The US Midterms are looking more challenging for the GOP
The US mid-term elections take place on November 8th and the general experience is that these are almost always a challenge for the party that controls the White House.
As well as state and local elections all seats on the US House of Representatives are up for grabs as are 36 of the 100 seats on the US Senate. Representatives serve two-year terms while Senators serve 6 year ones.
It will be recalled that two years ago the Senate saw a 50/50 split between the Republicans and Democrats but the Vice president has the Casting vote.
This time the polling is starting to look more positive for the Democrats and the projections are that the party has a 71% chance of taking the Upper House
The House of Representatives is much more difficult and even though the Democrats probably will win the overall national vote share the chances are that the Republicans will be able to take it.
A key polling number in all US politics is how is the president being rated and after slipping a fair bit Joe Biden now finds himself in the early to mid 40s which is a big improvement compared with some months ago.