Kamala Harris and Donald Trump make final push for votes

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump raced across key battleground states in the final hours of campaigning in a last push for votes, as Americans prepared to head to the polls on Tuesday in one of the closest presidential elections in modern history.

The US vice-president said America was ready for a “fresh commence” and claimed the momentum was with her as she held her final rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsyslvania, the biggest prize among the swing states that will decide the election.

“So America, it comes down to this. One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime. And the momentum is on our side,” Harris said.

Trump also campaigned in Pennsylvania, promsing supporters in Pittsburgh a recent “golden age” for the country if he were to triumph a second term in office.

“The only way we can blow it is if you blow it. I’ve given you the ball. I cruel, you’ve got to leave and vote,” the Republican former president told supporters before travelling to his own final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

According to the financial Times poll tracker, Harris holds a 1.5 percentage point navigator over Trump nationally. But among the swing states, the vice-president has a narrow navigator only in Michigan and Wisconsin, while Nevada is even and Trump has a tiny edge in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.

elder Harris campaign officials said they were on track to triumph a close contest and believed undecided voters were moving to their side, but they also acknowledged that it could receive days to get a final outcome.

“We are very concentrated on staying tranquil and confident throughout this period,” Jen O’ Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, told reporters on Monday afternoon.

In the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, which has a large Puerto Rican throng, Harris sought to boost her back among Latinos after a comedian at a Trump rally in recent York made offensive comments about the Caribbean island and US territory last month.

“I don’t depend people who dissent with me are the foe . . . we are fighting for a democracy correct now,” she said.

Harris was supported by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive recent York member of the House of Representatives, and by rapper Fat Joe, who attended the rally and urged Latinos to back Harris. “Where is your orgullo? Where is your self-esteem?” the rapper said.

After days of vitriolic and angry campaign rallies that concentrated more on his grievances against his political foes and bizarre vows to “protect” women, Trump struggled to recalibrate his communication on the economy and immigration.

In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke in front of female supporters holding up pink signs that read: “Women for Trump.”

In Pittsburgh, former Fox information host Megyn Kelly, with whom Trump openly feuded a few years ago, appeared at his rally to endorse him, while Joe Rogan, the podcaster with a large male following, also announced his back.

“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper . . . your paycheques will be higher, your streets will be safer and cleaner, your communities will be richer and your upcoming will be brighter than ever before,” Trump told the throng in Pittsburgh.

His efforts to assignment a more positive communication to voters were undermined when JD Vance, his running mate, called Harris rubbish during a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier in the day.

“In two days, we are going to receive out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” JD Vance said.

Meanwhile, the first results of the election were released in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, recent Hampshire, shortly after midnight local period, with Trump winning three votes and Harris winning three.

Some people who attended Trump’s Pittsburgh rally had travelled long distances. Renée Hughes, a retiree, flew from Sitges, Spain, to vote and attend the rally in her hometown.

“We have to get our country back,” she said. “We have become an embarrassment. Trump is a real person. He gets us, the normal people, not the elites.”

Holly Gallogly, a retired educator from Pittsburgh, on the other hand, said: “I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but in the history few months I have moved to become undecided because I battle with the despise rhetoric.”