A presidential election unlike any other in US history entered its last full day yesterday with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris scrambling for an edge in a tight contest each portrays as an existential moment for America. Even after the astonishing blur of events the last few months, the electorate is divided down the middle, both nationally and in the seven battleground states expected to decide the winner today, although the closeness of the contest means it could take days for a winner to emerge.
Former president Trump, a 78-year-old Republican, survived two assassination attempts weeks after a New York City jury made him the first former US president to be convicted of a felony. Vice President Harris, 60, was catapulted to the top of the Democratic ticket in July – giving her a chance to become the first woman to hold the world’s most powerful job – after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Trump prompted calls from his party to drop out.
For all of that turmoil, the contours of the race have changed little, and opinion polls have shown Harris and Trump running neck and neck since the summer.
More than 80 million voters have already cast ballots in early voting, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, and both candidates plan to spend the campaign’s final hours doing everything they can to ensure their remaining supporters vote.
“It’s ours to lose,” Trump told thousands of supporters gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of the seven battleground states. “If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do.” In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Harris urged several hundred volunteers to enjoy the moment as they headed out to knock on doors. “We all have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said. Both campaigns are projecting optimism.
l Elon Musk’s pro-Trump group does not choose the winners of its $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered voters at random, but instead picks people who would be good spokespeople for its agenda, a lawyer for the billionaire said.
Musk lawyer Chris Gober was trying to persuade a Pennsylvania judge that the giveaway was not an ‘illegal lottery’, as Philadelphia district attorney Lawrence Krasner alleged in a lawsuit. “There is no prize to be won, instead recipients must fulfill contractual obligations to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC,” Gober said in the hearing before Judge Angelo Foglietta.
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