Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will make a last-ditch effort to break their bitter standoff as they enter the final weeks of the most dramatic and divisive White House race in modern times.
Despite a series of historic upsets in the US election, polls show the Democratic vice president and the Republican former president are neck-and-neck in the polls as Election Day approaches on November 5.
Both will do everything they can to sway voters, Harris, 60, said on Tuesday, delivering her closing remarks at the same venue where Trump spoke before the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol to protest his election 2020 loss. Had organized a rally for the supporters.
Trump, 78, is also counting on spectacle, and he gave a barnstorming rally in the famous Madison Square Garden area of his home city of New York on Sunday night to launch his final effort.
As the race gets tighter, the two rivals will compete in seven battlegrounds where only a few thousand voters can decide who will rule the world’s top superpower.
“It looks like a toss-up,” John Mark Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told AFP.
The deeply divided United States will make history either way: by electing its first woman president, or by giving Trump a sensational comeback and installing the first convicted criminal and oldest-ever commander-in-chief in the Oval Office.
‘Important time in history’
The selection reflects a sharply different approach from Harris, the first female, Black and South Asian vice president, and Trump, a billionaire tycoon.
Harris first focused on a message of happiness and positivity following President Joe Biden’s unexpected replacement at the top of the ticket in July, but since then she has increasingly focused on Trump as a “fascist” who destroys democracy and There is a threat to women’s reproductive rights. ,
Democrats apparently chose the Ellipse on the National Mall in Washington for their rally just a week before Election Day because that’s where Trump met with supporters shortly before storming the Capitol to deny his 2020 election defeat to Biden. Had talked about.
“This is a very important time in history,” supporter Kimberly Whitaker said at a Harris rally in Kalamazoo, the battleground state of Michigan.
Trump is expected to reject the results in November if he loses again, raising fears of chaos and violence in an already tense and deeply polarized United States.
Republicans have doubled down on their extreme rhetoric, further emboldened by Trump’s survival of two assassination attempts over the summer to his right-wing base.
Trump has described migrants as animals, promised to set up massive deportation camps and threatened to crack down on domestic opposition, calling them the “enemy within.”
He has also stepped up his pledge to “make America great again” by focusing on the economy, which, like immigration, remains a top concern for voters.
“I’m probably going to roll with Trump,” said Drew Roby, a 21-year-old health sciences student from Arizona, who is black. “Honestly, it was better when he was president.”
Reading Seven states that will decide the US presidency
‘very competitive’
At the heart of the race are the seven most competitive swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and – most importantly – Pennsylvania.
The tightest US presidential election in decades will depend on who can win over the few remaining undecided voters – and who can rally their base to vote.
Surveys also predict historic gender gaps among candidates, as well as deep cleavages on race and age.
Both campaigns will spend millions of dollars on advertising in the closing days, while both are also introducing star surrogates.
Bruce Springsteen and Barack and Michelle Obama have come forward for Harris, while tech tycoon Elon Musk has come forward for Trump.
But overall Harris may have to face a big challenge.
His campaign had a “better ground game” and more money, but David Karol, who teaches government and politics at the University of Maryland, said Trump “probably still benefits” from the inherent Republican advantage in the typical US Electoral College system.
“It is very competitive. There’s no reason for anyone to be confident.”
Reading US election: five key moments of an extraordinary campaign
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
