WASHINGTON (AP) — A tight race for control of Congress along with dozens of governor’s mansions and key election seats unfolded Tuesday as polls began to close in several closely watched states along the East Coast.
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker were vying for a seat that could determine control of the Senate.  GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams met for a rematch of their 2018 campaign. The candidates must win at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a December runoff.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria fended off fierce Republican challengers.  The results there could serve as early signs of where the U.S. House majority is headed, as Republicans hope to reclaim suburban districts that went to Democrats during Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency.
The outcome of the House and Senate races will determine the future of President Joe Biden’s agenda and serve as a referendum on his administration as the nation grapples with high inflation and concerns about the country’s direction.  Republican control of the House would likely trigger a round of investigations into Biden and his family, while a GOP takeover of the Senate would limit Biden’s ability to make judicial appointments.
Democrats were facing historic headwinds.  The incumbent party almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm election, but Democrats hoped anger over the Supreme Court’s abortion rights decision could mobilize their voters to reverse historic trends.
Even Biden, who planned to watch the afternoon election at the White House, said late Monday night that he believed his party would hold the Senate, but “the House is tougher.”  Asked how that would make governing, his assessment was stark: “Harder.”
Republicans are betting that messages focused on the economy, gas prices and crime will resonate with voters at a time of soaring inflation and rising violence.
“It’s going to be a referendum on the incompetence of this administration,” Minnesota Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, who is leading the GOP’s effort to retake the House, said of the election.
The AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the national electorate, showed that high inflation and concerns about the fragility of democracy weighed heavily on voters.
Half of voters said inflation has been significantly affected, with groceries, gas, housing, food and other costs having soared in the past year.  Slightly fewer – 44% – said the future of democracy was their primary concern.
Few major voting problems were reported across the country, although there were hiccups typical of most election days.  Some tax collectors did not work in a New Jersey county.  In Philadelphia, where Democrats are counting on a strong turnout, people complained of being turned away as they showed up in person to try to resolve problems with their previously mailed ballots.
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and is the state’s largest county, officials reported problems with vote counting machines in about 20 percent of voters.  That has fueled anger and skepticism about the turnout that has been growing among some Republicans since the state narrowly carried Biden in 2020.
“They may be trying to slow down a red tsunami,” said Cary Lake, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, “but it’s coming.”
Polls were still open in several states with high-profile Senate or gubernatorial races, including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan.  Voters in many of those states also chose secretaries of state, roles that typically attract little attention but have come under increasing scrutiny as GOP candidates who refused to accept the results of the 2020 campaign race to control the management of future elections.
In the first national elections since the January 6 uprising, the country’s democratic future is being called into question.  Some who participated in or were close to the attack are poised to win elected office Tuesday, including several candidates for House seats.  Concerns about political violence are also mounting less than two weeks after a conspiracy theory suspect targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and brutally beat her 82-year-old husband.
Republicans entered the final stretch of the campaign in a strong position to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress, giving them the power to thwart Biden’s agenda for the remaining two years of his term.  The GOP needed a net gain of just one seat to win the US Senate and five to retake the US House.
All the House seats were up for grabs, as were 34 Senate seats – with cliffhangers particularly likely in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.  Thirty-six states are electing governors, with many of those races also poised to reach the narrowest of margins.
In state capitals, Republicans were poised to lose two governors in traditionally Democratic states: Maryland and Massachusetts.  The GOP also faced unexpected headwinds in upending the governor’s office in Kansas.  Democrats, meanwhile, were nervous about their gubernatorial prospects in Oregon, usually a liberal stronghold.
If the GOP has a particularly strong run, winning Democratic-held congressional seats in places like New Hampshire or Washington state, it could put pressure on Biden to opt out of re-election in 2024. Trump, meanwhile in between, he may try to build on GOP gains by officially launching another bid for the White House during a “very big announcement” in Florida next week.
The former president endorsed more than 300 candidates in the midterm cycle and said he personally voted for Republican Ron DeSandis, who is seeking a second term as Florida governor.  That’s despite DeSantis being seen as a potential primary GOP alternative to Trump if the governor enters the White House race in 2024, as widely expected.
“Well, I think if they win, I should take all the credit.  And if they lose, they shouldn’t blame me at all.  But it’s probably going to be the exact opposite,” Trump said in an interview with NewsNation.
Biden’s late endorsement has left many Democrats in competitive races reluctant to campaign with him.  Only 43% of US adults said they approved of how Biden is handling his job as president, according to an October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.  Only 25% said then that the country is heading in the right direction.
But Biden has urged voters for months to reject Republicans who have contributed to an extreme political environment.
That resonated with Kevin Tolbert, a 49-year-old who works in labor law and lives in Southfield, Michigan.  “It’s something that needs to be protected and we’re protecting it by voting, getting out and supporting our country,” he said.
It could be days or even weeks before the races — and possibly congressional scrutiny — are decided.  Some vote-by-mail states, such as Michigan, saw an increase in ballot returns compared to the 2018 midterms. Counting those votes could take longer because, in many states, ballots must be sealed by Tuesday, but they may not arrive at polling stations until days later.
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Associated Press writers Corey Williams in Southfield, Mich., Anita Snow in Phoenix, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.