In the final day of a brutal, wild and hard-fought campaign, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stunned voters Monday with their final pleas to get out the vote.
The race is tied at 49% nationally an NBC News survey on sunday and battleground polls showing all the crucial states in the margin of error, millions of Americans will vote on Tuesday. It is not yet clear how long it will take to count these votes.
The last two elections have historically been decided by narrow margins, with Trump defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 77,000 votes in three states in 2016 and Joe Biden defeating Trump by nearly 44,000 votes in the same number of states in 2020.
In other words, the final pitches could be decisive.
Harris sees himself as a candidate on the rise at a crucial time. He held his final rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, standing on the steps of the city’s art museum made famous by the Rocky movies.
“It’s great to be back in the City of Brotherly Love, where the foundation of our democracy was laid,” Harris said. “And here, on these famous steps, a tribute to those who began as losers and climbed to victory.”
“The urgency is on our side,” he said at a rally attended by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga and Will.i.am. “Our campaign tapped into the ambitions, dreams and aspirations of the American people.”
Trump told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina, that he is ahead and just needs their votes to seal his return to the White House.
“Hopefully everything will be fine; we’re on track. All we have to do is get close, we’ve got to close it,” he said. “I actually hate that phrase, but it’s ours to lose. Does that make sense to you? It’s ours to lose. If we get everyone out and vote, there’s nothing they can do.”
Trump’s last rally was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he closed his last two campaigns. The former president was late as usual and did not appear on stage until after midnight.
Trump projected his confidence that he would win — he said he had a 95% chance — boasted about the size of his crowd and went after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“He’s bad, he’s sick, he’s crazy, b— No,” he said, uttering the derogatory term quietly. “It starts with the letter ‘B’, but I won’t say.”
“I want to say it,” he said, as the crowd urged him to say it.
However, there were signs that Make America Great Again voters were more exhausted than their candidates. Trump has spoken partially filled spaces in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and before he finished his speech in Pittsburgh after 9 p.m., people started leaving in droves.
There was a rally probably Trump’s lasthe admitted on the campaign trail with some sentimentality.
“This will be my last rally. Can you believe it?” he told the crowd in Grand Rapids.
Harris and Trump focused on Pennsylvania on Monday, suggesting they still believe the “Keystone State” is more than just a nickname. His 19 electoral votes went to Trump in 2016 and to Biden in 2020, who declined to seek re-election this summer. Most political analysts say that no party can afford to lose the state.
“This is a last-ditch effort to mobilize and persuade voters, and the fact that both Harris and Trump have spent so much time in Pennsylvania tells you how both campaigns see it: Whoever wins the state is likely to win the presidency,” he said. Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis said.
Harris attacked the state with all four of his rallies on his final day, with a particular focus on Pennsylvania. The vice president also surprised some voters in Reading. there is a knock on the door last minute push to get out of the vote.
Trump held two rallies in the state — hitting Reading and Pittsburgh, as Harris did — after a stop in Raleigh and before ending his tour late at night in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A person close to Trump said Democrats chose to make a last stand in the state and predicted it would not work out well for Harris.
“There is an obvious desperation in their campaign,” the person said. “This is their Alamo.”
But Harris’ top aide, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, told reporters Monday that the camp in Pennsylvania is all about the numbers.
“We feel very good about Pennsylvania and what we’re doing,” he said. “Of course, Pennsylvania is a state with 75% of the vote that will be on the ballot on Election Day, so we’ve been in a lot of focus because of the way people are voting, as we’re locked in to drive our organization into Pennsylvania. There.”
At the same time, Trump expressed urgency with last-minute endorsements from conservative host Megyn Kelly and podcaster Joe Rogan, who were famously trashed for their performance moderating the 2016 GOP primary debate. On Monday, Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who gave up his independent bid for the presidency this year and is still trying to get supporters to support Trump.
“By 2028, it will be too late,” Kennedy said, speaking directly to the camera in the video. “Once we’re in the grip of totalitarianism, we won’t be able to vote our way out. This is our last chance to stop them.”
His frantic final day included the unveiling of a new policy proposal. Trump has said he will impose a 25% tariff on Mexican goods if Mexico does not stop undocumented immigrants from crossing the US border.
In addition to Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan, both campaigns have considered Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada as key swing states. Most of the rest of the country is considered safe turf for either Harris or Trump.
One way to push for 270 electoral votes — the number needed to win the presidency — is through the lens of what each candidate needs to win to reach that minimum if no states flip from one party to another outside of key battleground states.
Harris would go on to win the 2nd Congressional District of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. For Trump, his 2020 victories in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania will bring him to 270.
Both campaigns were closely watching state decisions affecting the integrity of the vote in the final hours. The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that Cobb County, a Democratic-leaning network of suburban Atlanta counties, will not be allowed to count ballots received after 7 p.m. Tuesday.
In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner warned on Monday that he will not tolerate any efforts to intimidate voters.
“We’re not playing,” he said, before suggesting there would be consequences for election violence. “Go around and learn.”
After Trump’s attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his attempt to overturn his 2020 loss resulting in federal indictments, fears that the election would be free, fair, and rigged by allegations of fraud have been high throughout the campaign. said that he acted illegally.
But the final rallies of the season signal the end of a long and tumultuous campaign — with Democratic candidates being replaced, a botched assassination attempt on Trump’s ear, and the vote — candidates must now wait. the verdict of the voters.
“The exit vote is the last important step that could make a difference,” said Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett. Exhausted candidates and campaigns will wonder what they could have done differently and what tomorrow will bring.
The only real question for each side, he said, is: “Will the road rise to meet them, or will the car go off the cliff?”