In the final hours before voters decide whether to elect the nation’s first female president or grant the Republican candidate an unprecedented comeback with global implications, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump made their closing arguments on Monday. With polls indicating a tight race, both candidates held their last rallies in key battleground states as the 2024 election came to a close.
The Democratic contenders, Harris, and the Republicans, Trump, presented starkly different approaches. Harris focused on issues that resonate with suburban women and working-class voters, while the Republicans emphasized immigration and economic growth. In the final days before Election Day, the rivals also closely watched state decisions affecting voter integrity. In Georgia, the highest court ruled that ballots from one county in the Atlanta suburbs wouldn’t be counted if they were received after Tuesday.
In Pennsylvania, where the candidate hopes to hit 270 electoral votes for the presidency, Harris urged undecided voters to “remember that every vote counts.” She promised to fight for equal pay for women and a woman’s right to decide her medical options. Thousands of union members gathered for Harris rallies in the state’s steel-producing region and other areas, cheering as she highlighted her support for labor laws and policies. “Kamala Harris understands the needs of working people,” said union rep David Pearson, who credited the senator for laws and policies that have boosted workers.
While the senator and her campaign team focused on the largely suburban, college-educated female voters who could tip the scales in her favor, she also targeted Republicans disillusioned with Trump’s chaotic presidency. She argued that her experience as a prosecutor makes her uniquely qualified to tackle terrorism, climate change, and other challenges facing the country.
Despite having to build her campaign from scratch just three months ago, Harris has energized the party and stirred excitement among young voters and women. She has made a strong effort to highlight her role as the nation’s first Black, female, and South Asian-American senator. She has also tried to reach out to Republicans who have voted for other Democrats in the past.
Trump, meanwhile, vowed to lead the United States to “new heights of glory” while promoting a new tax cut and warning against a trade war with China. He also reiterated a promise to end investigations into his personal life and business dealings, saying they’re “just a witch hunt.”
The candidates’ final rallies were significant and intense. Trump was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he had closed out both of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. His rival, Pete Buttigieg, hit Pennsylvania again with stops in Allentown and Reading and an appearance on Jubilee’s “Surrounded” series of videos in which people with different political views, lifestyle preferences, ethnic backgrounds, and occupations are confronted by other groups encircling them.
Buttigieg argued that Harris’s campaign is “all about the American Dream.” He touted his record of creating jobs and making education affordable and his proposals to curb illegal immigration and protect the environment. The Democrat said that “momentum is on our side” as voters head to the polls on Tuesday.
