US presidential candidates former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris headed to key battleground states yesterday, each seeking an edge in a race where they are running neck-and-neck less than two months before voting day.
Trump, 78, headed to Nevada, where his campaign says he would focus on delivering a message on the economy — a key issue in this election, with US inflation slowing, but still higher than most consumers are used to.
Harris, 59, would be in perhaps the most crucial swing state, Pennsylvania, where earlier this week she debated Trump for the first time, landing several barbs that appeared to get under the Republican candidate’s skin.
Photo: AFP
Voters are to head to the polls on Nov. 5, with both candidates in a dead heat according to most polls, including in the battleground states likely to decide the election in the US’ electoral college system.
Trump has turned up the heat on his rhetoric as Harris has closed the gap in recent weeks, taking aim at her with pointed insults and claiming there is an ongoing “invasion” of migrants into the US.
At a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Trump called Harris a “lunatic” and accused the moderators of the debate earlier in the week of being biased against him.
He also ruled out participating in another debate with the Democratic vice president. Hammering away at the key election issue of immigration, Trump repeated unfounded allegations against Haitian migrants in the Ohio town of Springfield, claiming they were eating residents’ pets.
If elected, the Republican candidate promised to fight illegal immigration with mass deportations, which drew chants of “USA! USA!” from his audience.
In recent days, Trump has frequently been seen with Laura Loomer, a radical right-wing activist who has been known to peddle unfounded conspiracy theories, including regarding the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US.
She has hit out at Harris, whose mother is Indian, recently saying that in the event of the Democrat’s victory, the White House would “smell like curry.”
On Thursday, Harris delivered her well-honed stump speech in North Carolina, another key battleground in the election.
“It’s time to turn the page” on Trump, she said, promising to defend the US middle class and women’s reproductive rights. Harris entered the race unexpectedly after US President Joe Biden dropped out in July, following a disastrous performance in a televised debate against Trump.
On Thursday, she insisted that she remained “the underdog” in the race.
“We know ours will be a very tight race until the very end. We are the underdog. Let’s be clear about that,” she said.
In a race that is neck-and-neck, the election is likely to come down to a few tens of thousands of undecided voters in battleground states.
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