United States President Donald Trump said at a rally in West Virginia this week that Democrats could take over the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections.
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US Midterms: Early Voting Reaches Record-Breaking Numbers
“They will try to erase our gains and eradicate our progress, that’s what’s going to happen,” he told a crowd of supporters, “They will work hard and we will be fighting.”
"Don't worry about it, I'll just figure it out," Trump added.
The U.S. midterm elections have been the most engaging in decades. Seats in the Senate, House, state-level, and locally-held positions will be voted on by constituents.
Republicans have been losing their gains in the Midwest and key states like Michigan and Wisconsin which flipped in favor of Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Democratic President Barack Obama won both states in 2012.
Close races in Georgia, Texas, and North Dakota, where issues of voter suppression have stirred outrage, could also determine the political climate for the rest of Trump’s presidential term.
Early voting kicked off Sept. 21 in Montana. In 37 states early and absentee voting has been ongoing. Already turnout is higher in some areas than the last midterm elections.
According to an analysis by Daniel Smith, a University of Florida political science professor, of the 124,000 young voters (between 18 and 29 years old) who have turned out for early voting in Florida, nearly 41,000 (a third) did not participate in the 2016 presidential election.
About half of new voters were newly registered, AP reports.
There are 4 million U.S. citizens turning 18 this year, making them eligible to vote for the first time.
Those eligible to vote for the first time include survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting that occurred on Feb. 14 at Stoneman Douglas High School. The gunman shot and killed 17 staff and students and injured 17 others.
Many student activists from the school, like David Hogg, have postponed college plans to mobilize young voters and campaign for politicians in support of gun control reform.
Parkland survivors Ryan Deitsch and Samantha Deitsch are two of the co-founders of March for Our Lives, an organization dedicated to encouraging more young people to vote.
“This is truly the moment that young people are going to make the difference in this country,” said Jaclyn Corin, one of the founders of the March For Our Lives group. “The fact that we’ve engaged a new generation of voters, that’s a win.”