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Senator Wyden: 2018 Midterm Elections Will Be 'Remarkable'

Brian Bull
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KLCC

This year’s midterm elections are going to be “remarkable”, according to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden.

The Oregon Democrat says he’s seeing high voter turnout in his state and elsewhere, as people weigh issues more seriously than he’s seen in previous midterms.

“I think Oregonians and people all across the country are gonna say “Health care’s on the ballot’, I think they’re gonna say ‘The cost of college is on the ballot’, I think they’re gonna say, ‘Are we going to have a tax code for working people for all of us or just for the folks at the top?’," Wyden tells KLCC. 

"And then Mitch McConnell has put Social Security and Medicare on the ballot.”

Credit Michael Vadon / Flickr.com
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Flickr.com
President Donald Trump at CPAC 2017.

That last reference refers to the Senate Majority Leader discussing ways to reduce the federal deficit.  While many economists and Democrats say the Trump-GOP Tax Plan is to blame for the increase, McConnell says it's due to the cost of "entitlements" including those two programs.   

For Republicans, President Trump has worked to galvanize voters against Democrats, calling them weak on issues including immigration.

Many political watchers see the midterms as an ultimatum on Trump’s first two years in office.

Copyright 2018, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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