Former US president Bill Clinton has made a last-minute appearance ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections in support of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, warning of "enormous consequences" if the Democratic Party loses control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
According to latest polling from FiveThirtyEight, Republicans have picked up momentum in recent weeks and now hold a 1.3 point advantage over the Democrats on the generic congressional ballot, putting them on track to win one, if not, both chambers of government.
Even the traditionally blue state of New York is seeing a tighter-than-expected race between Ms Hochul and her Republican challenger, Lee Zeldin, an ally of party kingpin, Donald Trump, who Mr Clinton has accused of stoking fear in New Yorkers.
"What do the Republicans want? They want you to be scared and they want you to be mad," Mr Clinton said at a rally in Brooklyn, with many union leaders in the audience of more than 500.
"The last thing they want you to do is think.
"Lee Zeldin, he makes it sound like Kathy Hochul gets up every morning, goes to the nearest subway stop and hands out billy clubs [and] baseballs bats," he added, amid the perception of rising crime after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Clinton, 76, and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, 75, live in Westchester County, an hour's drive north of New York City.
Two days earlier, his wife joined Ms Hochul on stage with US Vice-President Kamala Harris. President Joe Biden is due to make an appearance at nearby Yonkers later on Sunday.
Mr Clinton urged Democrats not to be discouraged by polls that show them losing ground ahead of Tuesday's vote, with so many key races coming down to the wire.
"I'm telling you all this because the whole election could come down to how big the turnout is in Brooklyn," he said.
Despite Mr Biden's comfortable presidential victory in 2020, the Democratic Party continues to licks its wounds after Ms Clinton's shock 2016 loss when Mr Trump defied all the polls to win.
But US political analyst, Steve Okun, who served in the Clinton administration as Deputy General Counsel at the US Department of Transportation in the 1990s, said the Clinton name still carried weight in Democratic Party strongholds like New York.
"Bill Clinton's mission is to get the Democratic base to get out to vote … few people will have his star power in these areas to do so," Singapore-based Mr Okun told the ABC.
"He remains one of the most effective messengers for the Democratic Party in contrasting the two parties, such as by highlighting how the Republicans would cut social spending and he can also talk with credibility on the foreign policy implications of the election, including the needed US support for Ukraine."
Mr Clinton's appearance in New York came as three presidents past and present — Mr Biden, Mr Trump and Barack Obama — campaigned in Pennsylvania in a crucial midterm Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican celebrity doctor, Mehmet Oz.
Mr Clinton, the 42nd president of the US, held office for two terms between 1993 and 2001.
He suffered a bruising defeat in the 1994 midterm elections as the Democrats lost 54 seats when he had an approval rating of 46 per cent, considerably higher than Mr Biden's 40 per cent.
"Mr Clinton knows first-hand the importance of controlling the narrative of the midterm, and how difficult it is for the party in power to make the election anything other than a referendum on the president in the White House," Mr Okun said.
"This is why, during his campaigning, the former president argues that with Democrats controlling the House, Senate and White House, they did their best, given the country was coming out of COVID and a failed insurrection.
"If Republicans regain control, Mr Clinton believes they would only make the current economic and social challenges worse."
ABC/wires
