Sally Warhaft, Bob Carr and Dennis Altman

The 2018 midterm elections in the United States will be held on Tuesday 6 November. In the heated, highly partisan atmosphere in Washington – and indeed across the whole of the United States – the stakes feel higher than ever. Two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the midterms are a test of his often controversial administration.

In the lead-up to the big day, Sally Warhaft dissects the polls, candidates and analysis with former Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and La Trobe University academic Dennis Altman.

Carr is a former New South Wales Premier, and is currently a professor of international relations at the University of Technology Sydney, researching foreign policy, economics, international relations, national defence and security and Chinese politics. Altman is a leading writer and academic whose work focuses on sexuality, HIV/AIDS, Australian politics and US politics – in domestic and international contexts.

The House and Senate are both ruled by the Republicans, but this could all change after the midterms, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives in contention and a third of the Senate up for grabs. A Democratic swing could even spark an impeachment motion. In conversation with Sally Warhaft, Carr and Altman discuss the possible outcomes and their consequences for the Australia and the region.

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