Key facts
- Final polls before the elections put Trump's approval rating at around 38%, the BBC reported.
- A national NBC poll released on Sunday indicated 29% of voters viewed the Democratic Party positively.
- The report said diesel hit a record $6.52 a gallon in September, up from $3.75 before the war began in February.
- Trump campaigned in Iowa and Kansas during a final weekend blitz, the BBC reported.
- Carrie Dann of the Cook Political Report said Republican spending in Kansas showed the party was on the defensive.
Americans voted in midterm elections on a Tuesday that would decide control of Congress, with Donald Trump two years into his presidency, the BBC reported. Voters named the cost of living as their main concern, and the report said food and fuel prices had risen partly because of Trump's tariffs and the war with Iran.
The report said the price of a gallon of diesel was $3.75 before the war started in February and reached a record high of $6.52 in September. It said inflation had risen from 3% when Trump took office to 3.7%. Final polls before the elections put Trump's approval rating at around 38%, and a national NBC poll released on Sunday indicated that 29% of voters viewed the Democratic Party positively.
Trump campaigned in Iowa and Kansas during a final weekend, and his party spent hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign advertising in traditionally safe contests, including the Senate race in Kansas. Carrie Dann, managing editor of the Cook Political Report, told the BBC that spending in a state Republicans should be winning showed the party thought it was in trouble. Trump told rallies, "In this election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot."
Stephen Hawkins, global director of research at the pollster More in Common, said states Trump won by 10, 12 and 15 points two years earlier were now places where Democrats had a viable chance of taking a Senate seat. Voters in Iowa, including Republicans Paul Ross, Zach Shimp and Tim McKinnon, described frustration with prices and with Trump's interventions abroad, while saying they would not necessarily back Democrats.