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🗳️ What to watch for before you cast your ballot

This year, US voters will head to the polls to determine who will represent them in Congress. While Election Day is months away, campaign season is in full swing: Some Texas voters have already cast early in-person ballots for the state’s primary next Tuesday.

Midterm elections are held two years after presidential elections. This year’s elections are taking place under new restrictive voting rules in several states, as well as a hyperpartisan political climate and newly redrawn congressional districts based on the 2020 census.

To sort all this out, we checked in with three members of CNN’s Campaign Team to break down what’s at stake.

👋  meet the CNN Campaign Team

What are the biggest issues for voters this year?

Estepa: This year was already going to be complicated because we had redistricting happening, and then you also had the fact that we took the census during a pandemic — not only do people have to figure out how to vote, they don’t necessarily know who they’re voting for. Add to that, we are still talking about the 2020 election, and while it was legitimate, there are still candidates who are claiming it wasn’t. All of this is happening at the same time, and that’s part of the narrative that we, as journalists, have to tell this year.

Mena: When inflation goes up and it’s really hitting your pocket, you have to make that decision whether you’re going to put food on the table or you’re going to pay your gas bill. You’re juggling all these things at the same time and you can then go to the ballot box and say, “I’m not liking this, and this is how I’m going to show you.”

Schouten: We talk about this internally a lot — how inflation is affecting average Americans. If you are living at all close to the edge and the price of gas goes up or the cost of rent — how else do you convey your dissatisfaction except at the ballot box?

What’s at stake for President Joe Biden and the Democrats?

Estepa: Traditionally the party in power loses seats in the midterms. … It is the mood of the electorate, the fact Biden’s approval rating has been sinking for the last year for a variety of reasons, whether it’s the pandemic or the economy or inflation — and part of the problem for Democrats is they’re not able to find a good message to run on.

They were going to run on the pandemic, and that’s not going well. Everyone’s mad about inflation, so they can’t run on any economic message. Build Back Better (Biden’s $1.75 trillion economic and climate proposal) hasn’t been a win for them.

Without having something solid to run on, it’s hard to make your case. And if you’re not able to accomplish anything, which they are seeing because of the very narrow numbers that they have in Congress, they don’t have a unified message for why Democrats should be in power.

If this were a Republican president with Republicans (controlling) both the Senate and the House, we would probably be discussing the same thing.

What’s one thing we should all pay attention to this year?

Estepa: To me, the most important thing is that people actually vote. Figure out how to vote now, ahead of whenever your primary is or the general election. See if the process to vote has changed. To me that’s the most important thing and that’s why I’m doing this job: to make sure that people have the information they need in order to go make a decision at the ballot box.

Schouten: Watch Georgia. It says a lot about where we’re going as a country. Georgia in the 2020 election sent two Democrats to the US Senateand went for the Democrat for president for the first time in 28 years. Georgia is changing – it’s becoming more diverse, and right now there’s a struggle for what Georgia will be and it’s going to play out in the gubernatorial race; it’s going to play out in the Senate race; it’s going to play out in the secretary of state race, the kind of race that previously would have escaped national attention. That race will be very interesting because someone who sides with former President Trump’s views on voting and the 2020 election is running to become the top election official in the state.

Mena: For people who might get overwhelmed by the news or voting and all those things, just start with one race in one state or one topic. I always encourage people, if they want to get a little bit more involved, start with one topic that interests you the most.

Join the conversation about voting rights and get practical information about how to vote this year. Subscribe to the weekly Citizen by CNN newsletter.

💳  CNN insider rec of the week

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📢  before you go

📜  Learn: This visual timeline showcases past and present efforts to limit the electoral power of voters of color in the US.

📷  Explore: Take a look at the best photos from the Winter Olympics, which wrapped up on Sunday.

✈️  Travel:  If you love nature but want to avoid the crowds, check out the least-visited US national parks and plan a visit.

✉️  talk to us

Who would you like to see spotlighted next? Send your thoughts to insidecnn@cnn.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

– Written and edited by Beryl Adcock, Tricia Escobedo and Jessica Sooknanan