Kamala Harris and Donald Trump launched a frantic last-ditch effort in US swing states on Sunday, with less than 48 hours left, to take a decisive lead in a bitterly fought and historically close presidential election.
More than 75 million people have voted early ahead of Tuesday’s climax and the race is very tight – with more states functionally tied in the polls at this point than in any comparable election.
The closeness of the race is even more remarkable given its dramatic turns — including an assassination bid and Harris’s surprisingly late entry — and the fact that the candidates hardly differ in their campaign style and vision for the future. Can.
The final New York Times/Siena poll on Sunday showed some incremental changes in key battleground states, but the results in all seven states remained within the margin of error.
Harris – desperate to shore up the Great Lakes states, considered essential to any Democratic ticket – was to spend the day in Michigan, starting in Detroit before a stop in Pontiac and an evening at Michigan State University. There will be a rally.
Trump’s Sunday timetable focuses on Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, the three biggest prizes in the “Electoral College” system that sways states according to their population.
The 78-year-old is struggling to deflect attention from the weeks-long scandal surrounding his rally at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden, in which warm-up speakers alienated Hispanics and women with racist and sexist language. Had given.
Trump surrogates expressed outrage at the unexpected error, which seemed especially unprofessional when compared with Harris’ address to a huge, cheering crowd in Washington, the backdrop of which was provided by the White House.
None of Trump’s Sunday events take place in areas with large Hispanic populations, but Pennsylvania is the swing state with the most Puerto Ricans, a community particularly angered by the bigotry at Trump’s rally.
final vote
Michigan is one of seven closely watched battleground states.
Trump flipped the state, a former Democratic stronghold, on his way to defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016. Buoyed by unionized workers and a large Black community, Joe Biden made it back into the Democratic column in 2020.
But this time, Harris risks losing the support of the 200,000-strong Arab-American community, which has condemned Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Pollsters have seen a decline in black support for the Democratic ticket and Harris’s allies have acknowledged they still have work to do to bring in enough African American men to match Biden’s winning coalition in 2020.
But with reproductive rights emerging as a top voter concern, her campaign has taken some solace from the large number of women among the early voters.
In an effort to reach beyond her traditional support bases, Harris concluded a full day of campaigning Saturday with a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” mocking her presidential election rival Donald Trump on the iconic sketch show.
“Keep Kamala and move on!” The Vice President said in a well-received appearance with comedian Maya Rudolph, who is reprising her role as “America’s Funniest Aunt” on the show.
Eager for as much TV exposure as possible, the Harris campaign has booked a two-minute spot to air during Sunday’s NFL football games, including the matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, both in key swing states. From.
In the ad, Harris pledged to be “a president for all Americans” and promised to “build a brighter future for our nation.”
His campaign said its own research shows that “the past week has proven decisive in solidifying the choice with undecided and low-propensity voters in this election,” particularly after the two candidates’ closing argument rallies. Adverse.
Harris, 60, got a boost on Saturday as the final Des Moines Register poll before Election Day — seen as a highly reliable test of broad public sentiment — showed a surprising turnaround, in a state easily won by Trump in 2016. Harris remained ahead in 2020.
He leads by three points in a poll that showed him trailing Trump by four points in September.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
