Pennsylvania holds most electoral votes of 7 crucial battleground states, could pave road to victory for either candidate
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, held their final rallies on Monday in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, bringing their 2024 US presidential campaigns to a close before Tuesday's election.
Harris promised voters that she would turn the page on the bitter partisan rivalry between Democrats and Republicans and would focus on important issues such as abortion rights, reproductive freedom and fighting to bring civility and decency to the Oval Office.
Without mentioning Trump by name, the vice president said she would not concern herself with an "enemies list," a common reference that has been used to classify people that Trump says have wronged him. Instead, Harris said she would "spend every day working on my to-do list on your behalf."
"Pennsylvania, you know me — I am not afraid of tough fights," Harris told the crowd in the city of Allentown. "It is my pledge to you, if you give me a chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way."
Democrats made sure to remind residents of the hateful and racist remarks made at Trump's New York rally last week in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called the US territory of Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage." Allentown is a majority Latino city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in Pennsylvania. Overall, there are an estimated 300,000 Puerto Rican Americans living in the Keystone State.
"It was filled with so much hate ... calling Puerto Rico an island of garbage," rapper Fat Joe, who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, told the Allentown crowd of Hinchcliffe's derogatory remarks. "My Latinos, where is your pride?"
While Harris was campaigning in Allentown, Trump was stumping in the city of Reading just 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. The former president told the crowd that he was the only person who could save America from an "apocalyptic" future filled with an out-of-control government and an "invasion" of criminal immigrants.
"For the past nine years, we've been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth," said Trump. "With your vote in this election, you can show them once and for all, that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you."
Harris and Trump also held rallies in Pennsylvania's two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which is no coincidence, since the state carries more electoral votes — 19 to the winner — than the other six key swing states of Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Nevada (6), North Carolina (16) and Wisconsin (10).
Trump or Harris need 270 of the total 538 electoral votes to become the next US president.
On the final day before the Nov. 5 election, the polling tracker 538, which records the average of all the major US presidential polls, both candidates were in a dead heat, with Harris leading Trump both nationwide and in the state of Pennsylvania by just one-tenth of one percent, 47.9% to 47.8%.
