New Delhi:

Republican candidate Donald Trump has surged ahead of Democrat challenger Kamala Harris in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania as the votes cast in the US election are counted. According to The New York Times, Donald Trump holds a lead of three percentage points in the swing state. Earlier, Harris was leading in Pennsylvania. The state has 19 electoral college votes.

Nearly four hours into the counting, Trump is leading in six swing states. Trump is ahead in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina. Leads are not yet in for the swing state of Nevada.

Also known as battleground states, swing states hold the key to victory in the US election. These states have a nearly equal level of support for both the Democrats and Republicans, and the election is won and lost in these states. This year, the swing states are Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral college votes, Michigan (10), Georgia (16), Wisconsin (10), North Carolina (16), Nevada (6) and Arizona (11).

Both the former President and the incumbent vice-president are pushing for the magic figure of 270 electoral college votes that will pave the way to the Oval Office in the White House. According to the current trends, Trump is leading with 214 votes, while Harris is at 179.

According to exit polls, the state of democracy, economy and abortion were the key issues on voters’ minds when they headed to poll booths. A CBS News poll revealed that almost six in 10 people ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue, followed by abortion, which was picked by five per cent of voters as an important issue. The economy was a priority issue for one in ten.

A CNN exit poll said nearly three-quarters of the electorate holds a negative view of the way things are in the US today.

Millions of Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday, to vote for their new President, as well as choose candidates in ‘down-ballot’ races, including contests that will decide control of the U.S. Congress.

As the historic race for the White House between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and her Republican opponent, former U.S. President Donald Trump, approached its final hours, the candidates, who are running neck and neck, focused their efforts on crucial battleground States, hoping to extract every single available vote on November 5.  Some 75 million Americans — just under half of all eligible voters — had cast their vote by Sunday in early voting.

U.S. Elections 2024 voting | Live updates

Ms. Harris wrapped up her campaign in Philadelphia where America’s ‘founding fathers’ signed the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Trump closed out his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as he had done so in 2016 and 2020. The two candidates have had contrasting tones in their closing speeches over the last few days, with Ms. Harris striking a more optimistic note and stepping back from a direct focus on Mr. Trump, marking a shift from what she had done even days earlier.

Among the celebrities who joined Ms. Harris in Philadelphia were singer Lady Gaga and TV host Oprah Winfrey.

Abortion and reproductive rights of women have become a core ballot issue, with polling data showing women of all ages gravitating more towards Ms. Harris (and, for other reason, men towards Mr. Trump).

“For more than half of this country’s life, women didn’t have a voice. Yet we raised children. We held our families together. We supported men as they made the decisions. But tomorrow, women will be a part of making this decision,” Lady Gaga said.

‘New leadership’

“The momentum is on our side,” Ms. Harris said, adding that she was ready to offer “a new generation of leadership”.

“This could be one of the closest races in history,” she said, asking her supporters if they had made a voting plan.

“…You will decide the outcome of this election, Pennsylvania,” she said. Ms. Harris spent her day campaigning in Pennsylvania, where 19 Electoral College votes are up for grabs. At least 270 electoral votes are required to win the White House.

“We are optimistic and we are excited about what we can do together,” she said, adding that the country was ready to “finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division,” she said.

At a rally in Atlanta on Monday night, Mr. Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance, who has in many respects been following the Trump playbook during the campaign, said Ms. Harris was “trash”

“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” he said. He appeared to suggest that Ms. Harris had called Mr. Trump’s supporters “garbage”. However, Ms. Harris has not done so. President Joe Biden said he had misspoken when he said Mr. Trump was surrounded by “garbage” after a comic opening at a Trump rally referred to Peurto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Mr. Vance confirmed that his wife had also voted for Mr. Trump (and himself). Usha Chilukuri Vance, Mr. Vance’s wife, is of Indian origin and was a registered Democrat a decade ago.

Mr. Trump concluded his campaign with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The rally continued into the wee hours of Election Day (Tuesday).

Democrats are preparing for Mr. Trump not accepting the election results. The FBI has set a national command post to monitor election-related threats (not new or specific to this year).

At his final rally, the former President leaned into his usual messages about illegal migrants, the promise of a better economy under him and attacking Democrats. Mr. Trump promised to end inflation, including by increasing production of oil and gas domestically.

“Kamala has delivered soaring prices and true economic anguish at home, war and chaos abroad, and a nation-destroying invasion on our southern border,” he said, adding that some of the “greatest criminals” were entering the country. Mr. Trump said the border issue was bigger than any economic issues.

He asked, rhetorically, whom Chinese President Xi Jinping would call if he had a question on war, on Taiwan, or anything else.

“Who the hell does he call?… Maybe they’ll call me,” he said.

Mr. Trump called former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi “evil, sick, crazy”, stopping short of using a sexist insult to describe her.

During his term there were no wars, Mr. Trump said, adding that he had concluded the war against the Islamic State (IS), a fight he had inherited from the Obama administration.

Mr. Trump was joined on stage by some his family after the rally as well as Amer Ghalib, the Mayor of America’s only Muslim majority city, Hamtramck. Mr. Ghalib is one of two Michigan Muslim mayors who has endorsed the former President. The Biden administration’s support for Israel in its offensive in Gaza has created a challenge for Ms. Harris with Arab Americans, many of whom live in Michigan.

Mr. Ghalib spoke of his endorsement breaking a “wall of fear” and a “wall of isolation” between the Arab American community and Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump continued to cast doubt on the electoral process, calling again for elections to be completed in one day and for discontinuing the use of voting machines. In 2020, Mr. Trump had criticised early voting, associating it with fraud, but this year he urged supporters to vote early. Republicans are hoping that early voting will result in favourable outcomes for them.

Sanders bats for Harris

Independent Senator from Vermont, who was a former presidential hopeful and is a progressive voice in the U.S. Senate, Bernie Sanders, encouraged those who were unhappy with the Biden administration’s positions on Israel to stick by Ms. Harris.

“And for all of those people out there who believe in democracy, who believe in women’s rights, who believe that climate change is real and not a hoax, don’t sit it out,” Mr. Sanders told CNN on Monday night.

“You may disagree with Kamala Harris on this or that issue, but it’s absolutely imperative that we get out and vote,” he said. Mr. Sanders disagreed with Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris on Israel, adding, however, that Mr. Trump was far worse.

With Ms. Harris as President, there was a much higher chance of changing policy towards the Netanyahu government, said Mr. Sanders, who had campaigned for the Vice-President last week.

If Mr. Trump wins, “the global struggle against climate change is over”, Mr. Sanders said.

He warned that Mr. Trump would declare victory no matter what and say that if he loses it will be because of fraud.

Down-ballot races

While all eyes are on Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris, there are crucial down-ballot races being decided on Tuesday. Control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives is on the ballot. Thirty-four seats in the Senate (where Democrats have a razor-thin 51:50 majority) are in play. Independent Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, who caucused with Democrats is not seeking re-election with Republicans standing a strong chance of winning his seat. Democrats are defending their seats in Ohio and Montana.

Democrats have a strong chance of taking the House (which the Republicans currently control), where all 435 seats are being contested. A split Congress could create policy deadlock, creating challenges for the next President.

New Delhi:

Arun Kumar Singh, former Indian Ambassador to the US, shared his thoughts on the 2024 US presidential election. “Each election is unique, but similarities exist with 2016 and 2020 campaigns, as Trump defined issues, highlighting America’s decline.”

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, India envoy said, “Each election, of course, is unique, but I would say that to some extent, there’s a similarity to the kind of campaign that was there in 2016 and in 2020, when earlier also President Trump was a candidate, because he defined the issues in a certain way, trying to highlight as if America was not doing well, other countries had exported America, Americans were being exported by immigrants.”

“So he was painting all the negative dimensions of what was happening in the US, trying to project that he was not a part of the establishment, although he’s a very successful businessman himself, and therefore people should vote for him,” he added.

Further, Singh highlighted Kamala Harris’s historic candidacy as the first African American and Indian American woman to run for president. However, pre-poll surveys revealed unexpected trends, with many groups that were expected to support her not doing so.

“According to pre-poll surveys, the majority of African American males were not supporting her. The majority of Latino males did not support her. And if you look at the Indian American vote, again, according to pre-poll surveys. 80% had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and about 70% had voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But this year, the expectation was that only 60% of Indian Americans would vote for her, although she is a person partially of the same ethnic origin.” he said.

“So these were some of the trends that were to be, were unexpected, but they were there. And I think this was a reflection of the fact that for the voting public, among the issues that were prominent were the issues related to the economy, inflation, jobs, where there was a sense that they were not doing well,” he added.

Singh stated that many pre-poll services suggested a large majority of Americans felt the country was headed in the wrong direction, which would negatively impact the Biden-Harris administration and Kamala Harris’s candidacy.

“And again, many pre-poll services suggested that a large bulk of Americans felt that the country was not heading in the right direction. And therefore, if they felt that, then obviously they would take that, hold that against the current administration, the Biden-Harris administration, and then Kamala Harris naturally suffered as a result of that,” the envoy said.

Singh’s comments come as the US election reaches its climax, with Harris facing a tough contest against Donald Trump.

The election outcome remains uncertain, with multiple battleground states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, still up for grabs.

The voters in the US are heading to vote in one of their most consequential elections, which will decide the direction of not just the US but also have an influence on global geopolitics for the next four years.

The polling hours will vary across the states, but most locations will vote between 6 am and 8 pm on Tuesday (local time). Though exit polls will start coming once voting starts, the final results will come only after counting is closed in all states.

The first polls will close at around 7 pm ET (5:30 am IST) in six states, including Georgia. The final polls will close in the blue state of Hawaii and in the red state of Alaska at 12 am ET (10:30 am IST).

Total votes will close by 1 pm ET (11:30 am IST), following which counting will start. The results in small states can be projected soon after polling states; some key battleground states may take hours to project the winner.

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

President Joe Biden talks with volunteers at a campaign office in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Barack Obama once said if there were no Scranton, Pennsylvania, there would be no Joe Biden.

The sitting president, whose term ends in January, returned to his childhood hometown on Saturday for a final campaign stop in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking to use his sway in a critical part of an important swing state to help her beat his onetime rival, Republican Donald Trump, in Tuesday’s election.

Scranton has a storied history for Biden, and if he were still at the top of the Democratic ticket, a stop here would likely be seen as a full-circle moment for his final campaign.

Also read: Balancing the posture, enthusing the base: Kamala Harris’s challenge in the last lap 

Instead it was Biden’s swan song of sorts for his No. 2, and a muted one at that.

The president rallied union workers, a constituency with whom he is popular, at a small hall in the town where he grew up before his family moved to Delaware, where he would launch his more than 50-year political career.

“I’m so proud to be back,” Biden said, diving into familiar remarks about his and Harris’ support for unions, his pride in having been the first president to walk a picket line, and their efforts to restore pensions.

“Don’t forget where you came from,” he said to applause, warning of the ramifications if Trump is elected and does away with the Affordable Care Act healthcare program, which was Obama’s signature achievement.

Biden used colorful language when describing what he would like to do to those who would turn back his legislative accomplishments with a reference to his younger days in Scranton.

“I’m serious. These are the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the ass,” he said.

Biden told the crowd he would not have picked Harris as vice president if she didn’t share his views about hard-working Americans.

“We made a lot of progress, and Kamala will build on that progress,” he said. “We need to elect Kamala as president.”

Biden, who stepped aside as the Democratic Party’s standard bearer in July following a disastrous debate performance against Trump, has not been a regular feature on the campaign trail for Harris since she ascended to the top of the ticket.

They held a handful of early events, both official and campaign-related, as she energized demoralized Democrats in the summer. But Biden’s former campaign largely has left him in the shadows since, amid concerns about his age, penchant for gaffes, and low approval ratings with the American public.

The wisdom of that strategy was highlighted earlier this week when Biden’s call with a Latino group in which he referred to a Trump supporter or supporters as “garbage” partially overshadowed Harris’ well-received closing argument speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Washington. Biden later clarified his remarks, but the episode was an unwelcome one for Harris and her team in the final stretch of the race.

It was not enough, however, for them to ask Biden to eschew his stop in Pennsylvania, where he spoke at a union get-out-the-vote meeting with Carpenters Local 445, standing in front of a wall of signs that said “Harris for President” and “Thank you, Joe.”

Washington:

A week from now, America will know who their next President will be. The contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has been a bitter one, which has left much of the US divided and polarised. A group that has emerged as a significant one is that of Indian-Americans.

The more than 5.2 million-strong Indian-American community, eligible to vote, has emerged as a group that can potentially swing the election outcome towards either candidate.

Now the second-largest immigrant group in the United States, the Indian-American community have historically favored the Democratic Party in overwhelming numbers. However, the Republican Party has long felt that the community’s votes are significant and hence the party has changed its policies on the economy, social issues, and stewardship of the US-India bilateral relationship.

This election, there has been greater focus on the Indian-American community since there is a possibility that for the first time in American history, a candidate of Indian heritage – Democratic nominee Kamala Harris – could occupy the highest office in the country.

As people of Indian heritage play an increasingly important electoral role in deciding who will be the next US President and how that will shape America’s future, an extensive survey was conducted by the Carnegie group to understand how Indian-Americans will vote.

THE SURVEY, THE FINDINGS

The survey, conducted in partnership with research and analytics firm YouGov, finds that as the November 5 elections approach, Indian-Americans remain solidly behind the Democratic Party, though there is an uptick in support for Republican candidate Donald Trump as well.

The survey shows that from Kamala Harris’s perspective, six out of every ten Indian-Americans favour the Democrats, while from Donald Trump’s point of view, one in every three persons of Indian heritage is likely to vote for him.

The survey also suggests that there is a considerable gender factor to it too. “Sixty-seven per cent of Indian American women intend to vote for Harris while 53 percent of men, a significantly smaller share, say they plan to vote for Harris,” it shows, adding that “Twenty-two per cent of women intend to vote for Trump while a significantly larger share of men, 39 percent, plan to cast their ballots for him.”

The survey should also come as a worry for Democrats as it shows that “Forty-seven per cent of respondents identify as Democrats, down from 56 per cent in 2020.” For the same time period, the share of Republican supporters has held steady while the percentage of independents has grown.

It also reveals that the Indian heritage factor does not always work for every candidate. People who took the survey showed that Indian-American Republicans such as Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Usha Vance (wife of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance) were rated unfavorably by Indian-Americans.

According the the research, the issue that was rated highest among Indian-Americans was ‘inflation’ and ‘cost of living’ which was tied with ‘state of the economy’ and ‘jobs’, closely followed by ‘abortion and reproductive rights’.

SURVEY INSIGHT

The survey focuses on several interesting data sets and reveals the following:

1. There are approximately 5.2 million people of Indian origin residing in the United States today, of which 3.9 million are eighteen or older. According to data available, it is estimated that there are roughly 2.6 million eligible Indian-American voters today.
2. Between 2010 and 2020, the Indian-American community has grown by 50 per cent, making it the second-largest immigrant community by country of origin, trailing only Mexican-Americans.
3. The median household income for Indian Americans is roughly $153,000, more than double the figure for the country as a whole.

Here are some graphs that show the findings of the survey:

 

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump.
| Photo Credit: AP

A win for former President Donald Trump in the coming U.S. presidential election could see the conservatives in the country’s Supreme Court retain control for the coming decades.

Conservatives already have a supermajority on the Supreme Court as a result of Mr. Trump’s first stint.

Justices Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel Alito, 74, are the two oldest members of the court. Either, or both, could consider stepping down knowing that Mr. Trump, a Republican, would nominate replacements who might be three decades younger.

“With President Trump and a Republican Senate, we could have a generation of conservative justices on the bench in the Supreme Court,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently wrote on X.

That is exactly what worries Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive group Stand Up America. “The real key here is Trump prevention. If Trump wins again, he could solidify right-wing control of the Supreme Court for decades,” Ms. Harvey said.

Lower profile

Yet the nation’s highest court has a lower profile than it did in the past two presidential campaigns.

That is despite an early summer ruling on presidential immunity that insured that Mr. Trump would not have to stand trial before the election on charges of interference in the 2020 election and other consequential decisions on abortion, guns, affirmative action, and the environment.

Washington:

Donald Trump surrogate Elon Musk’s offer of a million dollars to one registered voter in a swing state every day until the US Election Day on November 5 has raised questions about the legality of such a move.

While Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s campaign has not commented on the contest, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, said on NBC’s Meet the Press: “I think it’s something that law enforcement should take a look at.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, announced the contest Saturday in Pennsylvania, one of the seven “swing states” that will likely determine who will become the next US president — Harris, or Republican Trump. 

The contest requires entrants sign a petition “to support free speech & the right to bear arms,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk said on X, the social media platform he owns.

The endeavor enters hot water with the requirement that people are registered to vote in swing states in order to participate.

Danielle Lang, a professor at Georgetown Law School who specializes in election law, told AFP the contest could be “subject to civil or criminal enforcement by the Department of Justice.”

“It is illegal to give out money on the condition that recipients register as voters,” she said.

“As the terms of this ‘contest’ to win $1 million require the recipient to be a registered voter in one of seven swing states (or to register if they have not already), the offer violates federal law,” she continued.

Gray area

Rick Hasen, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, expressed a similar sentiment on his Election Law Blog. 

He cited the specific law that prohibits anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment… for registration to vote,” adding that the penalty involves a fine of $10,000 or up to five years imprisonment.

Not everyone is of the same mindset, however. 

Brad Smith, the former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told the New York Times what Musk is doing is “something of a gray area.”

Since Musk is not paying people to register directly, but rather for signing a petition, “I think he comes out OK here,” Smith said.

For his part, Musk defends his move by saying it is a simple get out and vote effort.

“We want to make sure that everyone in swing states hears about this and I suspect this will ensure they do,” he wrote on X.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk has pulled out all the stops in recent weeks to support former president Trump, including donating $75 million to a pro-Trump political action committee and appearing at campaign rallies.

“Just go out there and talk to your friends and family and acquaintances and people you meet in the street and… convince them to vote,” he told the crowd at the rally where he announced the petition contest.

Lang said that schemes such as these occur “each election cycle.”

“We tend to see some businesses that engage in some questionable activity along these lines (such as offering a free item for showing an ‘I Voted’ sticker) but this is notable for its far larger size,” she said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

As the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, what do you think is necessary for Kamala Harris to successfully bring together some Republicans who are dissatisfied with Trump, moderates and progressives, if she is elected President?

I think she is already doing it. She has run an almost flawless campaign. She has been a remarkable voice for everyone in America to have opportunities. The thing about her that is so amazing is different people can see themselves in her in different ways. If you’re middle class, you can see yourself in Kamala Harris. If you worked at a McDonald’s, you can see yourself in Kamala Harris. If you’re an Indian American, you can see yourself in Kamala Harris. If you’re a woman, you can see yourself in Kamala Harris. So I feel like this is a really important moment. Obviously, it’s close because of the Electoral College. The popular vote, we always win as Democrats, but unfortunately, we have a system with the Electoral College where it comes down to a few key states, and Indian Americans can be the margin of victory in so many of these key states.

What is your message to Arab Americans, many of whom are concerned about the position the Biden-Harris Administration has taken on the Israel Gaza conflict?Some may sit at home (i.e., not vote), some may vote for the Republican candidate Donald Trump.

I share the concerns of Arab Americans. I have been very vocal on the need for a cease fire. I have been very vocal on the need for us to use our leverage, including by saying that we will stop offensive military weapons to Israel if it does not stop using those weapons on Gaza, and now on Lebanon. So I share their concerns. But what I have said to them is that don’t forget that Donald Trump is the person who actually empowered (Benjamin) Netanyahu to expand settlements in the West Bank. Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel (David Friedma), was actually the person who had monetary interest in expanding settlements. Under Donald Trump, the (U.S.) Embassy was moved to Jerusalem. Donald Trump instituted the ‘Muslim Ban’. So, I think what we have to do is think about how changing policy is going to be a longer fight. Kamala Harris will provide us with more fertile ground to be able to do that work. Because Donald Trump is the one who established a unit in 2021 to denaturalize citizens. Indian Americans, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, all need to think about how we win this election for Kamala Harris, and then we can continue to work on the policies that we need to work on.

Do you think once the elections are over, and if she wins, she will be more hawkish with regard to Israel?

I don’t know. I have spoken to her directly about this. I have said how important it is for us to enforce our domestic laws. You saw the letter that just came from Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin on Sunday saying exactly that, that if Israel does not comply with a series of things – it was the most detailed letter I have seen – they would be looking at enforcing domestic laws and the Leahy Laws that say that we can’t provide funding unless somebody is complying with international humanitarian laws.

Harris is more progressive than U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden also says his personal connections fuel and contribute to his relationships with foreign leaders. How do you think these two factors will impact the US approach to India, say, for the next few years, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in post?

Kamala Harris has a very deep connection to India, because her mother was from India. She still has family who live in India. She is tied to the culture. She understands it. She is bringing a lived experience that you cannot replicate just through understanding the country separately. From that perspective, she is going to be very qualified to build those relationships. But also she has been the Vice President for four years. She has traveled around the world. She has met with world leaders, and I think she has been very involved in foreign affairs while working with President Biden. She will bring her own personality, her own lived experiences, her own philosophies, but I think she is extraordinarily capable to be the next President of the United States, and I think, to restore the respect for the United States on the global stage, and to build those even deeper relationships with world leaders, which is absolutely essential. But don’t forget that it’s the United States that is the real power here, the person who sits in the Oval Office wields the power of the United States, and if we are lucky enough to elect Kamala Harris as the next President, I believe she will do that with tremendous dignity, grace and skill.

Published – October 21, 2024 07:25 am IST

Republican candidate Donald Trump with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10.
| Photo Credit: AFP

With exactly 30 days to go before Election Day in the United States, the two principal contestants for the post of the 47th President of the country are trying to frame the election on the single issue that favour them – for Democrat Kamala Harris, that is abortion rights, and for Republican Donald Trump, that is immigration. Simultaneously, both are trying to reposition themselves on the issue that put them on the defensive — Ms. Harris wants to appear tougher than she has been on the issue of illegal immigration and Mr. Trump wants to appear softer than he used to be on the question of abortion. This contest to frame the contest remains deadlocked as neither has been able to completely overwhelm the American public discourse. Opinion polls point to a photo-finish on November 5.

Both Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump would like to sharpen polarisation on one, and diffuse the debate on the other. Mr. Trump was President from 2017 to 2021; and Ms. Harris has been Vice President since 2021. Both of them have to disown part of their legacies, and amplify parts to present a curated image that they think suits them the most. Both sides misrepresent each other in pursuit of a favourable framing of the contest. In the chaotic mess of issues that confuse Americans – from inflation to global wars to fracking and climate — these are two issues that both parties hope can help them build clarity in their favour.

The abortion debate has been politically rewarding for the Democrats and costly for the Republicans in recent past. In the 2022 mid-term elections that followed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that abortion was not a constitutionally guaranteed right, Democrats retained control of the Senate and performed above expectations in House of Representatives contests. This was attributed largely to an increased support among women for the Democrats. According to an American University poll this week, Ms. Harris is increasing her favourability lead over Mr. Trump among women voters, and 86% of women disapprove of any government intervention in reproductive choices. Mr. Trump who had earlier claimed credit for the overturning of the constitutional right to abortion by the SC, is now trying to mellow down. His running mate J.D. Vance, appearing in a debate with his opponent Tim Walz this week, admitted that the Republicans need to do “so much better… at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us”. Mr. Vance said he no longer supported any nationwide regulation of abortion and shared with his opponent the anguish over the death of two women due to limited access to abortion. Mr. Trump’s wife Melania is reportedly in support of protecting abortion in her memoir slated for release on October 8. A recent New York Times-Siena College Poll found abortion rights are one question that Ms. Harris has a significant advantage over Mr. Trump. While Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are trying to moderate their position on abortion, the Harris campaign accuse them of planning to enforce a nationwide ban or regulation of abortion. “Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies,” Mr. Walz said in the debate. Project 2025, an ultra conservative vision document, has been disowned by the Trump campaign and according to a CNN fact check, it does not propose such a registry.

The Trump campaign seeks to link nearly all problems of America to the influx of unauthorised people. Mr. Vance said: “…in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you’ve got housing that is totally unaffordable, because we’ve brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans..” According to official estimates, around 10 million people entered the U.S. illegally during the Biden-Harris administration. The Trump campaign alleges this number is 22 million and tries to pin the entire blame on Ms. Harris, who they wrongly say was in charge of securing the border. Ms. Harris has been promising a strong border policy besides blaming Mr. Trump for blocking border management measures proposed by the Biden administration. Balancing her position on this is perhaps the most difficult act for Ms. Harris as a majority of Americans want regulated admission of new people, but a strong segment of Democrats oppose controls vehemently.

In reality, both abortion and immigration are questions of detail than principle for most Americans, multiple polls show. Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans support some sort of access and some sort of restrictions with regard to both abortion and immigration. Public views on both these issues are spread over a wide spectrum and the disagreements are essentially about details. For instance, until what stage of pregnancy should abortion be legal or how to manage the admission of new entrants into the U.S., and how many of them should be allowed. Erasing all nuances from the positions, of self and the opponent, appears to be the strategy of both campaigns to gain political mileage.

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to rally in Las Vegas on Sunday night as both she and Republican Donald Trump continue to make frequent trips to Nevada, looking to gain momentum in the swing state as Election Day nears.

The rally is part of Harris’ latest West Coast swing, which included making her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking over for President Joe Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket. On Friday, the vice president walked alongside a towering, rust-colored border wall fitted with barbed wire in Douglas, Arizona, and met with federal authorities.

She attended a San Francisco fundraiser Saturday and had plans for a Sunday event in Los Angeles before heading to Nevada, with a return to Washington set for Monday night.

“This race is as close as it could possibly be,” she said Saturday to a raucous crowd of donors. “This is a margin-of-error race.”

Harris said even if there is enthusiasm, she’s running like an underdog. And she invited people to “join our team in battleground states” to help get voters to the polls — even if it’s Californians making calls from home.

On Sunday, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake became the latest prominent Republican to endorse Harris and Walz. He credited them with a “fine character and love of country” and said he wants a president who does not treat political adversaries as enemies or try to subvert the will of voters.

Flake, a longtime critic of the former president, joins a list of anti-Trump Republicans who have said they will vote for the Democratic ticket, not just refrain from voting for Trump. Among them is Dick Cheney, the deeply conservative former vice president, and his daughter, Liz.

On Sunday, Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor and a sharp critic of Trump, said Harris has yet to earn his vote, though Trump won’t get it.

In Nevada, all voters automatically receive ballots by mail unless they opt out — a pandemic-era change that was set in state law. That means most ballots could start going out in a matter of weeks, well before Election Day on Nov. 5.

Harris plans to be back in Las Vegas on Oct. 10 for a town hall with Hispanic voters. Both she and Republican rival Donald Trump have campaigned frequently in the city, highlighting the critical role that Nevada, and its mere six votes in the Electoral College, could play in deciding an election expected to be exceedingly close.

Trump held his own Las Vegas rally on Sept. 13 at the Expo World Market Center, where Harris is speaking Sunday. Her campaign has frequently scheduled events in the same venue where her opponent previously spoke, including in Milwaukee, Atlanta and suburban Phoenix. During his Las Vegas event, the former president singled out people crossing into the U.S. illegally, saying Harris “would be the president of invasion.”

During a campaign stop in the city in June, Trump promised to eliminate taxes on tips received by waiters, hotel workers and thousands of other service industry employees. Harris used her own Las Vegas rally in August to make the same promise.

Fully doing away with federal taxes on tips would probably require an act of Congress. Still, Nevada’s Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has endorsed Harris.

Ted Pappageorge, the culinary union’s secretary-treasurer, said the difference between the dueling no-taxes-on-tips proposals is that Harris has also pledged to tackle what his union calls “sub-minimum wage,” where employers pay service industry workers small salaries and meet minimum wage thresholds by expecting employees to supplement those with tips.

“That shows us she’s serious,” Pappageorge said.

Harris has no public schedule on Tuesday, when her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, squares off against Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance for the first and only vice presidential debate of the campaign. But Harris and Walz will campaign jointly on Wednesday, making a bus tour with various stops through central Pennsylvania.

The campaign says that during that swing, both will emphasize plans to energize U.S. manufacturing, including by using tax credits to encourage steel production and overhaul federal permitting systems to increase American construction.