By Steve Holland and Nandita Bose
READING, Pennsylvania/ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Donald Trump and Kamala Harris each predicted victory as they campaigned throughout Pennsylvania on Monday within the ultimate, frantic day of an exceptionally shut U.S. presidential election.
The marketing campaign has seen head-spinning twists: two assassination makes an attempt and a felony conviction for Republican former President Trump, and Democratic Vice President Harris’ shock elevation to the highest of the ticket after President Joe Biden, 81, dropped his reelection bid underneath stress from his personal occasion. Greater than $2.6 billion has been spent to sway voters’ minds since March, in line with AdImpact, an analytics agency.
Nonetheless, opinion polls present Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, just about even. The winner might not be identified for days after Tuesday’s vote, although Trump has already signaled that he’ll try and battle any defeat, as he did in 2020.
Each candidates converged on Pennsylvania on Tuesday to induce supporters who haven’t but solid their ballots to indicate up on Election Day. The state affords the most important share of votes within the Electoral Faculty of any of the seven battleground states anticipated to find out the end result.
In Pittsburgh, Trump appeared earlier than a big crowd in an enviornment and provided what his marketing campaign referred to as his ultimate closing message to voters within the final hours earlier than Election Day.
“We have been ready 4 years for this,” mentioned Trump, who mounted a 2024 comeback bid after dropping the 2020 election to Biden.
Trump pushed financial themes in his Pittsburgh speech, saying Harris would convey financial distress if she is elected.
“A vote for Trump means your groceries shall be cheaper, your paychecks shall be larger, your streets shall be safer, your communities shall be richer, and your future shall be brighter than ever earlier than,” he mentioned.
In Allentown, Harris predicted victory and promised to be a president for “all Individuals,” as she appealed to the town’s substantial Puerto Rican neighborhood who have been outraged by insults from a comic at a Trump rally final week.
Later, Harris met voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Studying after which went door-knocking.
“It is the day earlier than the election and I simply needed to come back by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris instructed a middle-aged feminine voter and her husband.
Each campaigns projected optimism.
Harris’ marketing campaign workforce mentioned its volunteers knocked on a whole lot of 1000’s of doorways in every of the battleground states this weekend.
The marketing campaign says its inside information reveals that undecided voters are breaking of their favor, and says it has seen a rise in early voting amongst core elements of its coalition, together with younger voters and voters of colour.
Tom Bonier, head of the Democratic analytics agency TargetSmart, mentioned the early vote confirmed excessive enthusiasm amongst Democratic-leaning teams, particularly ladies. He mentioned there was no indication of an analogous surge amongst younger males, a key goal of the Trump marketing campaign’s outreach.
GENDER GAP
Trump marketing campaign officers mentioned they have been monitoring early-voting outcomes that present extra ladies have voted than males. That’s vital provided that Harris led Trump by 50% to 38% amongst feminine registered voters, in line with an October Reuters/Ipsos ballot, whereas Trump led amongst males 48% to 41%.
“Males should vote!” the world’s richest particular person Elon Musk, a distinguished Trump supporter, wrote on his X social media platform.
Trump’s marketing campaign has outsourced many of the voter outreach work to outdoors teams, together with one run by Musk, which have centered on contacting supporters who don’t reliably take part in elections, slightly than undecided voters.
A Pennsylvania decide dominated that Musk may proceed his $1 million voter giveaway within the state, which an area prosecutor mentioned amounted to an unlawful lottery.
Trump has vowed to guard ladies “whether or not the ladies prefer it or not” and mentioned that the choice of whether or not to ban abortion ought to be as much as particular person states, after the conservative majority he cemented on the U.S. Supreme Court docket in 2022 ended the nationwide proper to abortion. In Studying, he vowed to maintain transgender athletes out of ladies’s sports activities, as supporters waved pink “Girls for Trump” indicators behind him.
One Trump marketing campaign official mentioned they thought the Republican would carry North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, which might nonetheless require him to hold certainly one of battleground states within the Rust Belt — Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania — to win the White Home. Republicans additionally seemed to be posting sturdy early-vote leads to Nevada, and have been heartened by strong early-voting numbers within the hurricane-ravaged western counties of North Carolina.
“The numbers present that President Trump goes to win this race,” senior adviser Jason Miller instructed reporters. “We really feel superb about the place issues are.”
FALSE FRAUD CLAIMS
Trump and his allies, who falsely declare his 2020 defeat was the results of fraud, have spent months laying the groundwork to once more problem the outcome if he loses. He has promised “retribution” if elected, spoken of prosecuting his political rivals and described Democrats because the “enemy from inside.”
Harris marketing campaign officers mentioned his makes an attempt to allege fraud will fail. “Voters choose the president, not Donald Trump,” Dana Remus, a marketing campaign authorized adviser, instructed reporters.
Arizona’s prime election official mentioned a web-based video alleging that Republicans have been being faraway from voter rolls was false.
Trump campaigned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan on the ultimate full day of the marketing campaign and was because of return to his house in Palm Seashore, Florida, to vote and await election outcomes.
Harris scheduled 5 marketing campaign stops in Pennsylvania, together with two cities the place Trump additionally visited, Studying and Pittsburgh. She was because of finish the day with a rally in entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, which is able to function Girl Gaga, Ricky Martin and Oprah Winfrey.
