Registered Democrats made up a notably greater share of early voters in states with party registration, at just under 43%, than their Republican counterparts, at 31.7%. Another 25.3% of early voters were not registered with either party.
With millions more voters expected to turn out on Tuesday, however, Republicans—who have been more likely to vote in person on Election Day in recent years—are expected to narrow that gap. The outcome of the pivotal elections in several states may only be known days after the polls close Tuesday evening.
The post ‘We Gave This a Very Strong Shot’: Trump Delivers Closing Appeal Before the Midterms appeared first on TIME.
