WASHINGTON — A campaign that featured a felony conviction, a televised assassination attempt and a sitting president’s belated exit entered its final weekend with the same rifts that have dominated American politics for the past decade. It is a rift among voters who fear that former President Trump will destroy the country. This country and the people who believe in it have already lost their way.
“We have a great system of government,” said Susan Markowitz, a 72-year-old lawyer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, who appeared at a recent event for Vice President Kamala Harris. “That would be at risk if Mr. Trump were to return to office.”
“He’s not going to maintain the status quo,” said Dave Duncan, 58, a salesman from Macomb Township, Michigan, who supports Trump. “And I think a lot of times that’s what people like about him.”
Supporters arrive before former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, on Saturday.
(Chris Carlson/Associated Press)
Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris have spent the final weekend of the campaign urging voters to vote for what they both claim is an existential choice. Polls show the race to be nearly even, with little change since Harris replaced President Biden as the Democratic nominee in late July.
This is an unusual campaign, and not just because Biden, 81, withdrew with less than four months remaining due to concerns that he was too old to handle the job.
Trump is the first president elected as a felon and could be the first to try to overturn an election and incite an insurrection. He is a rare candidate in a democracy who has openly threatened to use the military and courts to go after his political opponents. Calling on the “enemy from within.” But he succeeded in overturning practices that would normally disqualify him, positioning himself to about half of voters as the ultimate changer in a system he portrayed as corrupt.
Polls show less than a third of voters believe the country is on the right track. This discovery would normally spell disaster for the incumbent party, the Democratic Party. Concerns about President Trump’s suitability for the presidency continue to make the race competitive.
Harris’ challenge to become the first woman and first woman of color to win the White House is complicated by calls for change from voters. She has struggled to answer how she would govern differently than the deeply unpopular Biden. Although she is the incumbent vice president, she has sought to position herself as a candidate who will “turn the page” by making President Trump and his rhetoric a source of national anxiety.
“People are tired of him,” Harris said last week.
Supporters of Kamala Harris rallied Friday at the Wisconsin State Fair Expo in West Allis.
(Jacqueline Martin/Associated Press)
She has heard from former aides of her Republican rival, President Trump, that Trump’s second term is more dangerous than his first, that he will use the courts and the military to take revenge on his enemies, and that he will seek revenge against American allies and He emphasized the dire warning that there is little to prevent people from joining forces with dictators. He is changing the fundamental rights of Americans while fulfilling his promise to be a “dictator from day one.”
“It’s either Donald Trump sitting there mulling over a list of enemies, or I’m combing through a list of enemies. Or I’m going to work for you with your help. I’m checking things off my to-do list,” Harris said at a recent rally.
President Trump has belittled Harris’ intelligence, claiming that immigrants have turned the United States into an “occupied country” and the “trash can of the world,” and has said that his election will “help these heinous, bloodthirsty criminals… He promised that it would mean “the day of liberation.” prison. “
In his closing speech at Madison Square Garden last week, President Trump said, “This election is the difference between whether we continue four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or the beginning of the greatest four years in our nation’s history.” It’s a personal choice,” he said.
Both candidates spent most of their time and energy in just seven battleground states expected to determine the outcome of the election: Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
A recent poll from Monmouth, Pennsylvania, the most populous battleground state, showed why the race is so unpredictable: Mr. Trump has a 1 percentage point lead among registered voters, and the polls Harris holds the lead if the poll is modeled on the pool of voters who voted If the poll is modeled on turnout in the 2022 midterm elections, Harris will lead. In the final model of “highly motivated voters,” the race would be a tie.
Supporters listen to Harris speak at a rally in Milwaukee on Friday.
(Paul Beatty/Associated Press)
Both candidates visited Wisconsin on Friday, and Trump was scheduled to visit Virginia and North Carolina on Saturday, while Harris was scheduled to visit North Carolina and Georgia.
In battleground states, voters are feeling the extraordinary attention keenly. Nearly every corner of Phoenix and its suburbs is home to colorful election signs of all political leanings.
Voters flooded into a voting center in Scottsdale last week, with activists from both major political parties handing out voter guides by the entrance to the parking lot — conservatives in red shirts on the right, conservatives in blue shirts on the left. They were welcomed by two progressives.
Deputies from both sides spread out across Arizona in the final stages of the election, making the case to various target groups that Trump and Harris were needed to shake up the divided state.
Jeff Flake, a former U.S. senator and ambassador to Turkey, participated in the “Republicans for Harris Walz” press conference along with other prominent Arizona Republicans. Harris has openly courted Republicans who are dissatisfied with their candidates, saying Flake “not because he’s a conservative Republican, but because he’s a conservative Republican.” He told attendees that he supports the
Former Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake will replace Vice President Kamala Harris in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
A passerby threw a comment at Flake: “RINO!”
Celinda Lake, a 2020 Biden pollster who ran focus groups for Democrats working with Harris’ campaign, said both Harris and Trump “targeted the same last-minute group of undecideds. “I’m doing it,” he said.
The remaining persuasive voters (about 4% of voters) tend to consume less information about politics. Lake said the women, many of whom are non-college graduates, dislike Trump’s rhetoric and style but think he is a better businessman for the economy. They don’t know much about Harris, Lake said, but they consider her dangerous because she’s a woman and a person of color.
In addition to gender- and race-based attacks on Harris’ information, Trump is trying to appeal to undecided voters by raising concerns about crime, immigration, social issues and the economy.
The outcome will likely depend on whether Harris can convince at least some of these voters that she is not only up to the job, but that Trump poses a fundamental threat. .
“A lot of people just think, ‘Oh, I’m going to survive.’ I’m not sure, so I’m going to choose Trump because of the economy,” Lake said of the focus group findings. spoke. “She has to put him in as much danger as herself.”
Republican lawmakers supporting Harris as a presidential candidate gathered at an event in front of the Indian Bend Wash Visitor Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Trump and his allies believe Harris’ message won’t resonate as much as immigration and the economy.
“It’s just more amorphous to say democracy is under attack,” said Sean Spicer, one of Trump’s White House press secretaries.
Opinion polls and past history show voters wanted change largely because inflation and high interest rates early in Biden’s term left many worried about buying groceries and housing. It is. Other economic indicators point to economic health, including falling unemployment and falling inflation in recent months. But many voters don’t think that way.
“All I’m concerned about is the economy and nothing else,” said Joe Rice, 60, a cashier from Philadelphia.
Mr. Rice, a black man and lifelong Democrat, was struggling to survive on $18 an hour and was considering making the switch.
“Trump had a little easier life when he was there, even though we had some disagreements about things like skinheads,” Rice said.
Ms. Harris has sought to win over voters like Ms. Rice with proposals aimed at securing the middle class, including first-time homebuyer benefits, expanding Medicare for home care and expanding the child tax credit. Ta. He pointed to the consensus among economists that President Trump’s large-scale tariff plan would significantly increase the price of everyday goods, arguing that it was essentially a sales tax hike.
Some polls show Ms. Harris coming closer to Mr. Trump when voters are asked who will handle the economy better, but most polls show Mr. Trump leading on this issue. are. Harris’ efforts to narrow that gap could alleviate her shortfall among male voters. Her overwhelming advantage with female voters, many of whom are driven by anger over the loss of abortion rights, could carry her to victory.
Ms. Harris has emphasized the issue almost as much as Mr. Trump has talked about immigration, often drawing attention to women who lacked medical care during difficult pregnancies or miscarriages.
President Trump doesn’t have many detailed plans. But in addition to proposing record-high tariffs on imported goods, he also pledged to eliminate a variety of taxes, including those on tipped wages, overtime pay, car loans, and even income in general. or come up with ideas. Economists argue that this won’t leave enough money to fund the government.
Two Trump supporters wear garbage bags as they wait before a rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on October 31st.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
But even as Trump’s advisers have urged him to stick to economic policy and attack Harris for being too liberal, Trump has continued to talk about Arnold Palmer’s penis size at rallies and Haiti legalism in Springfield. He often goes on meandering and sometimes incomprehensible rants about topics such as false claims about immigration. , OH, steals and eats household pets.
Candice Gonzalez, a widow raising three autistic children in a Detroit suburb, said she singled out Harris as “the lesser of two evils.”
“He’s just not a good person,” Gonzalez, 54, said of President Trump.
Biermann reported from Washington and Piño from Phoenix. Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
