Chris Lange, FISM News
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Big-name surrogates for both the Democratic and Republican parties crisscrossed the country over the weekend to rally support for their respective candidates in the final stretch ahead of tomorrow’s general election.
President Biden and former President Obama made last-minute pitches in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday to support Democratic Senatorial candidate John Fetterman, doubling down on their party’s rallying cry that democracy will die under Republican leadership. On the same day, former President Trump stumped for GOP candidate Mehmet Oz in the must-win state. Oz currently holds a razor-thin (1.9%) edge over Fetterman in the latest RealClearPolitics polling data.
Biden also made a stop in New York on Sunday to help push vulnerable Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) over the finish line, telling a crowd assembled at Sarah Lawrence College that Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin, “talks a good game on crime,” but that “it’s all talk,” The New York Times reported.
“Kathy’s opponent is siding with the NRA,” Biden said, referring to the National Rifle Association. Hochul has flip-flopped her position on New York’s soaring crime rate alternatingly denying it all together and blaming the surge on guns.
Biden has sought to paint tomorrow’s general election as a stark and consequential choice between two “fundamentally different visions of America.”
President Joe Biden told voters in Pennsylvania that a Democratic loss in Tuesday's midterm elections would have ‘decades’ of consequences https://t.co/Sg9r2RoGY4 pic.twitter.com/A4TAKhfZH1
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 6, 2022
The president will travel to Maryland today to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore, in his final appearance as voters head to the polls.
Former President Bill Clinton also made a pitch for Hochul, telling a Brooklyn crowd that Republicans like Zeldin seek to exploit Americans’ concerns over inflation and the economy in order to inflict fear. “What do the Republicans want? They want you to be scared and they want you to be mad,” Clinton said. “The last thing they want you to do is think.”
Hochul holds a 7.2-point lead over Zeldin in the latest FiveThirtyEight poll.
Trump also paid a visit to Miami on Sunday, where he encouraged voters to cast their ballots in support of Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio over Democratic rival Val Demings.
“You’re going to reelect the wonderful, the great friend of mine Marco Rubio to the United States Senate and you are going to reelect Ron DeSantis as your governor,” Trump told a packed crowd at the Miami-Dade County fairgrounds. Several polls show both incumbents maintaining a comfortable lead over their opponents in the Sunshine State.
Trump: "You're going to re-elect the wonderful Marco Rubio to the United States senate and you're going to re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor." pic.twitter.com/HSkr7DE92E
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 6, 2022
Trump’s words of support for DeSantis came a day after he referred to the governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious” during the Pennsylvania rally. Trump is widely expected to announce a 2024 presidential bid in the coming weeks while DeSantis is considered the only candidate who could contend with the former president for the Republican nomination.
Candidates and high-profile members of both parties also took to the airwaves over the weekend to make the final case for their respective sides.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel called Democrats “crime deniers, inflation deniers, and education deniers” during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, playing on the left’s continued efforts to broadly cast all Republicans as “election deniers.” Inflation and the economy have repeatedly been shown to be the top issue on voters’ minds prior to the election, with crime and education also polling as important issues amongst the American people. McDaniel said Tuesday’s election will be a referendum on the Biden administration’s failed policies.
“Five days out from an election and for the president to not talk about inflation…gas prices… crime… [Democrats] have become crime deniers, inflation deniers, and education deniers." – @GOPChairwoman
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) November 6, 2022
“If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, we want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle to solve the problems that we are dealing with,” McDaniel told host Dana Bash.
Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen acknowledged on the same program that her party completely missed the mark, in terms of accurately gauging the pulse of the American people by ignoring inflation and the economy.
“I’m a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just think that we are – we did not listen to voters in this election. And I think we’re going to have a bad night,” Rosen said.
“And this conversation is not going to have much impact on Tuesday, but I hope it has an impact going forward, because when voters tell you over and over and over again that they care mostly about the economy, listen to them. Stop talking about democracy being at stake,” she said.
The latest RealClearPoltics electoral map for the House continues to point to an easy victory for Republicans, who are projected to retain or flip a total 227, seats, versus Democrats’ 174. Thirty-four seats still fall within the “toss-up” range; however, the GOP only needs to pick up five seats to regain control of the lower chamber.
The site’s Senate map gives Republicans a four-point lead in the Senate, 48 to 44, while 8 states remain in the “toss-up” category, including the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.
Polls open across the U.S. tomorrow morning.