The United States has headed to the polls for the midterm elections, with Democrats hoping to regain control of the House of Representatives.
Control of the Senate remains uncertain, with nearly 10 closely contested races, mostly in Republican-leaning states.
History is against Republicans, as the president’s party has lost congressional seats in nearly every midterm election since World War II. Trump’s approval rating is also near its lowest point, amid public frustration over the war with Iran and rising fuel prices.
The election has largely become a referendum on Trump, who has urged supporters to treat the vote as if he were personally on the ballot.
He has held more than two dozen rallies since October, while Republicans have attacked Democratic candidates as radical and un-American.
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However, polls suggest voters are more concerned about the cost of living, particularly rising food and fuel prices.
Trump's tariffs and decision to attack Iran have added to domestic costs, making it difficult for Republican candidates to distance themselves from his policies.
More than 57 million Americans had already voted early before Tuesday local time, indicating high engagement.
At a voting center in a predominantly Black neighborhood in northwest Detroit, Natalia Town said she did not find efforts by Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate, to court Black voters sincere, and felt El-Sayed would do more to bring down costs.
"I do feel like health matters, gas prices are high, food is too high," she told Reuters.
It's the same sentiment echoed hundreds of kilometers to the south in Georgia.
"It's just about the cost of living, gas prices, those kind of things," Donta Comer, a 38-year-old project manager voting in an Atlanta suburb, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"It needs to change for the everyday person and I'm an everyday person."
Republicans insist that Trump's tax cuts and anti-migrant stance will benefit voters, and they are portraying Democratic candidates as left-wing radical socialists -- a message that seemed to resonate with Daryl Ruley, an 84-year-old voter in Austin, Texas.
"A lot of today's younger people think socialism is the way to go," Ruley told AFP.
"They don't understand history if they believe that's the case."
But in his final public campaign appearance on Monday, Trump barely touched on the election and gave a rambling talk about his problem-plagued renovation of Washington's Reflecting Pool.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer branded it a "pathetic closing message."
The Michigan Senate contest between El-Sayed, 42, and Rogers, 63, represents a high-profile test of whether Republicans' identity-based attacks prove effective in a battleground state — El-Sayed would be the nation's first Muslim senator,
A win for El-Sayed, who has criticised Israel and supports policies such as universal healthcare, would also be seen as a boost for the Democratic Party's left wing ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
The Alaska Senate race has been thrown into turmoil after The New York Times reported that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a third candidate who shares the first and last name of her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan.
Peltola has denied involvement, and Trump's Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into the allegations and filed a lawsuit to block certification of the election results, though a judge dismissed the latter effort.
In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has his party once again dreaming of winning the biggest Republican state after decades of heartbreak.
His scandal-plagued opponent, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has benefited from a nine-figure investment from the world's richest man, Elon Musk, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars boosting Republicans.
In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton a megachurch pastor, holds a narrow polling lead over Republican US Senator Roger Marshall. The state voted for Trump by more than 16 percentage points in 2024 and has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century.
In Maine, Republican US Senator Susan Collins, is once again seeking to defy the Democratic leanings of her home state and win a sixth term.
She faces Democrat Troy Jackson, a former state senate president who unexpectedly became the nominee after Democratic oyster farmer Graham Platner dropped out amid accusations of misconduct, which he denied.
— Additional reporting by the AFP and Reuters.
