Mid-term Elections: Trump makes final push ahead of polls

The United States President Donald Trump has made the last bid for voters before the midterm elections to ask voters to help preserve “fragile” Republican victories that could be erased by Democratic gains in Congress.

His ability to govern in the final two years of his term will hinge upon the outcome of these mid-term elections.

With the months-long fight serving as a testing ground for his nationalist appeals and the strength of the coalition that powered him to the White House two years ago, Trump closed out a campaign season that has been defined by his racially charged rhetoric, hard-line immigration moves and scattershot policy proposals.

Trump stressed to voters that everything was on the line while acknowledging the stakes in the closing days of campaigning.

“It’s all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed by the Democrats if they get in,” he told supporters.

At stake are 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of 100 seats in the Senate - the two bodies that make up Congress. Governors are also being chosen in 36 out of 50 states.

In recent days, the president has ratcheted up rhetoric on divisive issues in a bid to energise his base. In an election-eve interview, Trump struck a gentler note with media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcasting, saying he regretted some of his caustic campaign rhetoric.

“I would like to have a much softer tone. I feel to a certain extent I have no choice, but maybe I do,” he said.

There was little of that on display as he spent his final hours on the trail on Monday in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.

“The contrast in this election could not be more clear. Democrats produce mobs,” Mr Trump said at his final rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. “That’s what’s happened. Republicans produce jobs.”

In a tweet on Monday, he warned that law enforcement was “strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday’s Election (or Early Voting).”

On the other side former president of the United States, Barack Obama on the campaign trail for the Democratic party said that the character of our country is on the ballot". The former president tweeted the vote "might be the most important of our lifetimes".