Early voting for the midterms already underway in 19 U.S. states ... Campaigns heat up

[Financial News] With the U.S. midterm elections four weeks away, campaigning by both parties is intensifying. President Donald Trump and Republicans have reiterated a $5,000 cash pledge and are seeking to win over moderate voters, while Democrats have signaled they will seek to have Trump suspended from office over his verbal gaffe.

According to the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), a U.S. private nonprofit political organization, Ohio, Indiana, New Mexico and Wyoming began in-person early voting on the 6th (local time). The U.S. midterm elections, to be held on Nov. 3, will take place across 50 states, one federal district (Washington, D.C.) and five U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. Voters will elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 senators. Gubernatorial elections will also be held in 36 of the 50 states.
Early voting is being conducted in 47 states and Washington, D.C., with polling places already having begun operations last month. According to CEIR, as of the 6th, a total of 19 states were holding in-person early voting. Arizona will join them on the 7th.
Trump, who is campaigning across the country ahead of the election, posted a video message on Truth Social on the 3rd, urging people to “please go out and vote.” He had previously denounced mail-in and early voting as a breeding ground for election fraud in the last presidential election. In a post on the 3rd, he said, “Republicans must win the midterms, and we have to use every appropriate means,” adding, “Whether it’s early voting, absentee voting, mail-in voting or in-person voting, with a huge turnout we have to sweep away the radical-left ‘stupid Democrats.’”
On the 5th, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) posted on X, saying, “The U.S. president is lying to you,” and urging people to “vote to drive his party out of power.” Senate floor leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said, “Republicans have done nothing but drive up prices and make everyday life harder for Americans,” adding that “voters will deliver a clear message that the Republican chaos must end.”


The Cook Political Report, a U.S. election analysis organization, classified 208 of the 435 House seats as favoring Democrats and 205 as favoring Republicans, with the remaining 22 considered toss-ups. Democrats currently hold 46 Senate seats and 214 House seats, and would need to gain four more in each chamber to secure a majority. Seven Senate races, including those in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, are considered key toss-ups.
At the party convention last month, Trump pledged to give a “Trump dividend” of $5,000 (about 6.69 million won) to every U.S. adult—around 270 million people. Asked on the 6th how he would fund it, he replied, “It will be very easy to work out.” He said, “It will go very smoothly, just as it did when we paid $1,776 to service members.” Last December, the Trump administration paid $1,776 under the name “warrior dividend” to about 1.45 million U.S. military personnel, including active-duty members and some reservists. Referring to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as “Obamacare,” he said, “It’s like uncovering Obamacare fraud and returning that money (the overpayments) to the people. It will be very easy.”
Meanwhile, at a campaign rally in Nebraska on the 5th, Trump called the Iran war a “small price” to pay to protect the United States, saying, “[Iran] could destroy a city. Let it destroy Los Angeles; let it destroy San Diego. That’s a very small price to pay.” Those cities are Democratic-leaning. Shortly after Trump’s remarks, the White House clarified that “he did not mean that he wanted American cities to be attacked.”
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom, considered a potential Democratic presidential contender, told the political outlet The Hill on the 6th that Trump “has mental problems” and asserted that “it’s time to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution sets out procedures for the transfer of power in an emergency in which the president is unable to perform his duties.

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