Written by Steve Holland and Nandita Bose
READING, Pa./ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) – Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both appeared across Pennsylvania on Monday, the final and frenetic day of an unusually close U.S. presidential election. While campaigning, he predicted victory.
In the election campaign, Democratic Vice President Harris faced two assassination attempts and one felony conviction against Republican former President Trump, and after President Joe Biden (81) withdrew his re-election bid under pressure from the presidential race. There were dizzying developments, such as the unexpected promotion of a man to the top position. his own party. Since March, more than $2.6 billion has been spent trying to sway voters, according to analytics firm AdImpact.
Despite this, polls show Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, almost evenly matched. The winner may not be known for days after Tuesday’s vote, but President Trump has already signaled he will fight any defeat as he did in 2020.
Both candidates rallied in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to urge supporters who have not yet voted to come on Election Day. The state has the highest Electoral College vote share of the seven battleground states expected to determine the outcome.
In Pittsburgh, Mr. Trump appeared before a large crowd in an arena, offering voters what his campaign called a final closing message in the final hours before Election Day.
“We’ve been waiting for this for four years,” Trump said after losing the 2020 election to Biden and aiming for a comeback in 2024.
Mr. Trump promoted economic themes in his Pittsburgh speech, saying that a Harris election would bring economic disaster.
“If you vote for Trump, your groceries will be cheaper, your wages will be higher, your streets will be safer, your communities will be more prosperous, and your future will be brighter than ever before,” he said.
In Allentown, Harris predicted victory and promised to be a president for “all Americans,” appealing to the city’s prominent Puerto Rican community, which was outraged by insults from comedians at last week’s Trump rally. did.
Harris then met with voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Redding and did some door-knocking.
“Today is the day before the election, so I’m just here to say I want to get your vote,” Harris told a middle-aged female voter and her husband.
Both campaigns expressed optimism.
Harris’ campaign team said volunteers knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors in each of the battleground states this weekend.
The campaign said internal data shows support is growing among undecided voters, and early voting is increasing among key coalition groups such as young people and people of color. are.
Tom Bonnier, director of Democratic analysis firm TargetSmart, said early voting showed high enthusiasm among Democratic-leaning groups, especially women. He said there is no sign of a similar surge among young people, a key target of the Trump campaign’s outreach efforts.
gender gap
Trump campaign officials said they were monitoring early voting results that showed more women than men voted. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October showed Harris leading Trump among registered women, 50% to 38%, and among men, Trump leading 48% to 41%. When you think about it, this is important.
“Men must vote!” Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a prominent Trump supporter, wrote on his social media platform X.
The Trump campaign has outsourced much of its voter outreach to outside groups, including one run by Musk, which targets not undecided voters but supporters who are sure to stay out of the election. The focus is on contact with people.
A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that Mr. Musk can continue to donate $1 million to voters in the state, but local prosecutors said it amounted to an illegal lottery ticket.
President Trump vows to protect women “whether they like it or not” and says states should decide whether to ban abortion after conservative majority solidifies at U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 He said that. abortion. In Reading, he vowed to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports as supporters waved pink “Women for Trump” signs behind him.
One Trump campaign official said Republicans would likely carry North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, but would need to carry one of the Rust Belt battleground states (Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) to win the White House. He showed his perspective. Republicans also appear to be doing well in early voting in Nevada, boosted by strong early voting numbers in hurricane-ravaged counties in western North Carolina.
“The numbers show that President Trump will win this race,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters. “I’m very happy with the situation.”
FALSE FRAUD ALLEGATIONS
Trump and his allies, who have falsely claimed that his 2020 loss was the result of fraud, have spent months laying the groundwork to again challenge the results if Trump loses. He has promised “retribution” if elected, talked about prosecuting political opponents and described Democrats as “the enemy from within.”
Harris campaign officials said any attempt by Harris to claim wrongdoing would be unsuccessful. “Donald Trump is not the president the voters choose,” campaign general counsel Dana Remus told reporters.
Arizona’s top elections official said an online video claiming Republicans are being removed from voter rolls is false.
Trump spent the entire final day of the campaign campaigning in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan, before returning to his home in Palm Beach, Florida to vote and awaiting the results.
Harris was scheduled to make five campaign stops in Pennsylvania, including Reading and Pittsburgh, two cities that Trump also visited. She was scheduled to end the day with a rally in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art featuring appearances by Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and Oprah Winfrey.
