Harris campaigns in Michigan, Trump hits eastern battleground states

Harris and Trump campaign in battleground states, neck and neck in polls, with contrasting views on key issues

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigns in Michigan on Sunday (November 3, 2024) while her Republican rival Donald Trump will stop in three eastern battleground States just two days before Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.

Opinion polls show a historically close race and a New York Times/Siena College poll published on Sunday (November 3, 2024) showed Vice-President Ms. Harris and former President Mr. Trump neck and neck in the seven States that are likely to determine the outcome on Tuesday (November 5, 2024).

A poll showing Ms. Harris leading in Iowa — a State Mr. Trump won easily in the past two elections — raised the possibility of an unexpected outcome, though another poll showed her trailing in that State.

Ms. Harris is due to campaign in East Lansing, Michigan, a college town in an industrial State that is viewed as a must-win for the Democrat.

She faces scepticism from some of the State's 2,00,000 Arab Americans who are frustrated that the sitting Vice-President has not done more to help end the war in Gaza and scale back aid to Israel. Mr. Trump visited Dearborn, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday (November 1, 2024) and vowed to end the wars in West Asia.

Mr. Trump is due to hold rallies in three smaller cities that could help him galvanise the rural voters who make up an important part of his base. He starts the day in Lititz, Pennsylvania, before heading to Kinston, North Carolina, in the afternoon and ending with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia.

It will be the first day since last Tuesday (November 1, 2024) that the two candidates are not campaigning in the same State. On Saturday, their planes shared a swath of tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina, where both candidates held rallies.

Ms. Harris later flew to New York for a surprise appearance on the "Saturday Night Live" comedy show.

Cost of Living

In the campaign's final days, Harris has sought to convince voters that she will bring down the cost of living — a top concern after several years of high inflation. She has also portrayed Trump as dangerous and erratic and urged Americans to move on from his divisive approach to politics.

"We have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. We're done with that," she said in Charlotte on Saturday (November 2, 2024).

Trump has argued that Harris, as the sitting vice president, should be held responsible for the rising prices and high levels of immigration of the past several years, which he has portrayed as an existential threat to the country.

"The only free aid they are going to get is a free ride back home," he said at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on Saturday (November 2, 2024), referring to people living in the U.S. illegally.

The stakes are high, with Harris and Trump having starkly different views of the economy, the role of Government in American life and the role of the U.S. in the world.

One illustration of that came from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump supporter and opponent of military aid to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion. Orban said Europe will need to rethink its support of Ukraine if Trump wins.

Trump's public comments have suggested he could seek to wind down U.S. aid for Ukraine if he wins on Tuesday (November 5, 2024).

Nearly 76 million Americans have already cast their ballots, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, approaching half the total 160 million votes cast in 2020.

The winner might not be known for several days, as states like Pennsylvania will need time to tally their mail votes.

Published - November 03, 2024 10:17 pm IST