Election 2018: Voters head to the polls to deliver their verdict

Handicapping the races for all 435 House seats and one-third of the Senate is especially difficult because Trump has chosen an inflammatory campaign strategy that even some top GOP officials fear could backfire.

“There’s a great electricity in the air, like we haven’t seen, in my opinion, since the ’16 election. So, something is happening,” Trump told reporters on Monday, shrugging off suggestions that Democrats had the momentum.

“If we don’t do so well tomorrow, they will put me on the ticket. If we do great tomorrow, they will say he had nothing to do with it, he was not on the ticket,” Trump said.

He appeared alongside Rush Limbaugh, the king of conservative talk radio at his final rally in Missouri before returning to the White House shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday. He also falsely accused Democrats of trying to get the vote for undocumented immigrants.

None of that was an accident.

“They want America to be a giant sanctuary city for drug dealers, predators and blood thirsty MS-13 killers,” Trump said at his first rally of the day in Ohio, invoking the migrant caravan of asylum seekers that he has portrayed as an imminent invasion even though it remains hundreds of miles away in Mexico.

Most serious test yet

Tuesday’s election, billed by both sides as the most important midterm in years, will be the most serious test yet of the way that Trump has conducted his tumultuous presidency and his refusal to tone down his behavior to widen his support base beyond the core of loyal voters who embraced his populist nationalism in 2016.

The President’s brazen style could help the Republicans hang on to the Senate, since many incumbent Democrats are up for re-election in red states where he won big. But GOP strategists are worried that the President’s pyrotechnics that are designed to drive up enthusiasm and turnout among his most loyal fans will backfire in the suburban districts that hold the fate of the House.

White House officials have warned Trump to expect losses in the House, multiple sources told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. And the President’s decision to anchor the campaign on inflammatory rhetoric about immigration rather than one highlighting the roaring economy has angered some GOP strategists.

“I think many of us would rather win without dehumanizing and fear-mongering,” a senior Republican Senate aide told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Another GOP congressional aide warned that Trump’s immigration message could fall flat in areas like suburban Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and California.

But there was one small sign that the President understands that his conduct could hurt him among some voters.

“I would like to have a much softer tone. I feel to a certain extent I have no choice, but maybe I do,” Trump said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcast Group when asked if he had any regrets about his presidency.

Democratic approach to midterms

Democrats, who have largely avoided engaging Trump directly, preferring to concentrate on issues like health care are increasingly confident that they will take back the House and so bust the Republican monopoly in power in Washington.

But all forecasts and predictions are clouded by doubt given the unique characteristics of this election and the lessons learned after Trump’s shock victory over Hillary Clinton two years ago.

Trump is such an idiosyncratic politician, and has shattered norms so often, that no one is yet ready to conclude he will fall prey to the traditional losses handed out to a new president in their first midterm election.

Lingering questions

“I’m a religious man but I am not a prophet,” Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” on Monday when asked what would happen on Tuesday. “I don’t think anyone knows, so many of these races are within the margin of error.”

Democrats, even while expecting their best night since President Barack Obama was re-elected six years ago, are not counting any chickens, given their raw memories of 2016.

“I was here, near tears in 2016, and so, no, we don’t trust polls at all,” said Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and former Democratic state lawmaker in South Carolina on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

In essence, the midterm election will decide whether voters, after a tumultuous two years want to rein in Trump’s power, or effectively want to give him more control by preserving the GOP monopoly on power in Washington.

CNN’s Jim Acosta, Pamela Brown, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins and Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.