Washington: With Senate control on the line, US Democrats hope they don't get steamrolled by Republicans in Tuesday's midterms, but most signs point toward President Barack Obama's party suffering crippling election setbacks.
Recent polls show Republicans pulling ahead in the battle for power in Washington despite races in Alaska, North Carolina and other states remaining very close, and they expressed confidence in the home stretch of one of the most pivotal midterm elections in years.
Democrats currently hold a 55-45 Senate advantage. So if Republicans, who already hold the House of Representatives, take a net six seats in the Senate, Obama will spend his last two years in office facing a hostile Congress as he contends with the Ebola crisis, Islamic extremists and improving the economy.
"We intend to be a responsible governing Republican majority," the party's top Senator Mitch McConnell told ABC News as he barnstormed his state of Kentucky. The veteran politician is locked in the tightest race of his career with resilient Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, but two weekend polls showed McConnell extending his lead.
"The wind is at our backs," Senator Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told CNN on Sunday. "I think people are ready for new leadership." Republicans have hammered home their message that a vote for Democrats is a vote for a tarnished Obama and his policies, in particular his still-unpopular health care reform.
"This is a referendum on the president," Paul told NBC. In the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are in play, experts predict the Republicans will gain more seats. Three top forecasters now give Republicans between a 70 percent and 77 percent chance of winning the Senate as well.
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