File picture of prasadam being offered to villagers of Thulasenthrapuram in Tiruvarur district outside the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, after prayers for the victory of U.S. presidential nominee Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: M. Moorthy

An air of excitement and expectancy pervades the Thulasendrapuram village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvarur district hoping that Kamala Harris wins in the U.S. presidential elections.

The villagers have performed prayers at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple in her ancestral village expecting her to trounce former president and Republican Donald Trump, and emerge victorious as Americans vote today to elect their next president.

Thulasendrapuram is the ancestral village of Ms. Harris’s grandfather and former Indian diplomat P.V. Gopalan. Her mother Shyamala was Gopalan’s daughter.

The village hogged the limelight in August 2020 when Ms. Harris was nominated as the Democrat vice-president candidate, and it later celebrated her victory the same year.

“Our sincere prayers are for the victory of the daughter of the soil in the election and to become the president of the most influential country in the world,” says councillor Arulmozhi and her spouse T Sudhakar, who have organised a special abishekam of sandalwood and turmeric, besides a special ‘archanai’ to the presiding deity at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, the family deity of Ms. Harris’s ancestors.

They have erected a massive banner carrying her picture, wishing her success in the election.

Similar prayers filled the air in Madurai where Anushanathin Anugraham, a spiritual organisation, held a special prayer on November 4.

If Ms. Harris wins in the poll, then the village leaders in Painganadu in the district will offer ‘annadhanam’ (free food) to the poor.

“Her ancestors are from our village .. she is a woman fighting for the big post and we want her to win,” says Arulmozhi.

Ms. Harris’s maternal grandfather Gopalan was born in this village before moving to Chennai. He had contributed nearly ₹1 lakh to the Sri Dharma Sastha temple.

A donation of ₹5,000 was made to the temple towards its Kumbhabhishekam (consecration) in the name of Kamala Harris in 2014, indicating her connection to the temple, though no one from her family lives in the village today.

Her donation prompted the temple authorities to inscribe her name on a stone tablet containing the list of donors to the shrine.

File picture of prasadam being offered to villagers of Thulasenthrapuram in Tiruvarur district outside the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, after prayers for the victory of U.S. presidential nominee Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: M. Moorthy

An air of excitement and expectancy pervades the Thulasendrapuram village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvarur district hoping that Kamala Harris wins in the U.S. presidential elections.

The villagers have performed prayers at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple in her ancestral village expecting her to trounce former president and Republican Donald Trump, and emerge victorious as Americans vote today to elect their next president.

Thulasendrapuram is the ancestral village of Ms. Harris’s grandfather and former Indian diplomat P.V. Gopalan. Her mother Shyamala was Gopalan’s daughter.

The village hogged the limelight in August 2020 when Ms. Harris was nominated as the Democrat vice-president candidate, and it later celebrated her victory the same year.

“Our sincere prayers are for the victory of the daughter of the soil in the election and to become the president of the most influential country in the world,” says councillor Arulmozhi and her spouse T Sudhakar, who have organised a special abishekam of sandalwood and turmeric, besides a special ‘archanai’ to the presiding deity at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, the family deity of Ms. Harris’s ancestors.

They have erected a massive banner carrying her picture, wishing her success in the election.

Similar prayers filled the air in Madurai where Anushanathin Anugraham, a spiritual organisation, held a special prayer on November 4.

If Ms. Harris wins in the poll, then the village leaders in Painganadu in the district will offer ‘annadhanam’ (free food) to the poor.

“Her ancestors are from our village .. she is a woman fighting for the big post and we want her to win,” says Arulmozhi.

Ms. Harris’s maternal grandfather Gopalan was born in this village before moving to Chennai. He had contributed nearly ₹1 lakh to the Sri Dharma Sastha temple.

A donation of ₹5,000 was made to the temple towards its Kumbhabhishekam (consecration) in the name of Kamala Harris in 2014, indicating her connection to the temple, though no one from her family lives in the village today.

Her donation prompted the temple authorities to inscribe her name on a stone tablet containing the list of donors to the shrine.

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during Sunday service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, U.S. on October 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Kamala Harris turned 60 on Sunday (October 20, 2024) in the final stretch of a knife-edge U.S. election battle with 78-year-old Donald Trump, as she urged a Black congregation in Georgia to embrace compassionate values while others “spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos.”

Ms. Harris, speaking at a Baptist megachurch near Atlanta, did not mention Mr. Trump by name but the crowd — after spontaneously serenading her with “Happy Birthday” — nodded knowingly to her allusions to her Republican rival.

Georgia is one of the key States that are expected to decide the November 5 election. Both candidates were planning events later Sunday in another of those states, Pennsylvania, which both sides see as a must-win.

With just over two weeks before Election Day, the Democratic vice president and the Republican former president are in a fierce race.

Ms. Harris, addressing the enthusiastic Black churchgoers — normally a strongly Democratic demographic — delivered a temperate speech, telling the tale of the Good Samaritan but also using it to exhort the crowd to vote and “shine the light in moments of darkness.”

Indeed, Mr. Trump is using increasingly angry and dark language in the campaign.

He has likened undocumented migrants to animals, threatened revenge against his perceived enemies, praised autocrats like Vladimir Putin of Russia and described America as a ruined nation only he can fix.

“Where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith,” Ms. Harris said. “What kind of country do we want to live in — a country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?”

In other events, Ms. Harris has increasingly raised questions about Mr. Trump’s fitness to be president.

“Now he’s ducking debates and canceling interviews because of exhaustion,” Ms. Harris told a rally Saturday in Atlanta, mocking his rambling, off-script speeches.

The former president himself has surprised attendees at his rallies with sometimes bizarre references, including a ribald allusion Saturday to the anatomy of a famous golfer.

But Mr. Trump’s age and spontaneous remarks have not appeared to be a deal-breaker for voters, as polls show a close battle ahead.

‘Across the finish line’

Ms. Harris had also sought to goad Mr. Trump with a report on October 12 that described her “excellent health”, but the ex-president’s campaign insisted he, too, is “in perfect and excellent health to be Commander-in-Chief”.

The Republican running for a second go in the White House countered Ms. Harris’s accusations with a marathon speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a day after saying she “doesn’t have the energy of a rabbit.”

Combination picture of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. President Donald Trump. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris zeroed in on former President Donald Trump’s comments suggesting the U.S. military could be used to deal with “the enemy from within” as the two presidential nominees took the fight for battleground Pennsylvania to opposite ends of the State on Monday (October 14, 2024).

Ms. Harris, at her rally in northwestern Pennsylvania, called Mr. Trump a serious threat to American democracy who is “out for unchecked power.”

“He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Ms. Harris said after playing a clip of the comment on the jumbo screen at her rally at an Erie arena. “This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”

Democrat Harris and Republican Trump have been become fixtures in the country’s largest 2024 battleground State. It was Ms. Harris’ 10th visit to Pennsylvania this campaign season, and Mr. Trump’s Monday town hall in suburban Philadelphia came after visits last week to Scranton and Reading.

Ms. Harris was highlighting what she says are examples of Mr. Trump’s increasingly “unstable and unhinged” behaviour. It’s part of her effort to win over a small universe of undecided voters and tear away even a small slice of traditionally Republican voters in the fight for Pennsylvania and six other closely contested States that are expected to determine who wins next month’s election.

She argued that Mr. Trump’s comments in a Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” interview are the latest example of threatening rhetoric from the former president that should concern Americans about what a potential second Mr. Trump term could look like.

Mr. Trump made the comment in response to a question about “outside agitators” potentially disrupting Election Day, pivoting to what he said is a foe closer to home.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” Mr. Trump said. He added: “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Mr. Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, defended Mr. Trump’s comments during a campaign stop in Minneapolis earlier Monday.

“Is it a justifiable use of those assets if they’re rioting and looting and burning cities down to the ground? Of course it is. Right?” Mr. Vance told reporters. “I think the question is, is it a justifiable use of assets, depends on what’s actually happening.”

Pope Francis on Friday criticized both former U.S. President Donald Trump over his plan to deport millions of immigrants and Vice President Kamala Harris over her stance supporting abortion rights.

Asked about the U.S. presidential election on his flight back to Rome from Singapore, the pope said not welcoming migrants is a “grave” sin, and likened having an abortion to an “assassination”.

He said U.S. Catholics would have to “choose the lesser evil” when they vote in November, without elaborating.

Francis was speaking in a press conference with journalists after a demanding 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania. Although the pope did not use Trump and Harris’ names, he referred specifically to their policies and their genders. Despite criticizing both candidates, he said Catholics should vote.

“Not voting is ugly,” the 87-year-old pontiff said. “It is not good. You must vote.”

“You must choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone, in conscience, (has to) think and do this.”

American Catholics, numbering roughly 52 million nationwide, are often seen as crucial swing voters. In some battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, more than 20% of adults are Catholic.

Francis, leader of about 1.4 billion Catholics globally, is usually careful about weighing in on national political elections. But he frequently criticizes abortion, which is forbidden by Catholic teaching, in sharp terms. He has also previously criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. During the 2016 election, he said Trump was “not Christian” in his views.

On Friday, Francis said both candidates’ policies are “against life”.

“Whether it is the one who is chasing away migrants, or the one who that kills children,” said the pope. “Both are against life.”

Trump has promised to crack down on illegal immigration and deport millions of immigrants already in the U.S. if elected to a second term as president. He has also refused to rule out building detention camps for undocumented immigrants.

Harris has promised to sign any legislation passed by Congress to restore national protections for abortion access, which were struck down by the Supreme Court in its 2022 Dobbs decision.

The two candidates sparred over both issues on Wednesday in their first debate together. Most polls show a tight race, with Harris leading slightly.

The pope called immigration “a right,” citing Bible passages that call orphans, widows and foreigners three kinds of people that society must care for. “Not giving welcome to migrants is a sin,” said the pope. “It is grave.”

Francis said abortion “is killing a human being”. He said there could be no excuses for an abortion. “It is an assassination,” he said. “On these things we must speak clearly. No ‘but’ or ‘however’.”

Balancing political priorities has become a subject of discussion among the U.S. bishops, who have issued a similar election guidance each presidential cycle since 2007-08, with some updates.

Their latest version, released with a new introduction in November 2023, states that the “threat of abortion” is a “preeminent priority” for Catholics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Wisconsin, US:

Donald Trump delivered a dark speech to a rally Saturday in the US swing state of Wisconsin, while Democrat Kamala Harris hunkered down in another crucial battleground, Pennsylvania, preparing for next week’s televised presidential debate.

Trump and Harris are now essentially tied in the polls, with the Republican again shrugging off a mountain of scandals that would have sunk candidates of the past.

At the rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, the former president delivered his characteristic stream of insults, exaggerations and outright falsehoods, painting a picture of an apocalyptic America run by a leftist dictatorship — a “rogue regime.”

Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris, “your government imported murderers, child predators and serial rapists from all over the planet, while weaponizing law enforcement to jail political opponents,” Trump told several thousand supporters at an airport in the heartland of Trump’s mostly white, conservative base.

“With your vote this election, their lying, cheating, thieving, hoaxing and plotting will come to an end.”

He denounced the string of criminal cases he faces over everything from attempting to overthrow his 2020 election loss to Biden, to dozens of felony fraud convictions in New York.

Harris, taking a break from days of debate preparation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, visited a spice store where she drew a contrast to Trump’s grim tone.

Asked what message she would most like to get across in their debate Tuesday, she replied: “It’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together — chart a new way forward.”

Harris said she was “honored” by the recent endorsements of two prominent conservatives, former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, former representative Liz Cheney, adding, “It’s important to put country above party.”

Asked if she was ready to face Trump, Harris said simply, “Yes, I am.”

Crowds outside cheered as she left the shop, and the Harris campaign released video of the vice president hugging emotional supporters there, including a young girl.

Police union for Trump

Trump got a boost Friday when the country’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, endorsed him despite his historic status as a convicted felon.

And he enjoyed a legal victory earlier in the day when a New York judge delayed his sentencing for hush money paid to a porn star until after the November election.

Trump also appeared before reporters to rail against the women who have accused him of sexual impropriety.

Harris, a former California prosecutor, is leaning heavily on her message that she represents law and order in a contest against a convicted criminal who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss — another unprecedented element in a political season that has the country on edge.

Harris’s policies

The vice president jumped into the 2024 race at the last minute after Biden abruptly dropped out on July 21, amid fears over his stamina and mental acuity.

Despite a burst of initial enthusiasm from Democrats, Harris has had to race to introduce and define herself.

The debate on Tuesday offers her a prime opportunity to present clear policy proposals — she has been criticized for a lack of detail — while sharpening her attack lines against Trump.

The former president, perhaps seeking to set expectations for the debate, said Saturday that the “crooked system” would not acknowledge if he won on Tuesday.

“They’ll say, ‘Trump suffered a humiliating defeat’,” he asserted.

Pennsylvania, where Harris is preparing, is closely divided between Republican and Democratic voters, and may be the deciding piece in the puzzle of the state-by-state Electoral College battle that decides US presidential elections.

The debate will be the first-ever meeting between Harris and Trump. He refused to attend Biden’s inauguration — he would have met her there — after falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chicago:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set out Friday on the final 10-week sprint to election day, with the Democrat surging after an electrifying speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination.

Less than three weeks before the presidential debate between the US vice president and the Republican ex-president — and only a month before early in-person voting begins – polls show the race for the White House is neck and neck.

The former senator and prosecutor leaves Chicago with the wind in her sails, having outraised Trump and erased the polling leads he was enjoying before she replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket last month.

But Dan Kanninen, battleground director of the Harris campaign, cautioned at a Bloomberg event on the sidelines of the convention that the race “is not fundamentally changed” and still “very, very tight.”

“We have tremendous enthusiasm — I think momentum is on our side — but we now need to do something with it and engage the electorate effectively this fall,” he said.

Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination on a glitzy final night in Chicago, buoyed by a galaxy of stars, that set the stage for the gruelling run-in to November 5.

Razor thin margins

The 59-year-old Californian has edged ahead by razor-thin margins in polling, reversing what had started to look like a likely Trump victory against Biden before he dramatically pulled out and endorsed Harris.

In just a month, Harris has raised a record-breaking half a billion dollars, enjoying a political honeymoon that shows little sign of ending.

Party leaders have cautioned that headwinds could still buffet the campaign, however.

These include internal protests over US policy on the Israel-Hamas war and possible shifts in polling with the expected withdrawal on Friday of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who may endorse Trump.

The controversial scion of America’s revered Kennedy clan is planning an announcement in Arizona, while Trump is also campaigning in the state, and promising to showcase a “special guest.”

Analysts are mixed on the effect a Kennedy exit would have.

He is polling in the low single digits and his embrace of conspiracy theories has made him a fringe figure.

However, in a very tight race, it is possible that even a few thousand votes in a crucial swing state could ultimately determine who takes the White House.

Democratic heavy hitters, from Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, have warned that the party could still lose to Trump’s Republicans if complacency creeps in.

“If we see a bad poll — and we will — we’ve got to put down that phone and do something,” the former first lady told the party faithful in Chicago.

Walz, a former school football coach, used a sporting analogy, saying that Democrats were “down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball.”

Reaching for the centre

Trump has largely been singing to the choir, mobilizing his right-wing base with apocalyptic warnings about migrant criminals and painting a dark picture of a country in “decline” that only he can save.

Harris and her Democrats have been reaching toward the centre.

Party strategists spent the week in Chicago showcasing a parade of anti-Trump Republicans, including ex-cabinet officials, a small-town mayor and a former statewide officeholder.

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said.

While they previously characterised Trump as a demagogue, Democrats have instead begun making fun of the Republican nominee in a manner designed to belittle him and dent his aura of invincibility.

Harris called him an “unserious” person.

Harris, who has no events announced for the weekend, heads back to Washington with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Friday to begin sketching out a battle plan for the next 70-plus days.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” Harris said in her keynote speech, earning uproarious applause.

“A president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical and has common sense and always fights for the American people.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference, Aug. 8, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla., left, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally, Aug. 7, 2024, in Romulus, Mich.
| Photo Credit: AP

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is a “third-rate phoney candidate” and “more incompetent” than her boss President Joe Biden, her Republican rival in the November election, Donald Trump, has said.

In a much-anticipated audio-only interview with billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk on Monday (August 12, 2024) on his social media platform X which was delayed by more than 40 minutes due to technical difficulties, the 78-year-old former President said, “She is a radical left lunatic,” as he alleged that “she wants to be more Trump than Trump”.

Launching a scathing attack on the 59-year-old U.S. Vice President, Mr. Trump described Ms. Harris as a “third-rate phoney candidate.” He reiterated his allegation that Mr. Biden being replaced by Harris as a presidential candidate of the Democratic party was a coup.

Mr. Musk agreed with the former President and said, “Her behaviour is far left.” “She (Ms. Harris) had three and a half years, and by the way, they have another five months that they can do something. But they won’t do anything. It’s all talk,” Mr. Trump said.

“She’s incompetent, and he (Mr. Biden) is incompetent. And frankly, I think that she’s more incompetent than he is, and that’s saying something because he’s not too good,” he said.

Mr. Trump would face Ms. Harris in the general elections on November 5.

He accused Ms. Harris of having failed miserably on border security as hundreds and thousands of people entered the country illegally.

Asserting that he is in favour of legal immigration, Mr. Trump said it is illegal immigration that he is against.

“She is such a liar,” Mr. Trump alleged on X, previously known as Twitter, on the day when he returned to the social media platform.

Over a million people listened to the much-awaited audio-only conversation, which started more than 40 minutes late because of technical issues.

“There appears to be a massive DDOS ( distributed denial-of-service) attack on X. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later,” Mr. Musk said in a post on X.

During the interview, both Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump agreed that the crime rate has increased in the U.S. because of the open border policy of the Biden-Harris Administration.

“We’re gonna have the largest deportation in the history of this country. And we have no choice,” said the former President.

Responding to a question from Mr. Musk, Mr. Trump also slammed Mr. Biden’s foreign policy and applauded Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“I got along well with them,” he said, claiming there would have been no war if he was the president of the United States.

Meanwhile, Mr. Musk stressed that people respond to strength and not weakness and said, “We have some really bad people… we have some really bad people, and I say they are more dangerous than Russia and China.” The biggest threat, he said, is not climate change but nuclear warming.

The conversation between Trump and Musk started with the failed assassination attempt on the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

“It’s very much, I say, an act of God. It’s a miracle that it happened,” Mr. Trump said.

Commenting on the country’s economy, he said the U.S. is having the worst inflation in 100 years. Mr. Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of the worsening of the U.S. economy.

“We need to reduce our government spending. … We need, like a government efficiency commission,” Mr. Musk said.

Mr. Trump also told Mr. Musk, the 53-year-old CEO of Tesla, that he was an “interesting character”.

During the conversation, Trump described China as a primary competitor in Artificial Intelligence and announced that he would close down the Department of Education and move them to the states. In this, he said he would need Mr. Musk’s help.

Mr. Trump, who has 88.8 million followers on X, had 10 posts on the social media platform, each of which has been viewed millions of times.

Some of his posts had 34 million impressions.

His first post, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!” had 25 million impressions.

Washington:

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris called on a rally of more than 6,000 Black women on Wednesday to help her revitalize the Democratic presidential campaign, ahead of her Republican rival Donald Trump’s return to the campaign trail.

Harris has emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid on Sunday in the face of intense opposition from fellow Democrats who questioned his ability to win or to serve for another four years were he to do so.

The 59-year-old vice president, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president — who would also be a historic first as president if she prevails over former President Trump, 78 — has shaken up a staid race and sparked new energy among Democrats.

That surge will not go unanswered on Wednesday, when Trump holds his first rally since Biden ended his campaign — in the battleground state of North Carolina.

The Trump campaign has insisted it is prepared for Harris’ candidacy, arguing she serves as a proxy for Biden on the economic and immigration policies that contributed to his sinking popularity with voters.

Harris spoke at an event in Indianapolis hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, which was founded at Howard University, the historically Black college she attended. She hopes to tap sororities’ multi-generational network of Black women — who played an important role in Biden’s 2020 victory — to deliver strong voter turnout for Democrats again in November.

“I thank you. And now, in this moment, our nation needs your leadership once again,” Harris said.

Harris and Trump are closely competitive, public opinion polls showed this week.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday showed Harris with a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Trump, 44% to 42%. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS showed Trump leading Harris, 49% to 46%. Both findings were within the polls’ margins of error.

BIDEN TO SPEAK

Biden, who came back to Washington after isolating at his home in Delaware with COVID, will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night to explain his decision to drop out after a disastrous June debate with Trump raised questions about his ability to win the election, or to serve another four years if he succeeded.

On Tuesday, Trump took the unusual step of speaking to reporters on a conference call to underscore his campaign’s line of attack on the border, saying Harris was partially responsible for a record flow of migrants.

Biden put Harris in charge of working with countries in Central America to help stem the tide of migration, but she was not made responsible for border security.

“She’s a radical left person, and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it,” Trump said on the call. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants.”

Harris has not called for the removal of border controls.

Trump, coming off a triumphant week in which his party unified around his presidential bid after a failed assassination attempt two weekends ago, has had to watch as Biden’s sudden departure from the race dramatically shifted the narrative and sparked a surge of attention toward Harris at his expense.

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a memo made public on Wednesday that Democrats would aim to compete in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, opening up a map that in the final weeks of Biden’s campaign had appeared to be more focused on the Midwest.

“This race is more fluid now – the vice president is well-known but less well-known than both Trump and President Biden, particularly among Dem-leaning constituencies,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.

Democrats will formally nominate their new ticket at next month’s convention in Chicago after an Aug. 7 virtual vote. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, is considered to be on the short list to serve as Harris’ running mate.

Harris and her campaign have worked at breakneck pace to consolidate support among Democrats in Congress and delegates across the country. Candidates who could have been potential rivals for the nomination have fallen in line and endorsed her.

The Harris campaign on Wednesday said it has raised $126 million since Sunday, with 64% of donors making their first contribution of the 2024 campaign.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and President Joe Biden. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Trump campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that money raised for U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid could not be transferred to Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

The complaint was filed on Tuesday by the Trump campaign’s general counsel David Warrington and argues that transferring the funds to Harris’s presidential campaign would amount to “flagrantly violating” the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

Also read | ​Democratic departure: On Joe Biden bowing out of the presidential race

On Sunday, President Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the race for the White House on November 5 and endorsed Ms. Harris amid mounting pressure from top Democrats and donors following his disastrous presidential debate against Trump in late June.

“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a USD 91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” Mr. Warrington said.

The Harris campaign dismissed it as baseless. In his complaint that was first reported by The New York Times, Warrington accused Biden and Harris of “flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one hundred million dollars, and for filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate.” “Kamala Harris is in the process of committing the largest campaign finance violation in American history and she is using the Commission’s own forms to do it,” Warrington said in his filing.

“The Commission must not and cannot sit idly by while one candidate takes nearly one hundred million dollars from the authorised committee of another, in violation of the Act and the will of the donors who gave the money in the first place,” he wrote.

Mr. Warrington alleged that if “Kamala Harris were a candidate for something in 2024, federal law requires her to have filed a Statement of Candidacy and for her name to have appeared in the name of her authorised committee. But Kamala Harris’s name does not appear in the name of her purported authorised committee, ‘Biden for President,’ and, until Sunday, no Statement of Candidacy existed for her.

Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak responded to the FEC complaint in a statement on Tuesday, saying, “Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energised to defeat Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election.” The statement also cited the campaign’s fundraising efforts so far, “raising USD 100 million in our first 36 hours and signing up 58,000 volunteers.” It’s unlikely that the commission would take any action until well after Election Day, given its slow pace of resolving enforcement questions, CNN reported.

An FEC spokesperson declined to comment, citing the agency’s policy on not discussing enforcement matters, the report said.