Queue for Bars – US Elections: “Polarization and Misinformation”

In what is known as the midterms, the president’s ability to act is at stake: Biden’s Democrats risk losing their majority in both chambers of Congress as a result of the election. Polls suggest opposition Republicans are likely to take control of the House of Representatives. They also have a good chance of a majority in the Senate.

“In America we never give up,” Biden wrote on Twitter on Tuesday at the end of the campaign. When he returned to Washington the night before, he had expressed his optimism that his party could keep the Senate. At the same time, the 79-year-old admitted the race for a majority in the House of Representatives was getting closer — and that his life in Washington could also get “more difficult”. The election results could also determine whether Biden will run again in the 2024 presidential election.

Fuss about Trump’s reelection
His rival Trump, meanwhile, heightened the buzz about his anticipated re-election for president at his latest meeting in Dayton, Ohio. He will make a “very big announcement” on Nov. 15, Trump said Monday night. This will be “a very exciting day for a lot of people,” he said on Tuesday when he voted in Florida.

According to his own statements, the ex-president supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis of the Republicans in the midterm elections. The 76-year-old appeared on Tuesday with his wife Melania at the Palm Beach polling station near his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. When a reporter asked him if he voted for DeSantis, Trump said, “Yes, I did.” DeSantis, 44, is considered a possible 2024 presidential candidate and Trump’s biggest internal competitor.

Defending democracy is central
Trump never accepted his defeat to Biden two years ago. His persistent false claim that mass manipulation robbed him of a second term was echoed by Republican candidates in Tuesday’s election. Biden has therefore made defending democracy a central theme in his campaign appearances. The upcoming elections are the time to ‘defend’ American democracy.

More than 44 million American citizens cast their votes before Election Day itself. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, long lines formed at the polling stations. The country’s political divisions were a problem for many voters.

“Good fathers policy needed”
“I hope that both sides can actually work together to solve our problems instead of fighting each other,” said Sarah Hunt, a 41-year-old teacher, when she cast her vote in New York. Kenneth Bellows, a 32-year-old law student who voted Republican in Phoenix, Arizona, expressed disappointment with Biden’s economic policies. “We need good father policies so that taxes go down and the economy does well,” he said.

The polls suggest Republicans will likely gain control of the House of Representatives, which will fill all 435 seats. In the Senate, 35 of the 100 seats are up for grabs. Many senate races in the states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia, among others, are extremely close. So far, the Democrats have only a wafer-thin majority in the Senate.

A loss of the Democratic majority in both houses would make it much harder for Biden to rule in the second half of his term as Republicans could outright block his reform agenda. The governors of 36 of the 50 U.S. states and other state-level political representatives are also elected.

The midterm elections take place two years after each presidential election and are traditionally used by voters to punish the president’s party. Until recently, Biden tried to avoid this scenario by presenting himself as the “middle-class president” and referring to the reduction of student debt, the protection of health insurance and his investments in climate and infrastructure.