Americans yesterday began voting in key legislative elections expected to deal a stinging defeat to US President Barack Obama, with Republicans poised to take full control of the US Congress by wresting the US Senate from his Democratic Party.
The party of an incumbent US president has historically fared badly in elections in the middle of his second term and this time is expected to be no different.
Many Republicans have essentially based their campaigns on attacking Obama and his policies, particularly his healthcare plan, while many Democrats avoided including the president in their campaign rallies and photo ops.
Photo: EPA
The first polling stations opened in the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, with the rest of the country to follow.
Although the economy has been improving gradually since the recession of 2008, the national mood is far from buoyant, with much attention focused on recent flashpoint crises like Ebola and advances by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Democrats currently hold a 55-45 seat advantage in the US Senate, while Republicans control the US House of Representatives.
If Republicans take a net six seats in the Senate, Obama will spend his last two years in office facing a hostile Congress as he contends with Ebola, improving the US economy and fighting the extremist group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The race for the Senate has been very expensive, with an estimated US$423 million spent in TV spots on Senate bids, according to the Washington Post. Recent polls show Republicans pulling ahead in Washington, despite races in Alaska, North Carolina and other states remaining very close, and they voiced confidence in the home stretch.
“We intend to be a responsible governing Republican majority,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told ABC News.
Republicans have hammered home their message that a vote for Democrats is a vote for a tarnished Obama and his policies.
“This is a referendum on the president,” Republican Senator Rand Paul told NBC.
In the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are in play, experts predict the Republicans will gain more seats. One-third of the 100-seat Senate is also up for grabs.
Three top forecasters now give Republicans between a 70 and 77 percent chance of winning the Senate. Yet however successful they are, a complete picture may not have emerged yesterday as there are strong prospects for runoffs in Louisiana and Georgia, where a second round is held if victors do not win by more than 50 percent.
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