WASHINGTON: Republicans made a final push Sunday to prevent a predicted thumping in US midterm elections, where Democrats are gunning to win Congress and impose the first political check on President Donald Trump’s unprecedented pursuit of power.

Polls show Democrats are all but certain to take the majority from Republicans in the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s vote and have a shot at winning the Senate.

But after a decade of Trump defying political gravity and two years of a second presidency in which he has ridden roughshod over every norm, Democrats remain wary.

“Nauseously optimistic,” Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN, describing the mood.

Concerns deepened Sunday after an ugly party rift emerged in Michigan, a key battleground where a Democratic congresswoman defected to back Republican Mike Rogers against Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

"I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," said US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democrats' Senate primary to El-Sayed in a bitterly contested race.

Trump, en route to a rally in Iowa, told reporters he would reach out to Stevens to thank her for the endorsement, which he called "a smart thing to do because El-Sayed would destroy our country."

Tight battle for Senate control

Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for grabs Tuesday. Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers.

The consensus among analysts is that Democrats are surging. While they are favored to win the House, control of the Senate remains uncertain, with a handful of races likely to determine the outcome.

If Democrats take control of either chamber, they could block Trump's legislative agenda for his final two years in office and launch investigations into an administration that has so far faced largely compliant Republican majorities. The White House has been preparing to implement portions of Trump's agenda without the aid of Congress.

Confident of winning

Trump headlined his party's last-ditch campaign push, holding rallies for candidates in Iowa and Kansas, states where Republicans would ordinarily expect to win without presidential intervention.

Along with making lurid claims that Democrats will turn the country communist, Trump is dangling the promise of $5,000 payments to everyone in the country if his party wins.

“We’re going to win,” he told the crowd in Iowa, painting Democrats as “extreme and dangerous radicals” who will “steal your wealth” and let in migrants to “ransack, rape and plunder.”

But polls show Americans have soured on Trump’s wrecking-ball presidency.

An NBC News poll released Sunday showed 60 percent disapprove of Trump’s performance, particularly over high prices exacerbated by his now eight-month, sputtering war against Iran.

Curbing Trump

While Tuesday is election day, early voting has already seen a record 54 million people cast ballots around the country, reflecting intense political fervor.

Trump’s second term has featured a relentless expansion of presidential power, aided by an ever-more docile Republican Party.

Trump has torn down part of the White House to build a ballroom, put his image on money and official buildings, disrupted the global economy with sweeping tariffs, and threatened to invade or annex allies such as Canada and Greenland.

A big Democratic win would kick-start the post-Trump era and could even begin the race to replace him in 2028.

Winning the House would also give Democrats control of key committees, enabling investigations into allegations of corruption, Trump’s links to infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and other contentious issues.

The Senate, meanwhile, remains a toss-up.

Only a third of the chamber’s 100 seats are being contested in these midterms, and few races were initially seen as favorable to Democrats. However, with unexpectedly strong challenges mounted in deeply Republican states such as Texas and Kansas, pollsters now say the odds of a Democratic flip are at least even.

A Democratic Senate would be able to halt Trump’s lifetime appointments to the courts, especially the Supreme Court.

Will Trump accept results?

The midterms have seen about $11 billion spent on advertising, with large chunks coming from individual mega-donors.

Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who led the so-called DOGE effort in dismantling entire government departments, has given nearly half a billion dollars to help elect Republicans.

The campaigns have also been marked by blistering language and insults, led by Trump, who falsely accused leading Democratic candidates of being everything from vegans to jihadists.

And hanging over everything is concern that Republicans will refuse to accept defeat, leading to a constitutional crisis similar to Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

A federal judge on Sunday tossed out an unusual attempt by Trump’s administration to hold up a potential Democratic Senate victory in Alaska.

The lawsuit contended that if Democrat Mary Peltola defeats Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, the result should not be certified because there is a third, minor candidate also named Dan Sullivan, allegedly recruited by Democrats to siphon off votes. The Justice Department argued that voters could be confused by the presence of two candidates with nearly identical names on the ballot.