Obama rallies Georgia Democrats as midterm voting nears

Barack Obama campaigned in Georgia on the weekend before Tuesday's midterm elections.

The former president joined Senate candidate Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms at a venue outside Atlanta. Bottoms, Atlanta's former mayor, is running to become Georgia's first black governor. Washington Correspondent Keith Duggan and video journalist Chris Maddaloni attended the event.

Obama's appearance came as a generation of younger Democrats entered races shaped by his time in office. Pete Buttigieg shares Obama's centrist instincts, while Abdul El-Sayed, the Senate candidate in Michigan, sits well to his left. Political styles among Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, James Talarico of Texas and Jon Ossoff of Georgia also carry Obama's influence. Some of these candidates were teenagers or young adults during Obama's presidency.

Duggan reported on the difficulty Democrats face in using their most popular figure. "One of the difficulties for the Democrats in every single election cycle lies in how and when to use their most beloved political figure," Duggan wrote. He added that Obama can produce "the fervent optimism and good feeling" of his first campaign, and that candidates risk being eclipsed by him.

Voting on Tuesday covers all 435 House seats, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, 36 governorships and thousands of local positions. Voters will also decide 140 state referendums, including California Proposition 40, which proposes a one-time 5 per cent wealth tax on the state's billionaires.

Polls point toward Democratic gains, driven by public anger over corruption and the cost of living. Those surveys could cost Republicans their House majority and, in a favorable outcome for Democrats, control of the Senate. Past polls have understated Donald Trump's support, and Republican districts are heavily gerrymandered. Elon Musk has given $276 million to political funding groups since July.

David McWilliams wrote that the midterms amount to a referendum on Trump. "It's inflation, stupid," McWilliams wrote. He said a Trump loss could deepen divisions within the Republican Party, which he described as heading toward its second internal conflict in a decade. "The first war was fought to get Trump in; the next one will be fought to get him out," McWilliams wrote.

Coverage of vote counting runs late Tuesday into early Wednesday morning, with reporting from Duggan and Maddaloni.