Americans won't cast their ballots in the midterm elections for another 14 months, but President Donald Trump is already ramping up efforts to maintain Republican control of Congress.
His strategy appears to be a more heavy-handed version of his approach to the 2018 elections, which sought to use crime and immigration to energize Republican voters while making the election a referendum on his presidency.
But while those midterms were held under normal political conditions, Trump has already taken the unprecedented steps of sending National Guard troops to two U.S. cities and pressuring Republican-led states to redraw their congressional districts. He's also considering holding a first-of-its-kind, pre-midterm convention to gin up enthusiasm for Republican candidates.
With a slim seven-seat majority, House Republicans are on defense. In the Senate, Democrats face more of a challenge in winning four seats to take control, which would mean winning races in Republican-leaning states such as North Carolina, Maine, Ohio and Iowa without losing any in states such as Michigan or New Hampshire.
That would suggest that a likely outcome might be similar to Trump's first term, when Republicans expanded their Senate majority but lost the House, stalling Trump's legislative agenda, expanding congressional investigations into political scandals and ultimately leading to a government shutdown and two impeachments.
Read Akayla Gardner's full analysis here.
