*By Carlo Versano*
The bitter midterm election season is coming down ー as it always does ー to who turns out to vote. With control of both chambers of Congress and dozens of statehouses up for grabs on Tuesday, and a polarizing president at the center of it all, the 2018 midterm election will be seen as one of the most consequential in modern U.S. history.
Democrats hope that Trump's unpopularity will drive voters to the polls and, in so doing, repudiate his agenda and divisive style of leadership. Republicans are counting on a booming economy to counterbalance the conventional midterm wisdom that the party in power loses seats.
That focus on the economy ー historically low unemployment, a bull market, and sustained wage growth ー would have been easy to miss during the last leg of the campaign season, as Trump and his surrogates went all-in on a hard-line immigration message.
Nick Givas, a reporter with The Daily Caller, said that the economy was the GOP's best bet for holding off Democratic gains: "If there's one thing voters can point to that's tangible, it's more jobs, it's more money in their wallet," he said.
Trump's incendiary rhetoric, particularly on the subject of immigration, is a callback to the very strategy that got him elected. "Immigration also helped him rise in the polls as a presidential candidate," Givas said. "He's going back to his bread and butter here" and making a bet that getting his base "hot and bothered" will drive turnout.
But that strategy is exactly what mobilizes Democrats to vote, as noted by the DCCC's Molly Mitchell in an earlier interview on Cheddar. "We've built the largest battlefield for Democrats in over a decade, and we've recruited incredible candidates across the country," she said.
The DCCC counts 80 House districts in play nationwide, 71 of which are Republican-held. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to take the House.
The Senate map remains favorable for the GOP, and the chalk bet is that the party will keep control of that chamber, but lose the House. Meanwhile, 36 governorships (26 of which are held by Republicans) will also be decided, with Democrats expected to make inroads in red states.
Then, of course, there are the ballot initiatives that have been largely overshadowed by so many contentious races. From marijuana legalization to gas taxes to minimum wage, voters in 37 states have 155 ballot propositions in front of them. Wall Street will be particularly attuned to whether voters choose to legalize pot for recreational use (Michigan, North Dakota) or medical use (Missouri, Utah) and whether minimum wage hikes (Arkansas, Missouri) can get passed in an era of soaring corporate profits.
With so much at stake and so much attention being paid, it will come down to turnout ー a worry for Democrats in the East, which is under widespread threat of severe weather. Bad weather on Election Day is widely believed to favor Republicans ー as the people most likely to stay home tend to be Democrats.
The first polls close at 6 p.m. ET in parts of Kentucky and Indiana, and the "first test of what kind of night this going to be" will come when polls close at 7 p.m. in Virginia, according to Reid Epstein, political reporter at The Wall Street Journal. He's keeping an eye on VA-7, the district outside Richmond. If incumbent GOP Rep. Dave Brat falls early, that will bode well portend good things for Democrats.
Epstein cautioned against gleaning too much from exit polling aside from the composition of a given electorate. After all, Democrats who took exit polls as gospel in 2016 went to bed thinking they would wake up to President Hillary Clinton.
As the night progresses and the results roll in, California could throw a wrench into the results things. The massive state, home to multiple swing districts and notoriously slow to tabulate results, allows mail-in ballots through Election Day, meaning if control of the House is riding on the Golden State, we may not know right away. Polls there close at 11 p.m. ET.
"We may all be sitting and watching the mail get delivered in Santa Ana and Irvine over the course of the next few days," Epstein cautioned.
Both he and Givas, and the Daily Caller reporter, agreed on one thing:
"It's going to be a long night."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/voters-head-to-the-polls-on-election-day).
Andrew Cuomo is reportedly planning his comeback. According to the Wall Street Journal, the former New York governor and his aides are considering how to make his first public appearance since he abruptly resigned last August amid sexual harassment allegations. Jake Lahut, politics reporter for Insider, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss Cuomo's potential return to politics.
The pressure is on for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson - after his closest aides handed in their resignations this week.
It comes after a report found that 16 parties had taken place at Downing Street while Covid lockdown protocols were in place in the region. Ari Aramesh, Attorney & National Security/Foreign Policy Analyst joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
President Biden has ordered about 3,000 U.S. troops to Eastern Europe as Russia refuses to back off its pressure on Ukraine. The deployments to Poland, Germany, and Romania are a show of support to NATO allies concerned about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is in addition to the 8,500 troops put on high alert. David Tafuri, former Obama campaign foreign policy advisor and former State Department official, joined Cheddar to discuss what this move means for U.S.-Russia relations.
After tennis player Peng Shuai made an explicit sexual assault allegation toward a former Chinese government official, she disappeared from the public eye. Her recent reappearance with the IOC alongside a Chinese Olympic committee official raised eyebrows and renewed concerns for her safety. Asian affairs expert Gordon Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss Peng Shuai's retraction and the various human rights controversies swirling at the Beijing games. "It's clear that the IOC was working with Beijing to make sure that she did not express herself freely," Chang said. "So really this is the IOC being complicit in these mechanisms of control over Peng."
The opening ceremony of the 2022 winter Olympics has kicked off at the Beijing national stadium. 150,000 spectators are in attendance for the games inside the 'closed loop' system separating Olympic personnel from the public. Cheddar News spoke with Brian Cazenueve, Sports Illustrated contributor, to share the highlights you may have missed and much more.
The Biden Administration is set to revise federal rules to address potential security risks from foreign-owned apps, mainly Tiktok. This comes after the White House opted not to pursue a forced shutdown of the Chinese-owned video sharing platform. Under these new rules, federal oversight would be expanded to explicitly include apps that could be used by foreign adversaries to steal or otherwise obtain data. Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Craig Singleton, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Although this week's weather is predicted to be less severe than the 2021 storm, Texans are preparing for the worst - stocking up on supplies and emptying shelves in grocery stores, once again. Some Texans still have not recovered from last year's tragedy, and are heading into the next few weeks with anxiety for what's to come. Leslie Beyer, CEO of the Houston-based energy workforce & technology council, joins Cheddar News to discuss if the Texas grid will fail again.
Student loan debt continues to be a major concern for tens of millions of Americans who collectively owe about $1.7 trillion. Black college students often take on larger amounts of student debt in order to pay for a higher education. In turn, they are more likely to struggle post-graduation with repaying their debt, creating a racial wealth gap divide. Andre Perry, senior fellow at Brookings Institution joined All Hands to help break down the black student debt crisis.
After two NYPD officers were killed with an illegal gun, President Biden made a trip to New York City to speak on the issue of gun violence fed by the "iron pipeline" of illegal firearms that make their way from the South to the Big Apple. Kris Brown, the president of the gun violence prevention organization Brady United, joined Cheddar to discuss what this visit from the president could mean for the future of gun laws in America. "He's asked Congress to pass things like expanding the Brady background check system, but with the filibuster a barrier to so much action right now in the Congress, he's looking at solutions that involve funding at the federal level and really involve enforcement."
