Election Eve: Trump Closes at the Lincoln Memorial as Democrats Lead the Final Polls and Talarico Rallies Texas
One day of campaigning is left. Democrats spent the eve of the midterms on get-out-the-vote rallies - James Talarico's in Texas among them - while President Donald Trump saved his closing argument for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and the final New York Times/Siena poll put Democrats ahead in all seven of the most competitive Senate races, including Texas.
WASHINGTON - The 2026 midterm campaign reached its last full day on Monday with both parties exactly where the final polls said they would be: Democrats teeing up get-out-the-vote rallies across the map on the eve of an election they expect to win at least partial control of Congress, and President Donald Trump closing his argument in the capital, AFP reported.
The Democratic closing rallies included the party's star Senate candidates - James Talarico in Texas and Adam Hamilton in Kansas among them - capping what AFP called a campaign of breathtaking tension and bitterness. Trump, for his closing argument, chose a speech in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. "We're going to win," he said on Sunday. In Iowa the same day, he told a crowd that Democrats are "extreme and dangerous radicals."
The numbers underneath the noise favor the opposition. The final New York Times/Siena poll, released Sunday evening, showed Democratic candidates leading in all seven Senate seats viewed as most competitive, though five remained within the margin of error. In Texas, the survey put Talarico ahead of Republican Ken Paxton, 50 percent to 43 percent. It also gave Democrats Abdul El-Sayed a 53-42 lead in Michigan, Troy Jackson a 51-45 lead over Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, and Hamilton a 49-44 edge in Kansas. Across the seven states polled, just 38 percent of likely voters approved of Trump's job performance, and an NBC News poll released Sunday put his national disapproval at 60 percent, with high prices - sharpened by the eight-month war against Iran - the leading complaint.
The scale of the decision already made is its own record: some 54 million Americans have cast early ballots, and roughly $11 billion has been spent on advertising, with Elon Musk alone giving nearly half a billion dollars to help Republicans, AFP reported. Democrats, burned by forecasts before, are not celebrating early - Sen. Raphael Warnock told CNN the mood is "nauseously optimistic." What is left is Tuesday: polls open at 7 a.m. in Harris County, and the first calls of the night will say whether the final polls were right.
