By almost every measure, the way former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have closed their campaigns for the White House could not present more of a contrast as they make final appeals to voters in a race that remains on a razor’s edge heading into Election Day.
The last full day of campaigning also speaks to the contrasting approaches for the two candidates, with Harris focused on a single state that could hold the key to her pathway to victory while Trump visits three states as he eyes multiple avenues that could lead him back to the White House.
Contrasting closing messages
In one of his final pitches to Pennsylvania voters, Trump promoted unfounded claims about Democrats cheating in the 2024 election, asserted that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 defeat and suggested he would not mind if a gunman were to “shoot through the fake news” to get to him and lashed out at an Iowa poll showing him in a close race in a state he won twice. The overall message and mood from Trump highlights how he has embraced dark rhetoric, vulgar attacks and baseless conspiracies as cornerstones of closing argument instead of drawing a contrast with his Democratic rival on policy areas where polls still show him with advantages among voters.
By contrast, the vice president avoided any mention of Trump in her final pitch to Michigan voters on Sunday, instead anchoring her message around a call to “turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division.” The emphasis on “a new way forward” offered a clear contrast by Harris without amplifying her more direct appeal in recent days of presenting the election as a choice between a president who will focus on a “to-do list” for the American people and another who would be guided by an “enemies list.”
Dueling events on the trail
Harris is set to hold five events across Pennsylvania on Monday, beginning with a canvass kickoff in Scranton. She will follow that with stops in Reading, Allentown and Pittsburgh before closing out the campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, where she will be joined by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, among other celebrities, musicians and elected officials.
Trump begins his day with a rally in North Carolina — the state that gave him his narrowest win in 2020 and one his Democratic rival is eager to flip. It marks the third consecutive day the former president is spending in the Tar Heel State, one that is crucial to his electoral map. From there, Trump travels to Pennsylvania for a pair of events in in Reading and Pittsburgh.
The dueling events in Pittsburgh and Reading — the Pennsylvania city with the highest percentage of Latino residents — speak to the importance of that voting bloc in the commonwealth — and how the state is poised to play a decisive role in determining which candidate emerges as the country’s next president.
The GOP nominee will hold his final rally of the 2024 campaign the way he ended his previous two presidential runs — in Grand Rapids, Michigan — a nod to Trump’s superstitious tendencies. It is worth noting that Harris also is closing out her 2024 run in the same city she held her final rally during the 2020 campaign as Joe Biden’s running mate.