Kamala Harris and Donald Trump raced across key battleground states in the final hours of campaigning in a last push for votes, as Americans prepared to head to the polls on Tuesday in one of the closest presidential elections in modern history.
The US vice-president said America was ready for a “fresh start” and claimed the momentum was with her as she held her final rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsyslvania, the biggest prize among the swing states that will decide the election.
“So America, it comes down to this. One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime. And the momentum is on our side,” Harris said.
Trump also campaigned in Pennsylvania, promsing supporters in Pittsburgh a new “golden age” for the country if he were to win a second term in office.
“The only way we can blow it is if you blow it. I’ve given you the ball. I mean, you’ve got to go and vote,” the Republican former president told supporters before travelling to his own final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
According to the Financial Times poll tracker, Harris holds a 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump nationally. But among the swing states, the vice-president has a narrow lead only in Michigan and Wisconsin, while Nevada is even and Trump has a small edge in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
Senior Harris campaign officials said they were on track to win a close contest and believed undecided voters were moving to their side, but they also acknowledged that it could take days to get a final result.
“We are very focused on staying calm and confident throughout this period,” Jen O’ Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, told reporters on Monday afternoon.
In the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, which has a large Puerto Rican community, Harris sought to boost her support among Latinos after a comedian at a Trump rally in New York made offensive comments about the Caribbean island and US territory last month.
“I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy . . . we are fighting for a democracy right now,” she said.
Harris was supported by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York member of the House of Representatives, and by rapper Fat Joe, who attended the rally and urged Latinos to support Harris. “Where is your orgullo? Where is your pride?” the rapper said.
After days of vitriolic and angry campaign rallies that focused more on his grievances against his political foes and bizarre vows to “protect” women, Trump struggled to recalibrate his message on the economy and immigration.
In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke in front of female supporters holding up pink signs that read: “Women for Trump.”
In Pittsburgh, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, with whom Trump openly feuded a few years ago, appeared at his rally to endorse him, while Joe Rogan, the podcaster with a large male following, also announced his support.
“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper . . . your paycheques will be higher, your streets will be safer and cleaner, your communities will be richer and your future will be brighter than ever before,” Trump told the crowd in Pittsburgh.
His efforts to project a more positive message to voters were undermined when JD Vance, his running mate, called Harris rubbish during a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier in the day.
“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” JD Vance said.
Meanwhile, the first results of the election were released in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, shortly after midnight local time, with Trump winning three votes and Harris winning three.
Some people who attended Trump’s Pittsburgh rally had travelled long distances. Renée Hughes, a retiree, flew from Sitges, Spain, to vote and attend the rally in her hometown.
“We have to get our country back,” she said. “We have become an embarrassment. Trump is a real person. He gets us, the normal people, not the elites.”
Holly Gallogly, a retired teacher from Pittsburgh, on the other hand, said: “I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but in the past few months I have moved to become undecided because I struggle with the hate rhetoric.”