Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are racing against time in the last swing state

Detroit:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump launched a desperate final push in US swing states on Sunday with less than 48 hours of campaigning left to secure a decisive lead in a bitter and historically close presidential election.

More than 75 million people voted early ahead of Tuesday’s climax, and the race is over – with more states now functionally tied in the polls than in any comparable election.

The closeness of the race is all the more remarkable given its dramatic twists, including an assassination bid and Harris’ stunning late appearance, and the fact that the candidates could hardly be more divergent in their campaigning styles and visions for the future.

The latest New York Times/Siena poll on Sunday found some incremental changes in key battleground states, but results in all seven remained within the margin of error.

Harris, desperate to bolster the Great Lakes states considered important to any Democratic ticket, was scheduled to spend the day in Michigan, starting in Detroit, then stopping in Pontiac and an evening rally at Michigan State University.

Trump’s Sunday schedule focuses on Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, the three biggest prizes in the Electoral College system, which awards states influence based on their population.

The 78-year-old is struggling to distract himself from the week-long controversy surrounding his rally at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden, in which warm-up speakers alienated Latinos and women with racist and sexist remarks.

Trump confidants winced at the unforced error, which looked especially unprofessional compared to Harris’ address to a huge cheering crowd in Washington with the White House in the background.

None of Trump’s events on Sunday are in areas with large Latino populations, but Pennsylvania is the swing state with the largest number of Puerto Ricans, and that community is particularly outraged by the bigotry at Trump’s rally.

Final polls

Michigan is one of seven battlegrounds being closely watched.

Trump flipped the state, a former Democratic stronghold, on his way to defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden brought it back into the Democratic column in 2020, supported by union workers and the large black community.

But this time, Harris risks losing the support of the 200,000-strong Arab-American community, which has condemned Biden’s actions in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Pollsters have noted waning black support for Democratic candidates, and Harris aides acknowledge they still have work to do to groom enough African Americans to match Biden’s winning coalition in 2020.

But as reproductive rights became a top voter issue, her campaign found some solace in the large share of early voters who turned out to be women.

Seeking to reach beyond her traditional support base, Harris capped her campaign day Saturday with a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” mocking her presidential rival Donald Trump on the iconic sketch show.

“Keep Kamala and carry on!” the vice president said during a well-received appearance alongside Maya Rudolph, the comedian who played her on the show as “America’s Funny Aunt.”

Seeking as much television coverage as possible, the Harris campaign has reserved a two-minute spot for broadcasts of Sunday NFL football games, including the matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, both key swing states.

In the ad, Harris promises to be “the president of all Americans” and promises to “build a bright future for our country.”

Her campaign said its own research shows that “the past week has proven crucial in cementing this election’s choice among both undecided and less inclined voters,” particularly the contrast of the rallies with the two candidates’ closing arguments.

Harris, 60, received a boost Saturday as the latest Des Moines Register poll before Election Day, seen as a highly credible test of broader public sentiment, showed a stunning turnaround: Harris carried a state that Trump won easily in 2016. and 2020.

She leads by three points in a poll that showed her trailing Trump by four points in September.

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