Trump and Harris Head to North Carolina in Final Weekend of US Election Campaign; Here’s how their policies differ

Democratic Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump heads to North Carolina on Saturday to try to drum up support in the southeastern battleground state just three days before Tuesday’s US presidential election.

It will be the fourth day in a row that Vice President Harris and former President Trump visit the same state on the same day, underscoring the critical importance of the seven states likely to decide the race, which opinion polls show is on a knife’s edge.

More than 70 million Americans have already voted, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, below the record early voting rate of 2020 during COVID-19 but still indicating a high level of voter enthusiasm.

Saturday is also the last day of early voting in North Carolina, where more than 3.8 million votes have been cast as the western part of the state still recovers from deadly flooding from Hurricane Helene.

Harris is planning appearances with rock star Jon Bon Jovi in ​​Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, which is tied with Georgia for the second-highest prize pool of swing states. Each has 16 votes in the Electoral College, where 270 are needed to secure the presidency.

North Carolina endorsed Trump in 2020 but elected a Democratic governor on the same day, giving hope to both parties.

“We have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has spent his entire time trying to get the American people to point the finger at each other,” Harris said at a rally in Janesville, Wis., on Friday .

Trump will hold a rally in Gastonia, west of Charlotte, at noon (1600 GMT) before returning to the state in the evening to speak at the 22,000-seat First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro.

“This election is a choice between whether we have four more years of incompetence and flagrant failure or whether we begin the greatest four years in the history of our country,” Trump told a crowd in Michigan on Friday.

POLICY DIFFERENCES

Harris and Trump have very different policies on major issues, including support for Ukraine and NATO, abortion rights, immigration, taxes, democratic principles and tariffs.

Harris and Trump were both in North Carolina on Wednesday, Nevada on Thursday and Wisconsin on Friday – all battleground states – at one point, holding events about 7 miles (11 km) apart.

It points to the enormous effort it takes to convince a relatively small number of voters in a few states because the rest of the states are considered safely Democratic or Republican.

But Trump will also visit Salem, Va., on Saturday, despite polls showing a clear lead there for Harris.

Harris will also be in the swing state of Georgia on Saturday, where film director Spike Lee and singer Victoria Monet are set to address a rally.

chairman Joe Bidena Democrat, won Georgia by just 0.3 percentage points in 2020, the first time his party carried the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Democrats will rely heavily on black voters turning out and supporting Harris if they want to recreate Biden’s success in a state where blacks make up just over 12 percent of the population.

Hispanics, who make up nearly 19 percent of Georgia’s population, are also at loggerheads. Trump holds a narrow 1.6 percentage point lead over Harris in the state, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average.

Heading into the final stretch, the Harris campaign on Monday plans to hold simultaneous, interconnected events in all seven battleground states to mobilize voters, according to a senior campaign official. (Writing by Costas Pitas; Editing by Scott Malone and William Mallard)