Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3, in midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term, with national polls pointing to a difficult night for his Republican Party.

Trump wrapped up his campaign on Sunday night with back-to-back rallies in Dubuque, Iowa, and Salina, Kansas, two states that have usually voted Republican but now host tight Senate contests. "This is our last stop. We're closing it down tonight," he told supporters in Salina, according to Euronews, ending what NBC News described as a 28-stop blitz since October.

What is at stake

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. Republicans currently hold a narrow 219-214 majority in the House and a 53-47 edge in the Senate.

  • Democrats need a net gain of three House seats to take the lower chamber.
  • They must flip four Republican-held Senate seats to win the upper house.
  • Winning the House alone would hand Democrats power over the federal budget, the ability to block legislation and wider authority to investigate the administration.

More than 50 million Americans had already voted early in person or by post by the weekend, Al Jazeera and Euronews reported, though early-vote totals do not show which party those ballots favour.

What the polls say

The RealClearPolling national average puts Democrats at 51.5 per cent against 43.1 per cent for Republicans, while an Emerson College survey taken in late October gave Democrats a 10-point lead. Analysts say the House looks within reach for the opposition but the Senate is far harder to call.

"We can be fairly confident that Democrats will win the House majority, but the Senate picture is unclear," pollster Natalie Jackson told Al Jazeera. Races in Michigan, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, North Carolina and Alaska are expected to settle the Senate.

In Kansas, which last sent a Democrat to the Senate in 1932, a Washington Post-Schar School poll had Democrat Adam Hamilton, a church pastor, leading Republican Senator Roger Marshall by 52 per cent to 43 per cent.

A bitter closing week

The final days were marked by sharp rhetoric. At his rallies Trump repeatedly attacked Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, calling him a "jihadist" without evidence, remarks that critics and several outlets described as Islamophobic. El-Sayed hit back that Trump should take a lie detector test, saying: "I've got nothing to hide, you've got so much to hide."

Michigan Democrats were also shaken after Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Senate primary to El-Sayed, endorsed Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

The vote comes as Trump's approval rating sits at a low point of his second term, weighed down by discontent over tariffs, the cost of living and the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has kept global oil prices above $100 a barrel. Trump urged supporters to "pretend I'm on the ballot."

Why it matters for Kenya

Control of Congress shapes US foreign aid budgets, trade arrangements with Africa and immigration rules affecting Kenyans studying and working in the United States. Polls in the earliest states, Indiana and Kentucky, close on Tuesday evening US time, which will be the early hours of Wednesday in Nairobi.

Photos: Euronews/AP (Donald Trump at Salina, Kansas rally); Reuters via Al Jazeera (voter in Virginia). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.