*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).
Terrell Jermaine Starr, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and host of the Black Diplomats podcast joins Cheddar News to discuss Russia's attempt to invade Ukraine.
With an increasing number of teachers and staff calling out sick by the day, the state of Oklahoma is turning to an unusual solution. Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has issued an executive order that permits state employees to work as substitute teachers. Shaily Baranwal, founder and CEO of Elevate K-12, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the stance of the U.S. and its allies should Russia make any forays into Ukraine, a seeming response to President Biden's remarks that should Putin engage in something short of a full invasion, there might be some indecision among allied nations regarding what to do. Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the think tank Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar to discuss the difficulty faced by Blinken wrangling unity as tensions run high in the region. "There'll be a smaller incursion, and the president implied, there'll be a weaker response because our European allies have created this horrible situation where they are dependent on Moscow for their gas supply," Cohen explained.
During a nearly two-hour press conference on Wednesday, President Biden spoke on his accomplishments and challenges from the first year of his presidency, and what his administration hopes to accomplish in the coming year. However, his approval ratings are underwater as COVID remains a big concern for voters — as does inflation, noted Tom Bevan, co-founder and president of polling aggregator RealClearPolitics. "The public thinks [inflation] is priority number one, and the administration is concerned about it, they talk about it, but they're not spending enough time on it as far as the public is concerned," said Bevan.
The drama surrounding tennis star Novak Djokovic continues after he was deported from Australia over the weekend due to the nation's COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Djokovic was forced to leave the country on the eve of what was to be his first match in defense of his Australian Open title after three judges ruled in favor of his removal and revealed their reasoning for doing so. Adding to his woes, a law recently passed in France is putting his chances of defending his French Open title in jeopardy. The director of Marist's Center for Sports Communication, Jane McManus, joined Cheddar to discuss the ongoing fallout.
As the midterm elections get ever closer, candidates have been getting creative with their campaigns to stick out and to connect with voters. Gary Chambers, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana, has definitely attracted attention with an advertisement featuring him smoking a blunt, making a point about the inequity of anti-cannabis laws. "We wanted to bring the seriousness of the moment," he said of the ad. "But we also wanted to make sure that people understand that there are 19 states that are legal right now but Black people and brown people are being over-incarcerated in mostly Southern and Midwestern states in America for cannabis possession."
If some members of Congress have their way, there might finally be a 'TLDR' on sites' terms of service, introduced by the terms-of-service labeling, design, and readability act – or TLDR for short. With this act, users will actually understand what they're agreeing to or the many ways in which their data is being used before pressing 'accept.' J.D. sat down with co-sponsor of the bill and Senator Bill Cassidy, to discuss.
President Joe Biden's first year in office is wrapping up. What has he achieved, and what else remains on the table while the Democrats have control of Washington? Amid an ongoing pandemic and rising inflation, Biden's approval rating is at an all-time low and his party is plagued by infighting. Will he be able to continue pushing key parts of his agenda? Paul Glastris, former Bill Clinton speechwriter & Editor-in-chief of 'Washington Monthly,' joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the president's achievements in his first year, where he's fallen short, and what he must do in order to get more of his agenda signed into law.
Tech giants Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple are faced with a bipartisan antitrust legislation effort underway in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The companies stand accused of promoting their own goods and services over smaller competitors on their platforms, holding too much monopolistic power via their app stores and services. Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a technology industry trade group, joined Cheddar to argue that the bills that are being debated currently could end up hurting consumers, rather than helping.
