US Election 2024 News Updates: Harris, Trump close campaigns as America gets ready to vote

The 2024 US Presidential election is getting intense and interesting as it gets closer. While polls show a neck-to-neck fight between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump, the betting markets have seen a complete transition.

According to a report by The Guardian, Trump, who was leading in the betting markets, has been overtaken by Harris on the eve of the November 5 election.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump warned on Monday that, if elected, he would punish Mexico and China with tariffs unless both governments moved to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

At a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Trump said he would move quickly to crack down on drug trafficking along the southern U.S. border with Mexico and that he would use tariffs.

“We will immediately stop the drugs pouring across our border,” he said.

Trump said he would impose tariffs on goods from Mexico of 25% and would do the “same thing to China” for exporting fentanyl to Mexico.

US Presidential elections are sprawling affairs, with mail-in voting that begins weeks ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5 and in-person voting that begins at midnight that Tuesday in the small New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch and continues until voting ends at 7 p.m. in the Hawaiian-Aleutian time zone, already the next day back east. But in the U.S. system, that popular vote doesn’t determine the outcome.

Each state gets a certain number of votes based on its size in what is called the Electoral College. Those votes are awarded on a state-by-state basis, and in all but two states – Maine and Nebraska – the winner takes all. Because many states vote dependably for Democrats or Republicans in presidential elections, the outcome usually rests on a handful of places where the election is truly competitive – the battlegrounds.

Republicans represent all of Iowa’s four congressional districts, but Democrats are hopeful of their chances in Tuesday’s general election.

Two of the districts are seen as especially competitive, including the 1st district in southeast Iowa and the 3rd district in central and southern Iowa. Republicans are expected to more easily retain control in the 2nd district in northeast Iowa and in the largely rural 4th district in western Iowa.

In the 1st district, incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will seek her third U.S. House term as she faces the same Democrat she beat in 2022. In that race, Miller-Meeks topped Democrat Christina Bohannan by about 7 percentage points — a far greater spread than her six vote margin in 2020 over Democrat Rita Hart.

With hours left for the 2024 US Presidential election, podcaster Joe Rogan has publicly endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump for the November 5 polls, who will be contesting against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Rogan cited Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the driving force behind his decision.

Rogan shared his views during a recent podcast episode, stating that Musk “makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way.”

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both predicted victory as they campaigned across Pennsylvania and other battleground states on Monday in the final, frantic day of an exceptionally close U.S. presidential election.

The campaign has seen head-spinning twists: two assassination attempts and a felony conviction for Republican former President Trump, and Democratic Vice President Harris’ surprise elevation to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden, 81, dropped his reelection bid under pressure from his own party. More than $2.6 billion has been spent to sway voters’ minds since March, according to AdImpact, an analytics firm.

Nevertheless, opinion polls show Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, virtually even. The winner may not be known for days after Tuesday’s vote, though Trump has already signaled that he will attempt to fight any defeat, as he did in 2020.

Voters in the US hamlet of Dixville Notch launched Election Day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the incredibly close national polls in the White House race.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight Monday — hours before the rest of the country’s polling stations open.

The Democratic vice president and Republican ex-president have been battling in a tense and exceptionally close race, with opinion polls largely tied.

To a gathered crowd of journalists, the vote opened with a rendition of the US national anthem performed on an accordion.

Electoral laws in New Hampshire allow municipalities with fewer than 100 residents to open their polling stations at midnight and to close them when all registered voters have fulfilled their civic duty.

The polls put the US election on a knife-edge, but as Americans go to vote, Thailand’s superstar baby hippo Moo Deng has predicted former president Donald Trump will regain the White House.

The chubby chomper took the internet by storm with her adorable antics at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, quickly becoming a staple of social media memes and inspiring a raft of merchandise.

Now Moo Deng, whose name means “bouncy pork”, has predicted a comeback victory for the Republican over Democrat Kamala Harris.

Offered two dishes of carved fruit, each emblazoned with one of the candidates’ names, the four-month-old pigmy hippo chose Trump, in video posted online by the zoo.

Moo Deng has proved a particular hit in the United States, where comedian Bowen Yang portrayed her in a “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch.

She also beat both Trump and Harris in an unofficial presidential poll run by “The Tonight Show”, taking 93 percent of the vote.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to lead the United States to “new heights of glory” as he delivered his closing pitch at the final rally of his campaign.

“With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America — indeed, the world — to new heights of glory,” he told the crowd in the early hours of the morning in Grand Rapids, in the swing state of Michigan.

Kamala Harris on Monday urged Americans to vote in one of the “closest races in history” as she gave her final campaign speech in the battleground US state of Pennsylvania.

“Just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetimes and the momentum is one our side,” she said in Philadelphia. “This could be one of the closest races in history — every single vote matters.”

A first-term Wisconsin Republican who was in the nation’s Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was vying for a second term Tuesday, while another candidate running with the backing of former President Donald Trump was hoping to keep an open district under GOP control.

A former Democratic congressman and state lawmaker was also trying to defeat a Republican in southeast Wisconsin.

New Jersey voters are deciding between Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim and hotel developer Curtis Bashaw, a Republican, in the race to fill the Senate seat occupied until recently by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned following a federal bribery conviction.

The Senate race has attracted attention because of Democrats’ razor-thin majority. There’s little margin of error for the party in a state like New Jersey, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 50 years.

“I very much feel the pressure to make sure that we’re delivering not just for New Jersey, but delivering a majority for this country so I can get the important things done,” Kim said recently.

The contest pits Kim, a three-term House member from New Jersey’s 3rd District, against Bashaw, a first-time candidate and businessman from Cape May. Four others including Green, Libertarian and Socialist party candidates are on the ballot.

There’s little suspense surrounding New Jersey’s electoral votes in the contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump, who has golf courses across the state and once operated a casino empire in Atlantic City. New Jersey hasn’t gone with a Republican for president since 1988.

Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday — with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Those include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick update on where we stand as we wait for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to hold their final rallies in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, respectively.

On Monday, Kamala Harris put all her chips on Pennsylvania, a vital battleground state where polls predict a very close race. She held multiple rallies and events, including a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and directly participated in canvassing in a residential area of Reading, telling voters at one residence, “I wanted to go door-knocking!”

Harris attempted to create a positive tone, stating that she wanted to be a “president for all Americans”. At a rally in Pittsburgh, she described a “strong” leader as someone who is prepared to listen to experts, stakeholders, and those who disagree.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump hosted rallies in Raleigh, North Carolina, and two in Pennsylvania, but his tone was much darker, focussing on portraying migrants as dangerous criminals while also making personal attacks on a number of prominent Democratic women.

Joe Rogan, an influential podcast host, endorsed Donald Trump for president, claiming that his decision was influenced by “the great and powerful Elon Musk” on social media. The Tesla CEO “makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way”, Rogan posted on X. “For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump.”

A Pennsylvania judge determined on Monday that Elon Musk’s political action committee’s $1 million per day voter sweepstakes in battleground states can continue until Tuesday’s presidential election. Judge Angelo Foglietta of the Common Pleas Court, who ruled after Musk’s lawyers claimed that the winners were not chosen at random, did not immediately explain his decision.

A political action committee (PAC) tied to Elon Musk has been accused of targeting Jewish and Arab American voters in swing states with significantly contrasting messaging regarding Kamala Harris’s attitude on Gaza, as part of Trump allies’ attempt to erode Democratic support for the vice president. Text messages, mailers, social media advertising, and billboards targeting Arab American neighbourhoods in metro Detroit portray Harris as an ardent Israeli ally who will continue to provide the country with armaments. Meanwhile, residents in metro Detroit and parts of Pennsylvania with large Jewish populations have received messaging emphasising her claimed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

The Republican mega-donors Dick and Liz Uihlein, the third greatest donors in this year’s US presidential election, have enquired about who employees at their firm Uline will vote for on Tuesday’s ballot. A screenshot obtained by the Guardian reveals how employees at the private Wisconsin paper and office supplies wholesaler were asked to participate in what was described as an anonymous poll to track who they voted for on November 5.

Betting markets have shrunk dramatically on the eve of Tuesday’s presidential election, diminishing Donald Trump’s lead over Kamala Harris as Americans vote. In recent weeks, the former president and his friends have argued that betting market forecasts are more accurate than traditional polls, with the main platforms placing him well ahead of Harris. As election day approaches, Trump’s chances of victory are fading, and Harris retook the lead on one platform this weekend.

As the US braces up to elect a new president on November 5, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Monday held rallies across Pennsylvania, making their final pitches in the key swing state.

Harris and Trump rallies in Pennsylvania come amid polls and surveys indicating a neck-to-neck contest between the two presidential candidates.

Reaching out to voters on the eve of the election day, Harris and Trump laid out starkly contrasting visions for the future of America.

Jon Bon Jovi gave a slow and soulful rendition of his band’s 1986 working-class anthem “Livin’ on a Prayer” at a Harris campaign rally in Detroit.

Taking the stage just after Tim Walz, Bon Jovi, who recently had major vocal surgery, kept his singing subdued as he played acoustic guitar and left the soaring section to a pair of backup singers.

“Go to the polls tomorrow, let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, America’s countin’ on you,” Bon Jovi told the crowd in a low, gruff voice after the song.

Women will be the group to soundly reject former President Donald Trump on Election Day, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at the final rally of his campaign Monday night in Detroit.

“Folks, this is getting pretty simple now: Kamala and I trust women,” Walz said. “Now tomorrow, women all across America, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud, clear message to Donald Trump, whether he likes it or not.”

The comment is a callback to Trump telling an audience in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last week that he would protect women as president “whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.” Trump acknowledged during the comment that his top aides urged him not to call himself a protector because it is “inappropriate.”

Walz’s comment also hints at numerous polls that show a large gender gap in the 2024 race, with women leaning toward Harris and Walz and men leaning toward Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Fear, suspicion, hope and bluster: All were on display Monday night as the US election campaign reached a crescendo, with Republican Donald Trump making a final pitch to supporters in Michigan and Democratic rival Kamala Harris looking to end on a high note in Pennsylvania.

At Trump’s final rally in Grand Rapids, the crowd of thousands was boisterous, convinced that his victory was inevitable, with some saying any other result would mean the vote had been rigged.

In Philadelphia, where Harris was preparing to host a star-studded rally featuring Lady Gaga and others, supporters said they were cautiously optimistic, and fearful of another Trump term.

With polls opening across the United States just hours after each of the candidates were due to speak late on Monday, both sets of supporters will have their answers soon enough.

North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday, Seoul’s military said, Pyongyang’s second launch in days and just hours before Americans vote for a new president.

The nuclear-armed North last week test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.

Pyongyang, which has denied the deployment, is under growing international pressure to withdraw its troops from Russia, with Seoul warning Tuesday that thousands of soldiers were being deployed to frontline areas, including Kursk.

Harris and Trump’s differences have long been clear. But on Monday night in Pittsburgh, their dueling rallies drove home just how large the gulf between them truly is.

Only 9 miles (14 kilometers) separated the two in the key Pennsylvania city. Trump spoke at PPG Paints Arena, home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in one of his standard arena rally setups. Harris spoke at Carrie Furnaces, a historic steel facility with an event that nodded to Pittsburgh’s place as the heart of the country’s steel industry.

Harris spoke for 10 minutes. Trump spoke for 950% more, clocking in an hour and 45 minutes.

Harris was introduced by comedian Cedric the Entertainer and seen off by a performance from artist Katy Perry. Trump brought conservative commentator Megyn Kelly on stage and touted the support of Roberto Clemente Jr., the son of the famed Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder.

Harris is closing her campaign by barely mentioning Trump directly. “This is it,” Harris said at her event. “Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side.”

Trump repeatedly invoked Harris — and her nearby rally.

“If you vote for Kamala, you will have four more years of misery, failure, and disaster, and our country may never recover,” Trump told his audience, earning boos. Later, he added, “Kamala has a little rally going on. And when I say little, I mean little.”

Vice President Harris went door-knocking in Pennsylvania one day before this year’s presidential election.

Harris was in Reading, Pa., and stopped in a residential neighborhood Monday night, according to a pool report. After she made her way over a driveway, the vice president met with a family that included two parents and an adult son.

“Cole, that’s our son’s name!” Harris said when shaking hands with the son, who said his name was Cole, per the pool report.

Took some time today to hear from voters in Pennsylvania and ask for their support.

There's still time to join us on the doors: https://t.co/ZaRpcqNdUT pic.twitter.com/J7E8ObhEjp

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 5, 2024

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has referred to Kamala Harris as “trash.”

Speaking Monday in Atlanta, Vance ripped Harris by referencing a comment made by President Joe Biden suggesting that Trump supporters were “garbage.” Biden, in turn, was responding to a joke by comic Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally in which Hinchcliffe likened Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage.”

The Trump campaign has faced days of criticism from Harris allies over Hinchcliffe’s joke. It has focused on Biden’s reference to Trump supporters instead.

Vance told the Atlanta audience that Americans should not be called “garbage” for supporting border restrictions or “wanting to be able to afford groceries.”

That’s about half the number who voted overall in 2020. More people voted early that year because of the pandemic. Still, several states have reported record levels of early voting because former President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to vote that way now.

Early voting data only tells you who has cast ballots, not who they voted for.

The nation’s federal law enforcement and election security agencies are debunking a video falsely claiming election fraud in Arizona, linking it to an ongoing Russian disinformation scheme and warning on the eve of Election Day that the Russia-linked efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials.

The joint statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also cited an article posted recently and amplified by Russian influence actors that falsely claimed officials in swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using such methods as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.

Federal officials say they anticipate that Russian actors will release additional “manufactured content” through Election Day and in the days and weeks after polls close.

Perry, who is from Harris’ home state of California, says that Daisy, her daughter with actor Orlando Bloom, is “the reason I am voting for Kamala Harris.”

“I’ve known Kamala since before she was a senator,” the singer said. “I’ve always known her to fight for the most vulnerable, to speak up for the voiceless. To protect our rights as women to make decisions about our own bodies, yeah! Go figure! I know she will protect my daughter’s future, and your children’s future.”

Trump touted the endorsement of Roberto Clemente Jr., the son of the MLB Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, a prominent Puerto Rican who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Trump hopes Clemente Jr.’s backing can help him with Hispanic voters after a comic’s joke at his Madison Square Garden rally offended many Puerto Ricans.

“My father, the name Clemente, what it means is goodwill and unity,” Clemente said at Trump’s Pittsburgh rally. “I believe that your team is going to bring it all home.”

Clemente said he wants to help Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump says will have virtually free reign to oversee health programs despite his history of promoting theories that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists.

Harris urged her supporters not to be shy about asking people in their lives to get out and vote.

“Pittsburgh, listen, we’ve got one day left to get this done,” Harris said in the penultimate speech of her campaign. “So now we work to get out the vote. Let’s reach out in these next 24 hours to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers.”

Harris’ remarks were notably short in Pittsburgh. She spoke for under 10 minutes before singer Katy Perry took the stage to perform.

The great and powerful @elonmusk.
If it wasn't for him we'd be fucked. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you'll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way.
For the record, yes, that's an endorsement of Trump.
Enjoy the podcast pic.twitter.com/LdBxZFVsLN

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) November 5, 2024

Trump, who was campaigning in Pittsburgh at the time, quickly responded with a “than you”. Trump said, “It just came over the wires that Joe Rogan just endorsed me. Is that true? Thank you, Joe. That’s so nice. And he doesn’t do that.”

At his recent rallies, Trump has been invoking “Barack Hussein Obama,” emphasizing his predecessor’s middle name.

Obama’s critics frequently used his middle name during his presidency along with other ways to make him appear foreign. Trump was a leading proponent of the “birther” conspiracy.

Trump claimed he got more votes in his 2020 reelection campaign than he did four years earlier.

“I mean, Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, he didn’t do that,” Trump said.

He has also recently used the middle name while saying Obama was a divisive president.

Joe Rogan, the nation’s most-listened-to podcaster, announced on the eve of the election that he’s endorsing Trump.

Rogan, in a post on X promoting his interview with Trump supporter Elon Musk, made a compelling case for the Republican presidential nominee and said, “I agree with him every step of the way.”

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump,” he added.

Trump late last month sat for a three-hour interview with Rogan for his podcast.

It was a full-circle moment for the two after Trump and the broadcaster feuded bitterly and publicly during Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Kelly defended Trump against recent controversies, including his repeated pledge to “protect women,” and pressed his case against Harris as weak on the border.

“He got mocked by the left by saying he would be a protector of women,” Kelly said. “He will be a protector of women and it’s why I’m voting for him. He will close the border and he will keep the boys out of women’s sports where they don’t belong.”

Trump stood to the side, grinning and beaming, as Kelly spoke.

Kelly was a Fox News star in 2016 when she infuriated Trump at a GOP debate with a question about his treatment of women. He bitterly attacked her after the debate, and his supporters joined in, leaving her worried about threats.

Harris projected the confidence her campaign is feeling at the penultimate event of her presidential run, telling an audience on Monday night in Pittsburgh that “the momentum is on our side.”

“This is it,” Harris said with Carrie Furnaces behind her, a historic steel facility that nodded to Pittsburgh’s history as the heart of the country’s steel industry. “Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side.”

“We must finish strong,” Harris added. “Make no mistake, we will win.”

This is not Harris’ final stop of the night. She will head to Philadelphia for the final event of her campaign.

As Americans prepare to vote on Election Day Tuesday, officials are calling for patience as they tally ballots in what could be a historically close presidential race — and warning that it could take days to find out who has won.

Under the US system, citizens do not vote directly for their leader. Instead, their ballots elect the 538 members of a group called the Electoral College, which then elects the president and vice president.

Each state casts its Electoral College votes for the candidate that won its popular vote. Bigger states, with more representatives in the US Congress, get a larger share of the 538 Electoral College votes on offer.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump will be vying to get to the all-important 270 votes that pushes them past the halfway mark and guarantees them the keys to the Oval Office.

But with this year’s race going down to the wire, experts point to a growing risk of delays and complications like legal challenges over the vote count.

A security fence rings a Las Vegas building where Nevada tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has his department on high alert to guard against potential violence with drones and snipers on standby. Governors of at least three states have called for National Guard troops to help maintain the peace.

As a tense America votes for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters Monday in the same part of Pennsylvania at roughly the same time, spending the last full day of the presidential campaign in a state that could make or break their chances.

Harris, flanked by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, mingled with diners at Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, a Northeast Pennsylvania city with a large concentration of Puerto Ricans. She asked about school, the restaurant and what kind of food she should take to-go.

Harris did not mention a comedian telling a recent crowd at a Trump rally that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” but she didn’t need to — the scene of Harris ordering Puerto Rican food with imagery from the island everywhere was enough to prove the point.

The Democratic presidential nominee eagerly looked on as the owner walked her through what they had to offer. At first, she said she was interested in a “spicy taquito,” but after going through the rice, plantains, pork and cassava, Harris added, “I want that too. I’m very hungry. I don’t get to eat as often as I like.” She paid for her order with a credit card.

The early voting figures indicate that the ruling Democratic Party is facing a massive turnout deficit, the Trump Campaign claimed on Monday.

than 80 million registered voters have exercised their right to franchise and in some of the key battleground states, more than 50 per cent of the electors had already voted.

Early voting is considered to be advantageous to the Democratic Party given the past trend of the last two election cycles. The Trump Campaign in a confidential memo argued that that might not be the case this time.

“With early voting closed and election day on the horizon, Democrats are facing a massive turnout deficit. In every single battleground state, we see President Trump and Republicans outperforming elections past in absentee ballots and early votes cast. “As we dive deeper into the data, Democrats are facing a precipitous decline in urban turnout according to their own ‘data experts’ and we are tracking an uptick in rural turnout,” said the confidential memo by Tim Saler, the campaign’s chief data consultant.

Former president Barack Obama’s ex-campaign manager, Jim Messina, said on MSNBC that “the early vote numbers are a little scary”.

“What Mr Messina is downplaying is that they are a lot scarier for Democrats. According to NBC News, President Donald J Trump has a 16-point lead (56-40) among voters who plan to cast their ballot on election day. Obama’s chief campaign strategist and CNN political commentator, David Axelrod, told CNN that there are no guarantees that voters will turn out on election day for Vice President Harris,” the memo said.

The Trump Campaign alleged that the Democrats are spinning themselves and reporters by claiming that their voters will turn out on election day when polls show otherwise and, most importantly, that’s asking Democrat voters to do something they have absolutely no history of doing.

In line for Kamala Harris’s final rally of this US election campaign in Philadelphia on Monday, enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate and acute concern at the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House were palpable.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m worried,” said Robin Matthews, a community organizer. “If she doesn’t win, we’re screwed.”

A long queue snaked along the main avenue leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, outside which the vice president was due to address a crowd late in the evening, just hours before polls open on Tuesday.

Matthews, who lives in the Pennsylvania suburbs that will be so crucial in deciding this key swing state in a knife-edge election, said she feared a second Trump presidency.

“He’ll ruin everything,” she said. “There’s no checks and balances anymore (if he is reelected).”

A Pennsylvania judge declined on Monday to halt billionaire Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to registered voters in US election battleground states.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, sued Musk and his pro-Trump political action committee, America PAC, last week, calling the $1 million awards “an illegal lottery scheme.”

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump launched a final frenzied campaign blitz Monday, hitting must-win Pennsylvania on the last day of a volatile US presidential race that polls say is hurtling towards a photo finish.

At his first rally of the day in North Carolina, Trump, 78, shrugged off accusations that his age and the grueling election schedule had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

“I don’t even sleep. I’ve gone through 62 days without a day off,” he said in an insult-laden 90-minute stump speech that he has delivered dozens of times in recent weeks.

Harris said she was “feeling good” and gave a thumbs-up as she boarded her plane to her first event of the day in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Republican Trump has promised a “landslide” as he seeks a sensational return to the White House, while Democrat Harris said “momentum” was on the side of her bid to be America’s first woman president.

But the polls suggest a deadlock nationally, and also in the seven swing states where the winner is expected to be decided.

Former President Donald Trump threatened Monday to impose a sweeping 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico if its government fails to stem the flow of migrants into the US.

Speaking at a rally in North Carolina, Trump claimed the measure would curb what he described as an “onslaught” of immigrants and drugs across the southern border.

Mexico, currently the United States’ largest trade partner, would face significant economic impacts under the proposed tariff increase, which could strain the countries’ extensive trade relationship.

Donald Trump is a clear favorite to beat Kamala Harris – that’s if you put your faith in prediction markets, the latest frontier for the indefatigable crypto speculator.

On the eve of the U.S. election, billions of crypto dollars are chasing bets on the two candidates on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. Those sites respectively gave Trump about a 57%-43% and 51%-49% lead over Harris as of Monday, in contrast to neck-and neck opinion polls.

Polymarket, the busiest of these platforms, which have largely sprung up over the past five years, has seen about $3.1 billion in trading volume on wagers on the winner of the presidential vote.

Kalshi, a U.S. CFTC-regulated site, has seen nearly $197 million in trading on its election outcome contract. Its second-largest betting contract, on the electoral college margin, has drawn $33.8 million.

Participants and watchers are divided over whether such markets, where prices offered are shaped by the weight of bets, are a robust leading indicator or are distorted by large bets and reflect the views of a niche crypto club.

Elon Musk, for one, has said betting markets are “more accurate than polls, as actual money is on the line” and mainstream news sites are citing their odds. Many people aren’t convinced, though.

“Your average voter isn’t spending time or money on prediction markets – those platforms are being dominated by crypto-native users, and those users are voting for Trump,” said Michael Cahill, CEO of Web3-focused developer Douro Labs.

The pricing on these sites reflects the assumed probability of the outcome.

On Polymarket, for example, a wager betting on a Trump win costs about $0.58 versus $0.42 for Harris. The buyer of the winning horse receives $1 per contract.

A Kalshi spokesperson said all traders are all vetted, and trades are capped at $7 million for people and $100 million for eligible contract participants.

Crypto exchange dYdX, meanwhile, allows more complex leveraged betting on both a Trump and Harris win via perpetual futures linked to Polymarket’s odds.

The presidential campaign comes down to a final push across a handful of states on the eve of Election Day.

Donald Trump is set to hold four rallies today in a final push before tomorrow’s presidential election. The day will start with a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. From there, Trump will head to Pennsylvania for two events: one in Reading at 2 pm and another in Pittsburgh at 6 pm. The final rally of the day will take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at 10:30 pm.

Kamala Harris will spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome. Donald Trump plans four rallies in three states, beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina and stopping twice in Pennsylvania with events in Reading and Pittsburgh.

The 2024 US presidential election is shaping up to be a nail-biter, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris virtually neck and neck in the polls. A recent survey conducted by The Hill and Emerson College across all seven swing states confirms this trend, echoing the findings of numerous previous polls.

FINAL SWING STATE POLLS with @thehill

2024 Presidential Election

AZ: Trump 50%, Harris 48%
GA: Trump 50%, Harris 49%
MI: Harris 50%, Trump 48%
NC: Trump 49%, Harris 48%
NV: Harris 48%, Trump 48%
PA: Trump 49%, Harris 48%
WI: Trump 49%, Harris 49%https://t.co/axSc58DgwM

— Emerson College Polling (@EmersonPolling) November 4, 2024

In her final campaign event in swing state of Michigan, Harris said that she would be the president of all Americans.

“Our campaign has not been about being against something, it is about being for something. A fight for a future with freedom and opportunity and dignity for all Americans,” said Harris.

In the rally in Detroit, Harris drew a sharp contrast with Trump who has called Democrats as “demonic”, dubbed rivals “the enemy within”, has called for the deployment of military against rivals, and declared the intention to rule like a dictator on day one of the second term. Throughout her campaign, a central theme of her campaign has been telling voters what she is not — she is not Trump.

Harris said that the election has “the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come”.

In an apparent response to Trump’s rhetoric, Harris at one point went to say that she did not believe “people who disagree with me are the enemy”.

Even one day before the Election Day, neither Harris nor Trump could be said to have a definitive lead in decisive swing states, according to Times/Sienna poll.

The 2024 presidential election is one of the closest of all times and certainly the closest in modern polling’s history, noted Times Chief Political Analyst Nate Cohn.

“Across the key battlegrounds collectively or nationwide, neither Kamala Harris nor Donald J. Trump leads by more than a single percentage point. Neither candidate holds a meaningful edge in enough states to win 270 electoral votes. In the history of modern polling, there’s never been a race where the final polls showed such a close contest,” noted Cohn.

The polls have shown increasingly favourable results for Trump in recent weeks.

While Harris led for weeks, Trump is now positioned such that nationals polls have raised the possibility of Trump winning even the popular vote, noted Cohn.

However, Harris has also made gains of her own in the final leg of the campaign.

The last wave of Times/Siena polls showed Harris with a narrow edge in the key battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina as late-deciding voters said they were leaning her way, noted Cohn.

Even though the US presidential election result is formally certified on January 6, we would likely know the winner within days if not hours after the closure of voting.

The election result that we learn within hours or days of the closure of voting rests on ‘calls’ made in favour of either of the candidates. These calls are made by US media organisations such as CNN, ABC News, and Fox News, etc, which either have in-house teams (such as Fox) of pollsters and analysts or follow calls made by established sources like the Associated Press, the National Election Pool, or the Decision Desk HQ.

Scott Tranter, the Chief Data Scientist of Decision Desk HQ, told CNN that an election call boils down to basic mathematics. He said that the core principle driving the decision of making a call is whether one of the candidate is in a position where other candidates can no longer bridge the gap between them.

Tranter said, “How many votes does Candidate A have? How many votes does Candidate B have? All the way down to however many candidates there are, we determine how many votes are left, and if Candidate B, who is in second, is not determined to be able to get enough of the remaining vote left to overtake Candidate A, who is in first, then we’re ready to project a winner.”

Similarly, AP also says on its website that it makes a call when it is “fully confident a race has been won – defined most simply as the moment the trailing candidates no longer have a path to victory”.

Harris and Trump are essentially tied in decisive swing states, according to the final New York Times/Sienna College poll.

Here is how Harris and Trump stand in the latest Times/Sienna swing states poll:

• Michigan          : Trump +1
• Pennsylvania    : Tied
• Wisconsin        : Harris +3
• Arizona            : Trump + 4
• Nevada            : Harris + 3
• Georgia           : Harris + 1
• North Carolina : Harris + 3

Even as both Harris and Trump have made gains lately, their leads in all seven states are within the margin of error, which means that the two candidates are essentially tied and none of them could be said to have a definitive lead in any state.

“And we both know hearts can change,” a line from the famous number November Rain sung by the rock band Guns N’ Roses, aptly echoes what might be going on in the minds of two US presidential candidates in 2024—Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It is both the fear of failure and the thrill of success that may be dominating their thoughts. Yet, despite November 5 knocking on the door, there remains a long way for either of them to become officially the president-elect of the United States.

After Donald Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 election loss, an advocacy group was launched to take on the lawyers who aided in his doomed effort, hitting them with more than 80 ethics complaints.

With Trump again the Republican candidate for the US presidency, his allies have fired back at this group, named the 65 Project. A pro-Trump nonprofit known as America First Legal has accused the 65 Project of engaging in a left-wing attempt to intimidate conservative lawyers, filing a bar complaint earlier this week against the 65 Project’s top lawyer Michael Teter. The Oct. 28 complaint said Teter was targeting lawyers “based solely upon their representation of a disfavoured client”.

The US presidential elections have seen both sides — the Republicans and the Democrats — battling it out over several issues — immigration, the economy, Israel’s war in Gaza and more. But as the elections draw closer, an unlikely issue has become the flashpoint between the two sides.

What is the issue that has Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance and supporters like Elon Musk attacking the US government and Kamala Harris? It’s the death of a little squirrel, who goes by the name of Peanut. However, this little rodent is no ordinary one — before his death, Peanut, who also went by the name P’Nut or PNUT, was a social media phenomenon, amassing thousands of fans on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms.

The US presidential election is a highly structured process that involves multiple stages, key figures, and a unique voting system.

It is far from a simple popular vote, and understanding how it works helps explain why certain states get more attention and why some candidates succeed despite losing the popular vote.

Even within the final 24 hours of the campaign, the 2024 US presidential election remains too close to be confidently predicted.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump are essentially tied in decisive swing states, according to the final poll by The New York Times and Sienna College.