After months of polling, polling and pitches, voters are finally having their say.
Millions of Americans across the country are set to flock to the polls on Tuesday to choose whether to send Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump to the Oval Office.
The damaging campaign exposed deep ideological divisions between the two parties and a a yawning gender gap According to the latest NBC News poll, between Harris and Trump, women support Harris by 16 percent, while men support Trump by 18 points.
More than 77.3 million people have already voted by mail and early in person. NBC News analysis.
But both candidates believe their fate hinges on the seven battleground states that will ultimately decide the contest. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina ended up consuming the campaign’s most valuable resources: time and money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in battleground ads flooded the airwaves as Harris and Trump held large-scale, competitive rallies.
On Tuesday, Trump plans to vote in person with his wife Melania in his home state of Florida. He will then host his members and top donors for dinner at Mar-a-Lago, where he will spend the evening. After feeling the results, Trump will head to the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
Meanwhile, Harris is back in Washington, D.C., who closed Monday night with a final rally on the steps made famous in the “Rocky” movies at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He already voted early by mail in California. He is set to return to Howard University in Washington on Tuesday evening after the vote is over.
In the run-up to the election, Harris and Trump have been running into these states where they will each make their final speeches, focusing on their biggest electoral prize, Pennsylvania.
Harris, who could become the first female president, has campaigned to restore abortion rights and protect democracy, while pledging to support a “care economy” that helps first-time homeowners, small businesses and the elderly.
Trump has often used obscurity — and sometimes violent — rhetoric, promises to rebuild the economy and deport millions of immigrants.
Both campaigns predicted confidence on Monday.
“Momentum is on our side. Can you feel it? We have speed, don’t we? Because our campaign fulfilled the ambitions, dreams and aspirations of the American people,” Harris said in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “We’re optimistic and excited about what we’re going to do together, and we know it’s time for a new generation of leadership in America.”
Trump made similar statements at a rally in North Carolina.
“I hope all will be well; we are ahead. We just have to close it, we have to close it,” he said. “Actually, I hate that phrase, but it’s ours to lose. Does this make sense to you? It is ours to lose. If we get everyone out and vote, there’s nothing they can do. If we don’t, and if we don’t, they have to buy anyone who has signed anything in that terrible dangerous party that will destroy our country, and it is already destroying our country.”
The final day of voting comes after a wild and sometimes wrenching 15 weeks since President Joe Biden withdrew from his pursuit of the Democratic nomination and threw his support behind Harris. Meanwhile, Trump endured two assassination attempts, including one that was grazed by a bullet.
Democrats welcomed Harris into the race, setting fundraising records and voluntarily registering to vote. Trump won the Republican nomination even though he now has a criminal record and faces additional crimes.
For weeks, forecasters had been predicting a deadlocked contest that was within the polls’ margins of error. The cash-strapped Harris campaign deployed a big ground game in battleground states aimed at getting voters to the polls. Republicans have worried about their ground operations since Trump outsourcing efforts to third parties about which there are many reports documented confusion.
Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said at a briefing with reporters on Monday that the campaign sees many ways to reach the 270 necessary electoral votes, including a “blue wall” in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well as northern Arizona. Carolina and Georgia. Biden won all of these states in 2020 except North Carolina.
“I would say that we like what we saw in Georgia. Here we see that we are on pace to win a very close race. And in fact, as we search day by day as we get closer to the deadline, we’ve seen that the number of early voters in Georgia, especially, is getting younger and more diverse every day,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We’ve seen African-American voters make up a larger share of the overall vote share, and overall, we’re seeing pretty high voter turnout.”
Trump’s campaign is boasting strong early voting turnout among Republicans in states like Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia after the party made a concerted effort to score points at the front, a shift from 2020.
“President Donald J. Trump is heading into Election Day stronger than he has been in previous elections, and if patriots across the country continue to vote and turn out as expected on Election Day, we will be swearing in President Trump in January,” said Tim Saler, information adviser to Trump and the Republican National Committee. said in a statement.
Harris’ team warned on Monday that election results in some states could take several days, indicating that a delay in counting votes was expected and would not be a sign of voter fraud. Trump, who has not yet admitted his 2020 defeat against Biden, began laying the foundation to challenge the results of the election if he loses again.
Voting in states, including the battleground state of Georgia, begins to close at 7 a.m. ET.