Today, voters across the country are heading to the polls to elect federal and state leaders in the midterm elections. The election will determine the control of both chambers of Congress. All 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are there for the taking. And today, many Americans fear the repercussions of the election outcome. A record number of abortion measures are up for a vote, as well as dozens of governorships and other high-profile political positions.
President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump hit the trail on Monday night in a last-ditch attempt to showcase what could be on the table in 2024, with Trump even threatening to announce his candidacy during the election.
For Biden, there is no guarantee the Democrats will take the seats needed to maintain control. High inflation, high gas prices and his low approval numbers indicate that this will not be an easily won battle.
“You can’t call yourself a democracy or supporting democratic principles if you say, ‘The only election that is fair is the one I win,'” Biden declared at a weekend campaign stop in California. “An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that our democracy is under threat.”
In Georgia, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams expressed her confidence in securing the governor’s mansion despite the impact of incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp’s “voter suppression regime.”
“We have a path to victory mathematically to pull off an outright win, to get a runoff or to be too close to call,” Abram’s campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, said in a press call on Monday, per The Hill. She added that despite polls indicating the state is “ridiculously Republican,” Abrams has made “significant improvements with independent voters, moderate voters, conservative voters, liberal voters, Black voters, white voters [and] women voters.”
However, the outlet also reports that Black voters are worried about being assigned blame if Democrats lose key races. “In every election since 2016, Black voters have shown up in record and historic numbers,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC. “I don’t think that this midterm is going to be any different, and we’ve seen the result of early voting in critical states around the country, and those early vote numbers include Black voters.”
According to the NC State Board of Elections, almost 880 thousand voter registration forms have been filed since the November 3, 2020, general election. These new voters make up 12% of the state’s 7.4 million registered voters.
Democrats are confident that the flood of new voters who registered after the high court’s decision could tip things in their favor. If not, the repercussions of a GOP sweep will be felt in Washington and across the country for decades to come.
