Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Barack Obama in the same American state on Saturday: three days before the mid-term legislative elections, Democrats and Republicans are throwing all their weight in the balance in Pennsylvania, where the president and his two predecessors are mobilizing.
The 44th and 46th tenants of the White House face the 45th by rallies interposed in this crucial state in the northeastern United States, before a decisive legislative election which will lay the foundations for the presidential election of 2024.
All the spotlight is on this former industrial bastion of the steel industry, where the Republican multimillionaire surgeon Mehmet Oz, dubbed by Donald Trump, faces the bald colossus and former Democratic mayor John Fetterman for the most contested seat in the Senate.
Because on this post of senator very possibly depends the balance of powers of this upper house, with immense power.
During the mid-term elections, Tuesday, November 8, the Americans are also called upon to renew all the seats in the American House of Representatives. A whole series of local elected positions, which decide their state’s policies on abortion, environmental regulation, are also at stake.
Tide of red caps
Joe Biden, who has so far rather avoided the campaign platforms in favor of fundraising for his party, will descend into the arena during a large rally in Philadelphia, the historic cradle of American democracy. At the end of the afternoon, the soon to be octogenarian leader will find on stage Barack Obama (2009-2017), of which he was the vice-president, and his undeniable oratorical talents.
“It’s very important that the Democrats stay” in power, Jennifer Hahn, a 57-year-old psychologist, told AFP, lining up under a beautiful autumn sun for the rally of Biden, Obama and Fetterman.
For this Democratic sympathizer, “climate change, gun violence and infringement of individual rights” are the most crucial issues of the ballot.
“Vote! »
Mr. Obama, the 44th president for whom nostalgia plays out, has already been in Pittsburgh, an industrial city in Pennsylvania, since Saturday morning, where he asked voters to “vote! for Democratic candidates.
He acknowledged that “the whole country has gone through difficult times in recent years”, especially with a “historic pandemic”. But the father of health insurance “Obamacare” attacked Republicans who want to “dismember Social Security, Medicare and give the rich and big business more tax cuts”.
A few hours later and about sixty kilometers away, another former American president, Donald Trump, will mingle with the tide of red caps that he likes for an event in the small town of Latrobe.
After a fierce campaign centered on inflation, the Republicans are showing growing confidence in their chances of stripping the Democratic president of his majorities on November 8.
If their predictions are confirmed, the Republican billionaire seems determined to take advantage of this momentum to formalize his candidacy for the presidency of 2024 as soon as possible, possibly as early as the third week of November. With an air of revenge on his defeat of 2020.
Joe Biden has so far said he wants to run again, but the prospect does not appeal to all Democrats because of his age – soon to be 80 – and his unpopularity.
Abortion and inflation
The Democratic leader is trying somehow to convince the Americans that this election is rather “a choice”: on the future of abortion or gay marriage – all subjects on which he has promised to legislate if he obtains solid majorities in Congress.
The federal right to abortion, blasted by the US Supreme Court in June, has certainly been a central theme of the race in Pennsylvania. The family planning organization Planned Parenthood came several times to lend a hand to Democrat Fetterman during the campaign in Pennsylvania.
But the rise in prices – 8.2% on average over one year – remains by far the main concern of Americans, and Joe Biden’s efforts to pose as “president of the middle class” are struggling to bear fruit.
“The Democrats are worried,” mocked Republican Oz again on Friday, who focused his campaign on inflation and supposedly “out of control” crime.
“The radical left knows that the dynamic is in favor” of the Republicans, he said in a message to his supporters.