Campaigns reach the finish line in costly, tense midterm race
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Republican and Democratic campaigns across the country made a final push over the weekend to appeal to voters in advance of the midterm elections Tuesday.
President Trump stayed busy on the campaign trail with rallies in Montana and Florida Saturday, where he repeated his frequent claim that a Democratic victory means a wave of criminal immigration. "The Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan to flood your communities, depleting our resources and flooding our nation," he said in Montana. "We don't want that."
Despite Trump's efforts, Democrats are forecast to win control of the House, though the GOP will likely retain the Senate. However, after election predictions overwhelmingly promised a Hillary Clinton win in 2016, few on either side are willing to say that outcome is certain. "Right now if you call most Democratic operatives, they're not sitting comfortably because the polling looks good," Democratic strategist Doug Thornell told The Hill.
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The high stakes of the election has made it the most expensive midterm race in history. The priciest House race, in California's 25th District, has seen more than $26 million in spending, and the Rick Scott (R) vs. Bill Nelson (D) Senate race in Florida has cost almost $160 million.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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