The battle for control of Congress is at a stalemate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The final doors are being knocked on, the ads are blaring and the candidates are making a final pitch to voters. Even with the energetic final push, the races continue control of Congress are at an impasse, essentially a toss-up for the House and fighting to the end for the Senate.
The outcome of Tuesday’s elections will determine the future of the country and whether the new White House has allies or skeptics on Capitol Hill — or faces a divided Congress like this past session, which led to the most tumultuous and unproductive in modern times.
As voters assess their presidential options among Republicans Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harristhey are also taking stock of who will represent them in Congress.
“This is why I’m independent,” said voter Gary Motta of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who is unhappy with both presidential choices, as he showed up early Sunday morning at an event for Republican Kevin Coughlin, who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. . to dethrone Emilia Sykes.
The battle for control of Congress has been going on for months. Candidates have fought over the big issues — the economy, the border, reproductive health care and the future of democracy — but also over Congress itself, which is a chaotic session when the Republican Party-led House of Representatives ousted its speaker and narrowly avoided a government shutdown.
These are the first presidential elections since World War II January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and many Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the White House are up for re-election.
Republican candidates, many of whom are supported by the former president, must answer to him on several fronts. One of these is the Supreme Court ruling, with three judges nominated by Trump, that put an end to the right to access to abortion
Democrats are facing tough questions about Biden and Harris’ record on the U.S.-Mexico border and inflation during their time in the White House.
Most of the closely contested campaigns in the House of Representatives are being waged outside presidential swing states, including domestically New York And California, where Republican Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted as chairman and subsequently left Congress, had won his home state. Democrats under New York Hakeem Jeffries, Leader of the House of Representatives, are now trying to win them back.
Starting Saturday, California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the chairman of the Democratic caucus, will make a nine-stop swing through the Golden State to gain back seats.
“There’s a lot of energy there,” said Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an interview from Omaha, Nebraska, a surprising battleground, after a tour of New York. “We’re just working hard to get out the vote.”
She said there are “tons of volunteers on the ground, a lot of energy, people very, very focused. They understand that there is a lot at stake.”
With the ever-escalating world of campaign fundraising, this election year stands out, with a whopping $2.5 billion being spent win the Senate and nearly $1 billion to the House.
The Senate is for Republicans to lose, a coda to the long stewardship of their party leader. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He recruited wealthy Republican candidates, many backed by Trump, to take on a half-dozen incumbent Democrats facing tough re-elections.
In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is running in one of the most competitive races in the country that could hand control to Republicans. But half a dozen more Senate races, including those in the “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, are just as close as the presidential race in those states.
But late shifts are creating new uncertainty in other Senate races, putting Sen. Ted Cruz in trouble about defense in Republican-ridden Texas where Democratic Rep. Colin Allred has seen a surge of energy, including during Harris’ star-studded rally in Houston with hometown hero Beyoncé. Nebraska independent Then Osborne has overwhelmed Republicans in Nebraska as he tries to unseat Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.
Other Republican Senate candidates have stumbled.
In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno, who faces Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, will comments made critical of suburban women who make access to abortion a priority. Republican Tim Sheehy created derogatory comments on Native Americans, a key voting bloc in his race against Tester in Montana.
While Republicans have outsourced their get-out-the-vote efforts to new groups, including Elon Musk’s American PACcampaign committees have had to take their own stand to get people to vote.
Davide Cuigini, part of the Young Republicans who worked in Ohio last weekend to get the vote for Moreno, said: “Republicans are finally voting early, so that’s going to make a difference.”
Still, energy on the Democratic side grew quickly when Harris replaced Biden on the Democratic ticket this summer.
Democrat Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who along with Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware could make history as Black women in the Senate, hosted former President Barack Obama last week. Alsobrooks is running against Larry Hogan, a popular former governor.
Democrats in the House of Representatives have seen several races change direction, according to nonpartisan analysts. But others, in Alaska and an open seat in Michigan, lean Republican. Two from the House longest-serving legislators are engaged in the battle of their political lives in Ohio and California.
Yet an internal DCCC memo showed that 21 of the 25 contested seats were still close a week after the election.
There are also unusual battlegrounds, including what Nebraskans call the “blue dot” around Omaha, where Republican Rep. Don Bacon is facing a challenge from Democrat Tony Vargas.
The outcome of the races will be a test for House leadership under Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. He said during a recent stop near Akron, Ohio, that he knows they will win with the Republican Party’s “engaging fighters” as candidates.
Jeffries, who is set to become speaker of the House of Representatives if Democrats take control, said he has decided to do so. keep calm, even if the possibility of unexpected events keeps him awake at night.
If the two chambers do indeed reverse party control, which is possible, that would be rare.
Data shows that if Democrats take over the House of Representatives and Republicans take over the Senate, it would be the first time the chambers of Congress have both switched to opposing political parties.
“This election is a very big deal,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who campaigned for a fellow Democrat in one of his state’s House races.
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Associated Press writers Lea Skene in Baltimore and Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.