Trump-Harris, intense campaign in battleground states

2024-08-26 17:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Trump-Harris, intense campaign in battleground states

Kamala Harris. Donald Trump

The US presidential election is likely to hinge on the outcome in seven political battleground states, where the race between candidates appears tight.

This means that both Vice President Harris and former President Trump will spend most of their time and resources in these states.

After a weekend away from the campaign trail, Mr. Trump and his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, will address key states this week.

On Monday, Mr. Trump will attend a conference in Detroit of members of the American National Guard Association.

This will be his seventh visit this year to the state of Michigan, which he won in 2016 during his successful presidential campaign. But, he lost this state in 2020, in the race against President Joe Biden.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance will attend a campaign rally in the small town of Big Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday. Mr. Trump will return to this state on Thursday. He is expected to deliver a speech at a steel mill in Potterville, focusing on the economy, inflation, consumer prices and industrial production. Then Mr. Trump will go to the neighboring state of Wisconsin, for a meeting with voters in the city of La Crosse.

On Friday, Mr Trump is expected to hold a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, before heading to Washington for a meeting with a conservative group called Moms for Liberty.

Beginning Wednesday, Ms. Harris and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz will tour several cities in the southern battleground state of Georgia. The state tour will culminate Thursday evening with a rally by Vice President Kamala Harris in the city of Savannah.

Joe Biden won this state in 2020 by a narrow margin against Mr. Trump, which also marked the first time that a Democratic presidential candidate won this state since 1992.

This is Ms. Harris's seventh trip to Georgia this year and her second to the city of Savannah.

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention last week, national polls showed Ms. Harris ahead of Mr. Trump and that there could be a post-convention surge, perhaps temporary.

Polls show she is already ahead nationally by 2 or 3 percent.

The seven battleground states are likely to dominate the agendas of the presidential and vice presidential candidates until Election Day on November 5. In some states, early voting begins in the last two weeks of September.

The battleground states play a major role in determining the outcome of the elections, as the president is not elected by popular vote, but thanks to the votes secured in the Electoral College, which has a total of 538 electors.

Electoral College votes for states are based on population, so the most populous states have a greater influence on elections.

In the battleground states, polls show that the result between the two candidates is close, while in the other 43 states, both Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris have a clear advantage, barring the cases if something unforeseen were to happen.

According to current Washington Post polls, Ms. Harris has a narrow lead in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, while Mr. Trump has a slight lead in the other four battleground states.

Mr. Trump lost the popular vote nationally in both 2016 and 2020, but won the Electoral College vote in 2016 when he was elected president, and lost it in 2020 to Mr. Biden.

On Sunday, Ms. Harris's campaign officials announced that they had raised $540 million in the 10-week sprint to Election Day, most of which will be spent on television ads in battleground states. Officials said $82 million of the total was raised during the four days of the party convention held last week.

Mr Trump has also raised substantial sums, although less than Ms Harris. His campaign officials announced that $327 million had been secured in early August./VOA