Washington, Nov 5 (PTI): Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hit key battleground states on the final full day of campaigning in their last push ahead of the big election day for the top post in the White House.
Harris, 60, is the Democratic presidential candidate, while Trump, 78, is her Republican rival.
More than 78 million Americans have already cast their votes as of Monday, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab that tracks early and mail-in voting across the US.
The vice president spent her entire day in Pennsylvania holding five rallies with the last one scheduled to be held in Philadelphia as late as 11 pm. Pennsylvania and Michigan are considered to be the ground zero for the 2024 presidential elections.
Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia are the other five battleground states. A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to be declared the winner of the 2024 presidential elections.
“What you are all signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing — like, let’s enjoy it, you know,” Harris said in a rally in Pennsylvania. “We rise and fall together. That’s the strength of who we are,” she said.
Harris did not name Trump in her campaign for the second straight day. The vice president is scheduled to hold five campaign events in Pennsylvania, considered the most important among the seven battle ground states.
Trump is hitting battleground states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan to make his closing remarks in the election.
Trump held four rallies, two of which were in Pennsylvania. He started the day with a campaign rally in North Carolina and was scheduled to end his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the venue of his last public event of his 2016 historic presidential elections.
“We are just one day away from what will be the most important political event in the history of our country-but you have to get out and vote! Together, we make America Great Again,” he said on ‘X’ Trump had won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. However, the states had gone to Joe Biden in 2020.
A latest ABC News/Ipsos poll showed Harris slightly ahead nationally but Trump ahead in some key swing states — and the two candidates deadlocked in Pennsylvania.
In the overall campaign, Harris has been projecting the election as the one to protect the country’s fundamental freedoms, safeguard constitutional values and ensure women’s rights, while Trump has been promising to rebuild the economy and rid the US from illegal immigrants.
If Harris wins the race, she will become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to become the US President.
On the eve of the polling day of November 5, both the campaigns exuded confidence over the state of affairs of their electoral prospects.
“They have an expression, I hate the expression actually, but it’s ours to lose. Does that make sense to you? It’s ours to lose. If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told his supporters in North Carolina.
“I will be president of all Americans,” Harris told her supporters in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Can you feel it. We have momentum,” a confident vice president said, adding that “it is time for a new generation of leadership in America”.
“Make no mistake, we will win,” Harris said. Both Harris and Trump urged their supporters to go out and vote.
“We will get this done, we will win, and it will be because we know what’s at stake, we love our country, and we know how to fight for all that is good and important for the future,” she said in a call with Black women.
The Trump Campaign said that the former president “is going into Election Day stronger than he has in any previous election and if patriots across the country keep the momentum and turn out as expected on Election Day, we will be swearing in President Trump in January”. PTI LKJ/MPB GSP GSP
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