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Mid-term elections 2018: Race rows mire campaign homestretch | |
(about 9 hours later) | |
Race-baiting allegations have mired the homestretch of the US mid-term elections, turning it into one of the ugliest campaigns in recent times. | |
US networks have withdrawn President Donald Trump's ad about a cop-killing illegal immigrant. | |
Meanwhile, racist automated calls targeted prominent African-American candidates in Florida and Georgia. | |
Control of Congress is up for grabs in Tuesday's poll, which is being seen as a referendum on Mr Trump. | |
His ability to govern in the final two years of his term will hinge upon the outcome. | |
Americans are voting for all 435 seats in the House, and 35 of the 100 Senate seats. | |
The Republican president - who has been holding barnstorming rallies nationwide, even though he is not up for re-election this year - campaigns in three states on Monday. | |
Mr Trump is making his closing argument to voters in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. | |
On Monday, Facebook, NBC and even the president's favourite network, Fox News, announced they would stop broadcasting a 30-second ad paid for by his campaign. | |
The clip falsely claimed Democrats let into the US an undocumented Mexican immigrant who murdered two California sheriff's deputies in 2014. | |
The president last week tweeted the clip, but CNN refused to air it at the weekend, calling it "racist". | |
Asked about the ad on Monday, Mr Trump told a journalist: "A lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive a lot of times." | |
What about the racist robo-calls? | |
Automated phone calls in Florida and Georgia have dragged an already toxic political campaign to new lows. | |
They targeted two candidates who could become the first African-American governors of those states. | |
One message falsely claiming to be from US celebrity Oprah Winfrey called Stacey Abrams in Georgia "a poor man's Aunt Jemima" - referencing a controversial image of a black woman depicted as a slavery-era "mammy" figure - and other racial slurs. | |
The robo-call also described Ms Abrams as "someone white women can be tricked into voting for - especially the fat ones". | |
It was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist group. | |
Robo-calls in Florida targeting Andrew Gillum featured a background of jungle and chimpanzee noises. | |
A political surrogate for Mr Gillum's white Republican rival Ron DeSantis was meanwhile accused of using a racial "dog whistle". | |
In Florida Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Saturday described the election as "cotton-pickin' important" - a term with overtones of slavery. | |
According to the Wesleyan Media Project, no other US general election in the last decade has seen close to so many attack ads as this one. | |
Since the start of September, nearly 570,000 attack ads have aired, says Wesleyan. The previous record, from 2010, was 450,000. | |
Why are voters so energised? | Why are voters so energised? |
President Trump has argued that a Democratic takeover of Congress would trigger an influx of illegal immigrants and a crime wave. | |
The Republican president has also been warning the other party will destroy a healthy US economy if they win the keys to power. | |
Most Democratic candidates have tended to avoid directly confronting the president, focusing instead on "kitchen table" issues such as healthcare and economic inequality. | |
The party hopes the president's hard-line rhetoric will help them win over younger voters, suburban moderates and minorities to the polls. | |
The Democrats have rolled out their biggest gun: former President Barack Obama, who travelled to Virginia on Monday to get out the vote for its candidates. | |
"The character of this country is on the ballot," he said. | |
What you need to know about mid-terms: | What you need to know about mid-terms: |
What is happening with turnout? | What is happening with turnout? |
Turnout is traditionally low in the US mid-terms, with the 2014 election seeing a post-war record low of just 37%. | Turnout is traditionally low in the US mid-terms, with the 2014 election seeing a post-war record low of just 37%. |
But analysts say a sharp rise is likely this year. | |
Some 34.3 million people have already voted and the real number is probably higher, according to the US Elections Project, a University of Florida-based information source. The figure in 2014 was just 27.5 million. | |
In Texas, early voting has exceeded the entire turnout in 2014. | In Texas, early voting has exceeded the entire turnout in 2014. |
However, thunderstorms are forecast for Tuesday along the eastern coast and snowstorms in the Midwest, which could put a dampener on turnout. | |
What do pollsters predict? | |
Pollsters say Democrats may win the 23 seats they need to take over the House of Representatives, and possibly 15 or so extra seats. | |
However, Democrats are expected to fall short of the two seats they need to wrest control of the Senate from Republican hands. | |
Governors are also being chosen in 36 out of 50 states. | |
The first polls close at 23:00 GMT (18:00 EST) on Tuesday. | |
More on the US mid-terms | More on the US mid-terms |