Watch live as Tuesday’s crucial midterm elections begin, with voters casting their ballots in states such as Vermont, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut and Kentucky as Democrats hope to win back the majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.
The contest is being widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second term. The president made his final appeal to voters Monday evening when he called into Sean Hannity‘s Fox News show just after the U.S. had launched new airstrikes against Iran.
Trump did not mention the development but did discuss the conflict with Hannity, insisting it was not a war.
The president has said the midterms, which will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term in the White House, are the most important “in our lifetime”.
In an apparent move to manage expectations, he cautioned that the sitting president “doesn’t win the midterms.” He added that “we gave this a very strong shot”.
Mr Trump dedicated a large portion of his final pitch to voters to talking about building projects in Washington, DC, including the troubled revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he has consistently blamed on vandals. His own administration has not supported this claim.
Many voters have already cast their ballots in the midterms, which are the most expensive in US history.
While the Democrats have been tipped to retake the House of Representatives from the Republicans, the fight for the Senate remains on a knife edge.
Read MoreElection denier Tina Peters ‘pushing near-Martial Law move to Trump before midterms’
