US votes in midterm polls

Polls opened yesterday in crucial US midterm elections that could decide the political future of both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump -- who has all but announced that he will seek the White House again in 2024.

Biden's Democrats are facing a gargantuan struggle to hang on to Congress.

Trump -- who has been heavily hinting at a new run -- grabbed the election eve spotlight to flag "a big announcement" a week from now on November 15, while Biden made a final appeal to Democrats to turn out en masse at the polls.

"The power's in your hands," Biden told a rally near the capital. "We know in our bones that our democracy is at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it."

With polls showing Republicans in line to seize the House of Representatives, the increasingly far-right party eyed snarling the rest of Biden's first term in aggressive investigations and opposition to spending plans.

Non-partisan election forecasters predict that Republicans are likely to pick up roughly 25 seats in the 435-seat House of Representatives, more than enough to win a majority. Analysts said Republicans also could pick up the one seat they need to win control of the Senate.

Returning to the White House Monday night, Biden told reporters he believed Democrats would win the Senate -- though conceding "it's going to be tough" to retain the House and that his life in Washington may become "more difficult."

Despite delivering on campaign promises to boost infrastructure and clean energy, many Americans have soured on Biden's leadership. Only 39 percent approve of his job performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Monday.

If both the House and Senate flip, Biden would be left as little more than a lame duck. With Congress out of Democrats' hands, he would see his legislative agenda collapse.

That would raise questions over everything from climate crisis policies, which the president will be laying out at the COP27 conference in Egypt this week; to Ukraine, where Republicans are reluctant to maintain the current rate of US financial and military support.

An influx of far-right Trump backers in Congress would also accelerate the shift that has been taking place inside the Republican Party ever since the former real estate tycoon stunned the world by defeating Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016, reports AFP.

Despite facing criminal probes over taking top secret documents from the White House and trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump has been using the midterms to cement his status as the de facto Republican leader and presumptive presidential nominee.

In a typically dark, rambling speech to fans in Dayton, Ohio, Trump said, "if you support the decline and fall of America, then you must, you absolutely must vote for the radical left, crazy people."

"If you want to stop the destruction of our country, then tomorrow you must vote Republican in a giant red wave," he said -- before teasing his 2024 announcement.

Polls opened on the East Coast at 6:00 am (1100 GMT), and closed 12 hours later.

Up for grabs are all 435 House seats, a third of the 100 Senate seats, and a slew of state-level posts. Four states are also holding referendums on abortion -- California, Vermont, Kentucky and Michigan.

Senate races in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Ohio are expected to be close and any one of them could swing the balance of power in the chamber.

But final results may not be known until days -- or in some cases even weeks -- after election day, setting the stage for what promise to be acrimonious challenges.