*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).
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
