Africa: 7 Days to Go – Harris, Trump Intensify Campaigns

Seven days before the election, Trump heads to Georgia, while Harris will try to energise voters in Michigan that include an Arab American and Muslim population concerned about Israel’s war on Gaza.

With seven days to go to the election, former President Donald Trump hosted a rally at Madison Square Garden in his hometown of New York while Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.

At the Madison Square Garden Rally on Sunday, Trump repeatedly rammed home his plans to halt undocumented immigration and deport migrants he described as “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals”.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris said in Philadelphia that nobody should sit on the sidelines. “We are focused on the future and the needs of the American people,” she said.

By midday on Sunday (16:00 GMT), more than 41 million Americans had already voted in early in-person voting or via mail-in ballots, according to a tally by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic – more than 100 million voters had cast their ballots before Election Day.

A CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday showed that Harris is leading Trump nationally, with 50 percent compared to Trump’s 49 percent, but the result remains subject to the survey’s margin of error.

The poll also showed that there is a major gender divide in the race, with more men preferring Trump and more women preferring Harris. Trump, the poll shows, leads male voters by 54 percent to 45 percent, while Harris leads women voters by 55 percent to 43 percent.

Men are more likely to view Trump as a strong leader (64 percent to 50 percent), while women are more likely to say Harris has the right “mental and cognitive health” to be president, according to the poll.

In a separate analysis from FiveThirtyEight’s daily election poll tracker, Harris was slightly ahead in the national polls as of Sunday, leading Trump by 1.4 percentage points. However, the long-term trend shows that the race is getting closer, with the gap narrowing from 1.7 points last week.

Seven US swing states are likely to determine the outcome of the election.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily poll tracker, Harris retains a narrow lead in Michigan and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Trump holds a slight edge over Harris in Pennsylvania and Nevada and enjoys a more substantial lead in North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.

In all seven states, however, the candidates are within two points of each other, well within the polls’ margins of error, leaving each state a tossup just days before the final vote.

On Sunday, the Democratic candidate spoke at Philadelphia’s Church of Christian Compassion, where she stressed the stakes of the election, describing it as the “most consequential election of our lifetime”.

“In just nine days, we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” said Harris, in comments carried by CBS Philadelphia.

“Here, in Pennsylvania, right now each of us has an opportunity to make a difference,” she said. “The great thing about living in a democracy is we, the people, have the choice to answer that question.

So let us answer not just with our words, but with our works.”

Harris also addressed young voters, calling them “rightly impatient for change”.

On Sunday, Harris was asked by reporters whether she was concerned about the recent conversations between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two shared a close relationship during Trump’s presidency.

Asked if these talks could undermine the current US government’s objectives, she responded, “No.”

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“I do believe that it is critically important that we as the United States of America be an active participant in encouraging one, that this war ends, that we get the hostages out but also that there is a real commitment among nations to a two-state solution and the ‘day after’ [in Gaza],” Harris told reporters.

A recent Arab News/YouGov poll found that Arab-American support for

Trump (45 percent) slightly surpassed that for Harris (43 percent), with more respondents also seeing Trump as more likely to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Republican candidate rallied his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base at an event in New York City, promising to crack down on migration and taking aim at Harris.

“November 5 will be the most important date in the history of our country and, together, we will make America powerful again,” said the former president, who painted a portrait of a country plagued by economic and social crises.

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