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- Election Day for the hotly contested 2018 midterms is on Tuesday, November 6.
- Midterm elections are traditionally a referendum on the party in power, and this year, Republicans in Congress are defending themselves against a wave of anti-Trump fervor.
- These five congressional races have been identified by experts as "true coin flips" and crucial battlegrounds for Democrats looking to take back the House.
The 2018 midterm elections are upon us.
While the Republican party is looking to hold onto their majorities in both houses of Congress (and control of all three branches of government), Democrats are looking to act on the torrent of anti-Trump anger and progressive energy to win back the House of Representatives in what they hope will be a "blue wave."
While Democrats lead Republicans by 9 points on the generic ballot (a poll that simply asks what party people will vote for in a congressional race) and have raised record amounts of money from donors of all types, everything will come down to voter turnout on election day. Multiple states have seen record-breaking early turnout already.
Midterm elections are traditionally a referendum on the party in power, and experts say this year is no exception. In all 25 of these districts, Republicans are fending off Democratic challengers.
While Democrats are generally seeking to associate Republicans with Trump, Republicans appear to be attempting to deflect attention away from Trump by aligning their Democratic opponents with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, taxes, and "open borders."
While most election forecasts predict that Democrats will gain back the 23 seats they need to flip the House, neither party can afford to take any votes for granted. Out of all 435 seats up for re-election, the forecasters at the FiveThirtyEight have identified 34 highly competitive races.
Their model, which uses a number of factors including polls, previous voting behavior, fundraising, and expert ratings, has classified 14 races as toss-ups, meaning both candidates have less than a 60% of chance of winning, 10 "lean Democratic" and 10 "lean Republican".
Here's an in-depth look at 25 congressional districts that are too close to call: