October 14, 2024, presidential campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Follow the?latest 2024 election news?here or read through the posts below.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers faced off in a second debate on Monday as they compete for retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat in Michigan.

During the debate, the candidates addressed abortion, transgender athletes playing on women’s and girls’ sports teams, electric vehicles, border security, gun regulations and former President Donald Trump.

Rogers, who was endorsed by Trump earlier this year and often appears at campaign events with the former president, did not bring up the GOP nominee on Monday night, just as he did not in last week’s debate.

However, Slotkin linked Rogers with Trump in an effort to portray the former congressman as corrupted by the former president and his rhetoric.

She also brought up earlier in the debate that Betsy DeVos, who served in Trump’s administration, is a donor to her opponent, and implied that Rogers’s education policy is shaped by the former education secretary.

Former President Donald Trump stayed on stage, swaying to the music and looking out at the crowd for several songs after finishing a town hall Monday night in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

It was unclear why Trump stayed on stage for so long and there was confusion about what was happening when he was up there.

Music played for more than 30 minutes as Trump stood on stage and occasionally made brief remarks in between songs.

As the music played, Trump occasionally exchanged words with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who moderated the town hall, and people near him in the crowd, but Trump mostly just looked out into the audience and nodded his head as the music blasted throughout the venue. The event was held indoors at the Greater Philadelphia Center & Fairgrounds.

Asked why Trump was still on stage, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN, “He’s here for the people. Not like loser Kamala Harris.”

Trump kicked off the unusual moment by saying, “Let me hear that music, please. Nice and loud.”

The first song was “Time To Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò)” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. Then “It’s a Man’s World” by James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti.

After the songs played, Trump said he would take a question from the crowd. But then he said, “How about this, we’ll play YMCA, and we’ll go home.”

“YMCA” by Village People played, and then “Hallelujah” by Rufus Wainwright, “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor, “An American Trilogy” by Elvis Presley, “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony and “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses.

This unusual moment came after Trump asked his team to play “Ave Maria” earlier during the town hall when someone was receiving medical attention. Two people needed medical attention during his town hall. About 30 minutes into his town hall, Trump paused the event and asked for a doctor to attend to someone in the crowd. After a few minutes, the crowd started singing “God Bless America.”

Vice President Kamala Harris attends a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday

Vice President?Kamala Harris?slammed Republican rival?Donald Trump?in Pennsylvania on Monday night over the former president’s comment that the US military should handle?“the enemy from within” on Election Day.

It was the latest example of Harris’ campaign drawing sharper distinctions with Trump in the presidential race’s closing weeks, using the former president’s own words and those of his former aides to cast him?as dangerous and unstable.

Speaking in Erie, Harris took a rare step of rolling clips of Trump’s extreme rhetoric as she highlighted his comments Sunday on Fox News, when he said he isn’t worried about his supporters’ actions on Election Day. “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” he said.

“Please roll the clip,” Harris said as the monitors of the Erie Insurance Arena played some of Trump’s recent comments.

Read more on Harris’ comments here.

CNN’s Ebony Davis contributed reporting from Erie, Pennsylvania.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Monday.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Monday labeled Donald Trump a “fascist” after the former president suggested using the military to respond to “the enemy from within” in reference to what he described as “radical left lunatics.”

Walz told hundreds of supporters at a convention center in Green Bay that Trump’s suggestion of using the National Guard or the US military to respond to political opposition “makes me sick to my stomach.”

Some context: Trump suggested using the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day during an interview on Fox News, saying that he isn’t worried about chaos from his supporters or foreign actors, but instead from “radical left lunatics.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Vice President Kamala Harris is committed to protecting public lands and believes in the Second Amendment. Harris’ running mate made the remarks during the launch of the Hunters and Anglers for Harris-Walz coalition.

Pointing out that Harris was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which had “expand voluntary conservation easements on native grasslands and other critical wildlife habitat,” Walz said, “As our next president, she’s committed to protecting our public lands and natural resources.”

The Democratic vice-presidential nominee said that he and Harris are gun owners and “believe in the Second Amendment, but we also believe that our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

Former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance are seen in New York City on September 11.

Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, will appear at a fundraiser in New York City on October 27, according to a source familiar with the event, hosted by the Trump 47 committee.

This comes as the Harris campaign announced it?raised $1 billion?since she launched her candidacy. As CNN reported, Trump’s campaign announced about $430 million jointly with the Republican Party in the three months between the start of July and end of September.

Trump has a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on the same day. The fundraiser was first reported by The New York Times.

Vance speaks in front of the Minneapolis police department's 3rd precinct on October 14.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance backed up former President Donald Trump for suggesting he would use the National Guard or military to fight the “enemy from within,” if riots break out in the aftermath of the 2024 election.

Vance claimed there were “a core group of far-left activists” who were willing to harass and commit violence against fellow Americans in 2016 and after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Earlier, Vance also said Trump was saying “something nice and polite” when praising Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2020 for his handling of the riots in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death, but it doesn’t mean Walz “can run away from the fact that he let his own city burn to the ground.”

Vance also defends other Trump comments: At a news conference in Minneapolis, Vance said Trump “was just talking honestly” about how “Detroit has been left behind,” when asked by CNN about the former president’s criticism of the city last week.

On Thursday, Trump warned at the Detroit Economic Club that the whole country would end up “like Detroit” if Vice President Kamala Harris wins in 2024.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited Lambeau Field on Monday, home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, the latest effort by the Harris campaign to lean into the Democratic vice-presidential candidate’s background as a former football coach.

Walz took a tour of the team’s stadium, spending several minutes on the field.

Inside the visitors’ locker room, Walz asked about how football teams would organize themselves in the room and reflected briefly on Hall of Fame former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre returning to the stadium when he played for the Minnesota Vikings. He then spoke fondly of the history of the stadium and thanked team staff for showing him the stadium.

Walz has visited football stadiums three times in the past three weeks. He attended the University of Michigan-University of Minnesota football game in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the end of September. On Friday, he attended the rivalry game between his former school Mankato West High School and Mankato East High School.

Two prominent Arab American groups based in the Detroit metro area — Arab American PAC and Arab American News — will not to endorse a candidate for president, the longtime publisher of Arab American News said.

Osama Siblani told CNN that the decision was made late Sunday night after two days of intense joint meetings on the topic. It comes less than a month before the presidential election in a battleground state where Arab American voters are an important voting bloc.

The groups will send a letter explaining their decision to about 75,000 homes in southeast Michigan later this week, he said.

The Arab American community was energized about the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris in the beginning of her campaign over the summer, but Siblani said they now feel she is no different than President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump.

“Harris took off very well at the beginning, she was flying high, but now she is declining,” he said. “We do not see progress it is just talk.”

Earlier this month, Harris met with Arab American advocates in Michigan in an effort to boost her support within the community.

But Siblani said that the community wants a candidate who commits to peace and justice and no longer sending US weaponry to Israel and they have not heard any commitments from Harris.

Attendees await the start of a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris at Erie Insurance Arena on October 14 in Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to slam former President Donald Trump over his suggestion that he’d use the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day, according to a senior campaign official.

It marks the latest effort by the vice president to paint her Republican rival as dangerous, particularly in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania where Trump is also campaigning Monday.

Harris plans to seize on those remarks during a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, and warn that Trump’s action could people’s freedom at risk. The campaign will also release a new ad, dubbed “Enemy Within,” featuring former Trump aides, including Olivia Troye and Kevin Carroll.

“The second term would be worse,” Carroll says in the ad. “There will be no one to stop his worst instincts. Unchecked power. No guardrails.”

The Trump campaign on Monday released another TV ad?hammering Vice President Kamala Harris over previous comments she’s made about?transgender health care policy.

The ad opens with Charlamagne?tha?God, a radio host who has said he is going to vote for Harris this election, criticizing the vice president, saying, “Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners.”

The comments reference?CNN reporting?on a 2019 questionnaire that Harris filled out in the course of her unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid, in which she said she would support taxpayer-funded surgeries?for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

The ad includes a clip of Harris at a town hall event during the 2020 campaign hosted by the Transgender Equality Action Fund, in which Harris discusses her support.

“Surgery for prisoners — every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access,” Harris says in the clip. The ad then plays a clip of Charlamagne?tha?God saying, “Hell no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.”

Charlamagne?tha?God has publicly praised Harris and her policies and Harris is set to participate in a town hall in Detroit this week hosted by his radio show, “The Breakfast Club.”

The Trump campaign has run similar ads highlighting these comments by Harris.

American voters are divided in many ways – by gender, by race, by region – and any of these can be used to explain the current state of politics.

But, the “biggest single, best predictor of how someone’s going to vote in American politics now is education level,” according to the longtime Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik, who was former President Bill Clinton’s political director and is known for incisive?deep-dive memos.

Trump’s rise over the past three election cycles “accelerated and completed this political realignment based on education that had been forming since the early ’70s, at the beginning of the decline in the middle class,” Sosnik told David Chalian on the “CNN Political Briefing” podcast.

As the US transitions to a 21st-century economy, there’s a rift between the people who attain education — “that’s become the basic Democratic Party,” he said, comparing them with people who feel left behind, “that group of voters is now the modern Republican Party base.”

College graduates hold about three-quarters of the wealth in the US but account for only about 40% of the population.

Sosnik went a step further, arguing that the seven or so battleground states that could be won by either Trump or Harris also tend to be right in the middle on education levels, “not skewing too much college-educated voters and not too much non-college. That’s the only reason they’re different than the rest of the country,” he said.

Dive deeper into the full analysis about education and voting.

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company is on fire on Wall Street. It’s all about Trump’s perceived chances of retaking the White House.

Up until very recently, Trump Media & Technology Group had been in?meltdown mode. Its share price dropped to a record low of $12.15 on September 23, marking a stunning 82% crash from its high.

But the owner of Truth Social is enjoying a massive rebound of nearly 150% in the three weeks since, more than doubling its share price. It spiked nearly 50% last week alone and surged another 18% Monday.

It’s a remarkable turnaround, even for a notoriously volatile stock that has been described as a meme stock on steroids.

Trump Media did not announce a sudden revenue stream or a flashy new product that could explain the move. It didn’t land an endorsement from Wall Street analysts or a major shareholder.

Instead, the turnaround has been fueled by the perceived odds of Trump winning in November. Trump Media has long served as a way for traders to bet on the election.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is highlighting former President Bill Clinton’s comment Sunday that Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s death “probably wouldn’t have happened” if migrants, including her alleged killer, had “all been properly vetted.”

Clinton’s remark came as he lambasted Trump for scuttling a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. The bill sputtered in January when Trump’s opposition to it led Republican support to erode. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is?looking to blunt Trump’s attacks on immigration, has vowed to revive that bill and sign it into law if she wins the White House.

Clinton said the bill would have led to “total vetting before people got in” at the US-Mexico border. “Now, Trump killed the bill,” he added.

He then pointed to Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was killed while jogging in February. The suspect,?Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested in 2022 after entering the United States illegally, according to a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but was released for further processing.

But Trump’s campaign cast Clinton’s comments as an indictment of President Joe Biden and Harris’ handling of border security, noting that Riley’s alleged killer had entered the United States in 2022, long before that bill had been drafted.

The back-and-forth demonstrated how Democrats have tried to address what polls have shown is among Trump’s most potent issues — and how the former president has pushed back, accusing Biden and Harris of taking action far too late and only as the presidential election loomed.

Both presidential candidates are holding campaign events in Pennsylvania tonight, once again training the spotlight on the premier battleground state this election.

Democrats have outspent Republicans overall in Pennsylvania since Vice President Kamala Harris became her party’s nominee, but Republicans are poised to seize a narrow advertising edge over the final stretch of the race. The parties are also placing different bets on the top media markets for the closing sprint with Democrats putting more money into Philadelphia and Republicans putting more into Pittsburgh.

Democrats have outspent Republicans overall during that stretch by about $174.3 million to $136.9 million. But during the first two weeks of October, Republicans have seized a narrow edge, outspending Democrats by about $31.2 million to $30.3 million.

And going forward, Republicans also have slightly more ad time remaining. According to AdImpact data, Republican presidential advertisers have a total of about $52.1 million in remaining Pennsylvania ad bookings, while Democrats have about $49.7 million.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attacked Donald Trump after the former president suggested using the military on what he called “the enemy within” while describing the need to control “radical?left lunatics.”

Walz was speaking to a few dozen students gathered at a coffee shop at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s campus on Monday, telling them he didn’t want to “make you fearful” but to create a sense of urgency to defeat Trump in November.

Walz’s comment followed on Trump saying in a Fox News interview released Sunday that the National Guard or the military may be necessary to control “the enemy from within” on Election Day and said he’s more concerned with “radical left lunatics” than chaos from his supporters or interference from foreign actors.

Republican?vice presidential?candidate JD Vance has landed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, stepping off the plan Monday afternoon with his wife Usha Vance.

Minutes before Vance landed, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign plane took off from the same airport heading for?Eau?Claire, Wisconsin.

Vance has a closed fundraiser and roundtable in Minneapolis and later travels to Chicago for another fundraiser, according to a source familiar.

Vance’s plane was parked just feet from where the Walz plane was previously parked.

Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz shared details of her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s fertility journey and their decision to talk about struggles with infertility publicly in an essay for Women’s Health Magazine published on Monday.

In the essay, she asked voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris to protect reproductive health care access and said she believes former President Donald Trump will sign a “nationwide abortion ban” if he’s reelected, a proposal he has repeatedly opposed.

Gwen Walz wrote about her experience conceiving using intrauterine insemination treatments after years of struggling with infertility. She recalled memories of going to procedures at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and asking her neighbor to help her take shots before finally conceiving shortly before Easter in 2000. She wrote she hoped sharing her story “will empower people to take their own power and change the way forward.”

Gwen Walz also discussed the decision she and her husband made to discuss their infertility struggles publicly after learning last year the news that the Alabama Supreme Court gave legal protections of personhood to embryos, potentially jeopardizing the administering of some infertility treatments, a ruling she said “brought us to our knees.”

“We both needed a second,” she wrote of learning of the decision. “Tim asked me, ‘Do you feel like we can talk about this publicly?’ And I said, ‘We absolutely do not have a choice.’ At the time, we had not talked about it, even with people who knew us well. But this news brought us to our knees.”

Gwen Walz made a direct case against Trump and on behalf of Harris around the issue of reproductive health care, saying she doesn’t “trust him” on the issue and expressed concern that her daughter Hope is “going to have fewer rights” than she does, and that Trump will support a “nationwide abortion ban.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday for her first ever interview on the right-wing cable network.

The interview with the Democratic presidential nominee will take place in Pennsylvania and air during?the “Special Report with Bret Baier”?at 6 p.m. ET, the network said Monday.

The interview is set to air hours after Fox televises a town hall with Donald Trump in front of an all-female audience Wednesday in Georgia.

Harris recently sat for an interview with “60 Minutes.”?CBS said Trump had agreed to the traditional interview but later backed out.

Former President Bill Clinton speaks as he tours Georgia in support of Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign in Columbus, Georgia, on Monday, October 14.

Former President Bill Clinton on Monday urged Georgians to deliver a victory for Vice President Kamala Harris, telling them “you have to realize it is literally possible that the whole election could be decided here.”

Clinton said Democrats won in Georgia in 2020 and the two recent Senate races not just because they did well in the Democratic-stronghold of Atlanta, but “because where there was an opportunity anywhere outside Atlanta, we punched above our weight.”

“So that’s what this election coming down to. If you want it bad enough, you can win it, and you’ll be proud of yourself for the rest of your life,?and your children and grandchildren will be grateful. And if you decide you got something better to do for the next few days, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” he said.

He defended Vice President Kamala Harris against attacks from Republicans on the issue of immigration, pushing back on their label of Harris as “border czar,” and slammed former President Donald Trump for helping torpedo the bipartisan border security bill.

Clinton has been campaigning across rural communities in eastern and southern Georgia for Harris. Former President Barack Obama has also been hitting the campaign trail for Harris, delivering remarks last week in Pennsylvania.

Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building as the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is displayed on screens in March 2024 in New York.

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company is on fire on Wall Street. It’s all about Trump’s perceived chances of retaking the White House.

Up until very recently, Trump Media & Technology Group had been in?meltdown mode. Its share price dropped to a record low of $12.15 on September 23, marking a stunning 82% crash from its high.

But the owner of Truth Social is enjoying a massive rebound, more than doubling its share price in less than three weeks. It spiked nearly 50% last week alone.

It’s a remarkable turnaround, even for a notoriously-volatile stock that has been described as a meme stock on steroids.

Trump Media did not announce a sudden revenue stream or a flashy new product that could explain the move. It didn’t land an endorsement from Wall Street analysts or a major shareholder.

Instead, the turnaround has been fueled by the perceived odds of Trump winning in November. Trump Media has long served as a way for traders to bet on the election.

The race for the White House?remains incredibly close?and could still go either way. But the betting markets and some recent polls have shifted somewhat in Trump’s favor.

During the first two weeks of October, Kamala Harris’ campaign and her allies plowed resources into North Carolina, aiming to take advantage of political fallout stemming from the?scandal-plagued?GOP nominee in the governor’s race, and as the state recovered from the devastation left by Hurricane Helene.

According to AdImpact data, between October 1 and October 14, the Harris campaign and its allies have spent a total of $19.8 million advertising in North Carolina — about $11.1 million more than the Trump campaign and its allies spent, which was about $8.7 million.

The disparity in North Carolina was larger than in any other battleground state during the opening weeks of the month, and Democrats only spent more money on ads in two other critical states, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In this November 2022 photo, Tom Barrett attends a campaign rally in Benton Township, Michigan.

Black state lawmakers in Michigan have called on the state’s attorney general and a county prosecutor to investigate Tom Barrett, a GOP candidate for the US House, over a newspaper advertisement in a Black-owned newspaper that listed the wrong date for Election Day.

The complaint from the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus?alleges?that?the Barrett campaign potentially violated state?law with the?printing?of?an ad in the Michigan Bulletin, a Black-owned publication serving Lansing, that tells voters to vote on November 6, when Election Day is on November 5.

Barrett faces?Democrat Curtis Hertel?in a competitive race to succeed?Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin?in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.

Barrett campaign spokesperson Jason Roe called the mistaken election date “nothing but a proofing error.”

“Our campaign has been committed to outreach to the Black community and Black leaders because it is important to Senator Barrett that every community be heard in this election” Roe said. “The publisher of the Bulletin notified us of the error on Saturday and we’ve provided him with revised art for next week’s issue.”

The campaign pointed to other mailers sent to Black voters that have the correct date for Election Day.

But Democratic state?Sens. Erika Geiss and Sarah Anthony, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, said the fact that Barrett’s ad has the correct date in other publications raises even more concerns and that, as of Sunday, it did not appear that the mistake had been corrected with the Michigan Bulletin.

Read more about the call for an investigation.

The Harris campaign launched two more advertisements Monday as part of its latest swing state ad blitz, with two more spots targeting a pair of western battlegrounds, Arizona and Nevada, bringing the total number of new ads from the campaign today to six.

Both ads display the same messaging strategy seen in the other ads that the Harris campaign also went up with Monday, targeting Pennsylvania and Michigan — they feature locals touting Harris’ policies, aimed specifically at battleground voters.

In the ad?targeting Arizona, Mesa Mayor John Giles, a Republican, explains his endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris’ strategy: Bipartisan appeals have been a core part of the Harris campaign’s strategy in Arizona, a state with a long tradition of voting Republican before PresIdent Joe Biden eked out a victory in 2020, and home to the late Sen. John McCain, whose high-profile clashes with the Trump administration have been common fodder for Harris’ attacks on Trump.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff sat for an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that aired on Monday, and discussed the state of the race, former President Donald Trump’s fitness for office and his efforts to combat antisemitism.

Emhoff echoed the Harris campaign’s emphasis on bipartisan appeals, touting Democrats’ “massively wide” tent and saying that “you don’t have to agree with Kamala Harris on every policy position.”

Emhoff was also asked by host Joe Scarborough if he thought that Trump was “mentally unfit” to serve, a question that Vice President Kamala Harris has raised repeatedly in campaign appearances and media interviews, seizing on Trump’s decision to forego a second presidential debate, and skip a traditional “60 Minutes” interview.

“I don’t know what he thinks in his head but it’s just obvious by looking at him, listening to you him, you can see the degradation in front of your eyes,” Emhoff said. “I mean I’ve said many times, he’s degrading, he’s a degrading version of an already horrible person so he’s just getting worse and worse, so people need to pay attention to that.”

Emhoff also warned that many of Trump’s previous advisers and Cabinet members will not be there with him this time around.

“For some folks who think well, we may not like his style, but we like his policies. Remember the folks that were around him when he was president, there were some so called normies that kept the lights on, and helped actually save our democracy after the election until the inauguration of Biden-Harris, those folks will not be there this time,” Emhoff said.

Emhoff also discussed his efforts to combat antisemitism as the first Jewish second gentleman, and talked about the challenges of doing so in a divisive environment following the October 7 attacks in Israel last year, going on to criticize Trump’s rhetoric.

A sign along a roadway shows support for former President Donald Trump on September 6, 2024, near Remington, Wisconsin.

Whether measured by campaign advertising, candidate visits, organizational effort or nervous obsessing over poll results, Michigan, Wisconsin and above all Pennsylvania have moved to the top of the priority list for both?Vice President Kamala Harris and?former President Donald Trump?– just as they have in seemingly every recent presidential election.

Trump won the presidency in 2016 by stunning Democrat Hillary Clinton to win all three states by a combined margin of about 80,000 votes.?President Joe Biden?won back the White House in 2020 by recapturing all three states by a combined margin of around 260,000 votes.

Since Harris took over at the top of Democratic candidate in July, the candidates have spent more money in advertising in Pennsylvania than anywhere else.

Bob Shrum, the long-time Democratic strategist who now serves as the director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California, said the three Rust Belt battlegrounds have remained pivotal in presidential elections for so long because they encapsulate so many of the entrenched divisions that now define American politics – between, for instance, urban and rural areas and white-collar and blue-collar voters. “They reflect the polarization,” Shrum said.

Other political operatives point out that the historic tendency of these three states to vote the same way in presidential elections functionally makes them the nation’s largest swing state at a time when the other biggest states lean reliably toward one party or the other (California, New York and Illinois toward Democrats; Texas, Florida and Ohio toward Republicans).

Read more about why these three states are so critical to the candidates this election cycle.

The latest CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling released Sunday morning finds no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 50% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 47% backing former President Donald Trump.

The latest average incorporates a new?ABC News/Ipsos poll, which finds Harris at 50% to Trump’s 48% among likely voters when third-party candidates are included, and a new?CBS News/YouGov poll, which finds Harris at 51% to Trump’s 48% in a head-to-head matchup among likely voters.

An?NBC News poll?also released Sunday finds Trump taking 47% to Harris’ 46% in a multi-way ballot test among registered voters, with the two candidates taking 48% each in a head-to-head matchup. The NBC poll did not release results among likely voters, but it does envision?several different turnout scenarios?that could shift the race in either direction.

Under either a more favorable Republican or Democratic turnout scenario, NBC finds that the race between Harris and Trump remains within a 3-point margin nationally.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on the campus of East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina, on October 13.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday unveiled new proposals targeting Black men as she seeks to strengthen her coalition ahead of Election Day.

The announcement comes as Harris lags behind President Joe Biden’s numbers with Black voters in 2020, especially men, though recent polling suggests she has room to grow. Last week,?former President Barack Obama?delivered a stark warning to Black men, saying it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.

About the proposals: They aim to provide Black men “with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights,” according to a release by the campaign.

Part of the proposal includes providing one million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others to start a business. According to the campaign, the loans would be provided through a new partnership between the Small Business Administration and some lenders and banks.

Harris is also calling for creating and investing in programs that help expand pathways for job opportunities for Black men, including promoting apprenticeships, strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and investing in more Black male teachers. On the campaign trail, Harris has said she will cut college degree requirements for certain federal jobs if elected president.

The plan will also support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets and a National Health Equity Initiative?that focuses on addressing health challenges that disproportionately impact Black men. Another component includes legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in the industry. The vice president has often reiterated that she believes marijuana should legalized in the US.

Read the full story.

Supply cages with precinct specific materials for polling locations in the new Pinal VOTES building in Florence, Arizona on Thursday, June 20.

In Arizona’s third most-populous county, a Republican supervisor who is responsible for certifying November’s election results has argued that fellow county officials conspired to manufacture his lopsided defeat in the primary for sheriff, a contention recently shot down by independent investigators.?Still, when the time came to sign off on the results during a board meeting recently, Pinal County Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh declared he only was voting to do so “under duress.”

In the years since former President Donald Trump and his allies made baseless claims that widespread fraud led to his 2020 defeat, allegations of wild election misdeeds continue to swirl in key battleground states. So, too, have confrontations over voting rules and the once low-profile task of formally signing off on vote tallies – an act mandated by state laws and what will be a crucial step in certifying the results of next month’s presidential election and down-ballot contests.

But as Election Day draws near, state officials say they have moved aggressively to guard against any disruptions in what polls show could be another nail-biter election – the battle for the White House between Trump and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris. Those measures include schooling judges on the tight deadlines that election officials face under state and federal laws and, in the most extreme examples, pursuing criminal charges against those who resist carrying out their duties.

Election chiefs say they are hopeful that these steps will curb any post-election drama.

Read the full story.

Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina, on October 13.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are visiting critical states this week in the final sprint to Election Day.

Today, Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be campaigning in “Blue Wall” states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This evening Harris will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Erie. After, Harris will travel to Detroit, Michigan.

Walz is participating in events in Eau Claire and Green Bay.

Meanwhile, Trump will host a town hall focused on the economy in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Ohio Sen. JD Vance will travel to Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa on Monday.

A supporter reacts as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Coachella, California, on October 12.

Donald Trump?is invoking a vision of an extreme new White House term that would transform America and rock the world.

And Vice President Kamala Harris has only three weeks to avert it, as she struggles to restore momentum in a neck-and-neck race to Election Day.

The Republican nominee is escalating the most toxic anti-immigrant rhetoric in modern US history, warning outsiders?with “bad genes”?have “invaded” the country after?falsely claiming?that Haitian migrants here legally were eating pets in Ohio.

At a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump baselessly suggested that if Harris were elected, “the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp.” In Colorado two days earlier, he again vowed to “begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States,” promising, “We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country. We will defend our territory. We will not be conquered.”

And he escalated his threats against political opponents this weekend, saying on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”?he could turn the military?on “the enemy from within.” The ex-president, who incited violence to try to stay in power after the 2020 election, also?said at a rally Saturday?that a heckler exercising the right to free speech should “get the hell knocked out of” her.

Read the full analysis.

Kamala Harris’ campaign launched a wave of new TV ads on Monday targeting Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The ads are going up with customized spots that feature locals touting the vice president’s proposals, or Harris herself campaigning in the critical swing states. Two ads target Pennsylvania, each aimed at one of the commonwealth’s major metro areas, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and both focused on the economy.

The ad aimed at Philadelphia features a community activist named Anton, praising the administration for grants that fund his work.

The Harris campaign also launched a pair of ads aimed at Michigan, another one of the trio of critical “Blue Wall” states that includes Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and represent one of her campaign’s clearest paths to 270 electoral vote.

Like ads in Pennsylvania, Harris’ Michigan ads also target key cities.?One of the ads,?airing in Pontiac, features a Michigander named Gerald criticizing former President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Ad wars: During the first two weeks of October, Pennsylvania ranked first and Michigan ranked second among battleground states seeing the most ad spending. In Pennsylvania, Republicans narrowly outspent Democrats during those two weeks, about $30.3 million to $29.8 million, while the Harris campaign and its allies outspent the Trump campaign and its allies by about $5.6 million in Michigan, according to AdImpact data.

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with journalist Roland Martin and discussed a range of issues, including her pitch for an “opportunity economy,” sharp criticism of former President Donald Trump and how her campaign is working to counter his appeals to Black voters.

“Look at in the context of how he actually thinks and talks about Black folks in America,” Harris told Martin. “And you and I have talked about this before, he is not looking out for folks when he is — when he was a landlord, and would not rent to black families. Sued for it. When he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times against those five teenagers, Black and Latino, who were innocent, saying they should be executed. The Central Park Five. When you look at – the first black president of the United States and he had birther lies,” Harris added.

She continued, “And now you look at Black immigrants, legal immigrants, in Springfield, Ohio, and he gets on a debate stage, and says they’re eating their pets. Come on. This man is dangerous.”

Harris went on to question Trump’s fitness for office and accused his staff of shielding him from scrutiny, seizing on his decision to forego a second debate, or sit for an interview with 60 Minutes.

“Every president for the last half century has done one, anyone who is running for president. Everyone has done it, except Donald Trump. He will not debate me again. I’ve put out my medical records, he won’t put out his medical records. And you have to ask, why is his staff doing that? And it may be because they think he’s just not ready, and unfit, and unstable, and should not have that level of transparency for the American people. There’s a real choice in this election,” Harris said.

The vice president was also asked about the contest for battleground North Carolina, where she sat for the interview, and potential threats to voting rights, particularly for Black Americans.

“Well and so you know, I think that we should all, whoever is in North Carolina watching this, Josh Stein running for governor, it’s going to be very important – pay attention to those state House races, because if they can change the balance in the state House, then they will be able to push through more protections for voting rights,”?Harris?responded.

Harris?went on to criticize attempts to restrict voting expansions that took place during the pandemic.

Former President?Donald Trump?announced a new plan on Sunday to increase the number of United States Border Patrol agents and retain existing talent as he?makes immigration and the border?a key part of his closing message against Vice President Kamala Harris.

At a campaign rally in battleground Arizona – where he devoted much of his speech to stoking fears about undocumented immigrants – the former president committed to a goal of hiring 10,000 new US agents, providing a 10% salary raise, and offering a $10,000 retention and signing bonus.

“This will ensure that we can hire and keep the Border Patrol agents that we need to keep. And we can also bring in a lot of new ones, really great ones,” he told his supporters packed into the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. He suggested that Border Patrol agents have?“good genetics”?after he recently said migrants who commit murder have?“bad genes”?in another example of him using dehumanizing rhetoric about those in the country illegally.

The former president said he would call?on Congress to “immediately” approve the 10% raise for all agents.

Trump, however,?scuttled a bipartisan border bill?in Congress earlier this year that would have paved the way for more Border Patrol agents and that had the backing of the National Border Patrol Council. The Harris campaign and Democrats have frequently cited Trump’s efforts to kill the deal while going on the offensive against the former president on border security. That same union, which represents US Border Patrol agents, officially endorsed Trump on Sunday after previously lending him its support.

The Harris campaign on Sunday criticized Trump for what it said was his “his long record of failed leadership and broken promises.”