Victory for ‘true Maga warriors’ would tighten Trump grip on Republican party

The spectre of Donald Trump's imminent declaration of a new White House run looms over races in several key states ahead of Tuesday's US midterm elections, with the former president poised to seize on any success for ultra-conservative candidates as validation for his 2024 campaign.

Opinion polls appearing to reflect a last-minute surge of support for Trump-endorsed nominees in a number of crucial congressional and governors' contests came as the former president appeared at a rally for the Republican senator Marco Rubio in Florida on Sunday.

Heaping praise on "an incredible slate of true Maga warriors", Trump cited his "Make America Great Again" political slogan.

Some of his preferred extremists, including Kari Lake in Arizona, Herschel Walker in Georgia and JD Vance in Ohio, have erased Democratic leads to reach election day as favorites, according to the polling website FiveThirtyEight.

Other Trumpist Republicans who once trailed by double digits, including the Senate candidates Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Blake Masters in Arizona, have closed to within touching distance, giving their party hope of recapturing the chamber and providing Trump a significant lift as he prepares to declare his third run for the Republican presidential nomination.

"If this is a big night for Republicans, and they think it's going to be, that will be a major, major victory for Donald Trump and his followers will be greatly energized," David Gergen, a White House adviser to four presidents, told CNN.

"If they come up with anything like that kind of victory, if they turn two or three of the seats in the Senate, they control the House, it's going to be hard to stop Trump within the Republican party. He will be, in effect, the very likely nominee."