Donald Trump and Kamala Harris make a final attempt to break the US election deadlock

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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump raced across the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, in a last-ditch effort to secure the final votes in one of the tightest US presidential contests in modern history.

The state has 19 electoral votes and has long been seen as crucial to both candidates’ path to the White House, with Trump won there in a successful 2016 campaign but lost by 80,000 votes out of nearly 7 million cast four years ago.

The focus on the biggest swing states in the waning hours of the campaign is a sign that the Democratic vice president and former Republican president are looking for every possible vote in a election suggested survey will be decided by a razor-thin margin.

the Financial Times poll tracker shows the candidates are statistically tied in all seven swing states, stretching from the East Coast to the industrial Midwest to the western Sunbelt.

Speaking Monday to volunteers in Scranton, a city in northeastern Pennsylvania, Harris did not mention Trump by name but sought to contrast her more optimistic vision for America with his more optimistic view of the country.

“This guy’s entire era. . . it makes people feel lonely. It makes people feel like no one is on their side,” Harris said. “Let us be intentional about building community. . . about reminding people that we have more in common than what separates us,” she said.

In the final days of the campaign, Democrats were cheered by what they believed was a decisive swing in voting in favor of Harris — including a surprising lead in a widely watched survey of Iowa that shows her leading in what many analysts believe is a solid swing for Trump. Aides to the former president dismissed the probe as an outlier.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign chair, was optimistic about the election results, saying “those who are determined will move on to the vice presidency.” She added that a change is happening “in all of our battleground states,” especially with core Democratic voter groups like young people, blacks and Latinos.

But she acknowledged that the race is so tight that the outcome may not be immediately clear. “We may not know the results of this election for several days, but we are very focused on remaining calm and confident throughout this period,” she said.

According to the leading tracker of pre-election voting at the University of Florida, more than 78 million Americans have voted early, either in person or by mail. At least as many people are expected to vote on election day on Tuesday.

During her final push, Harris will make five stops in Pennsylvania on Monday – including two major rallies in the state’s largest cities Pittsburgh and Philadelphia – while Trump will hold his rallies in Pittsburgh and Reading, one mid-sized city in southeastern Pennsylvania with a large Latino population, before ending the day with an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

After being criticized for violent rhetoric and discontent-filled speeches in his final campaign appearance, Mr. Trump on Monday tried to focus on economic issues.

“Under my leadership, we will quickly turn this economic nightmare into an economic miracle,” he said, adding that he would end “Kamala’s energy war.” by promoting fracking and drilling for fossil fuels.

Michigan is one of those swing states that is too close to call. Trump held his final rallies in Grand Rapids in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton, and in 2020, when he lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden.

The Iowa poll and several other pre-election surveys convinced some investors to reduce their bet amount on Trump’s victory, with the dollar weakening and Treasuries rising on Monday.

The dollar fell 0.5% against a basket of major currencies, giving it its biggest one-day decline since August. The euro was 0.5% higher against the US currency at 1.09 USD. Yields on US government debt, which move inversely to prices, were lower and the Mexican peso strengthened.

Trump’s visit to Reading on Monday could be crucial for his prospects in the state as he seeks to consolidate support from Latino voters, especially those of Puerto Rican descent, amid scene of ongoing controversy over a speaker at a recent Trump rally who referred to the US territory as US territory. “floating trash island”.

Harris — whose campaign has sought to capitalize on such inflammatory comments — will also make a campaign stop in Reading, visiting a local Puerto Rican restaurant with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman Democratic Party, native of Puerto Rico, and with Josh Shapiro, the prominent Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania.