Election Eve: Trump Closes at the Lincoln Memorial With Nine Tele-Rallies as Democrats Make Their Final Push
With a record 54 million ballots already cast, both parties spent the last day before Tuesday's midterms making the closing argument for control of Congress.
The midterm campaign reached its final day on Monday with the control of Congress still unsettled and a record number of votes already in. More than 54 million people have cast ballots before Election Day, according to the early-vote totals cited in Monday's wire coverage, and Tuesday's elections will decide control of both chambers for the final two years of President Donald Trump's presidency.
For his closing argument, Trump chose Washington itself. The White House schedule for Monday put the president at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for remarks at 2 p.m. Eastern, surrounded by nine tele-rallies spaced through the day for candidates around the country. The schedule followed a final weekend on the road: rallies in Florida, Iowa and Kansas, states Trump won in past elections, and telephone rallies for candidates in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Democrats spent the same final day on get-out-the-vote rallies of their own, expecting to win at least partial control of Congress. The closing polls gave them reason for confidence and reason for caution at the same time: an NBC News poll released Sunday showed 60 percent of voters disapproving of Trump's performance, and the final New York Times/Siena poll showed Democratic candidates leading in all seven of the seats viewed as most competitive, though five of those leads remained within the margin of error.
For Tallahassee voters, the national closing argument lands on a local ballot that also decides the governor's race, City Hall and Amendment 3. Polls in Leon County open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m., and voters who have not yet voted must go to their assigned polling place on Election Day.
