Inside ‘deadlocked’ swing states that will decide US election as Trump & Harris supporters reveal fears if other wins
DONALD TRUMP and Kamala Harris blitzed the battleground states as their neck-and-neck race for the White House goes down to the wire.
Republican presidential nominee Trump, 78, and his Democratic rival Harris, 60, ramped up their appearances in the handful of swing states that will decide Tuesday’s election.
Polls have the pair in a deadlock, with the latest national average favouring Vice President Harris by just one point.
In the seven states which could go either way — such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — just a point or two separates them.
Trump is up in four of the seven that are thought to be in contention, while Harris appears to be ahead in two, and the pair are tied in a dead heat in the other state, Nevada.
Questions remain over whether pollsters have got it right this time after they were off the mark when Trump beat all odds to win against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and lost to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump is fighting for a second term in the White House, while Harris would become the country’s first female President if she won.
Civil war
More than 66million votes have already been cast through early mail-in or in-person ballots.
On Friday, both candidates visited the Midwest states of Michigan and Wisconsin to fight for every last vote.
Trump returned to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where in July he accepted the Republican nomination just days after getting shot in an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Harris was across town for a star-studded event with rappers Cardi B and GloRilla.
Trump’s supporters at the Milwaukee rally told The Sun on Sunday of their faith that he will win — and their fears over what happens if he doesn’t.
Clara Velasquez, 65, an artist originally from Medellin, Colombia, drove for an hour and a half from her current home in Lisle, near Chicago, Illinois, to attend the rally.
Posing alongside an image she painted of Trump, she said: “Before the 2020 election I had a vision while I was praying of Trump pointing up to heaven and saying, ‘My triumph is in Christ’.
“God told me he was going to be President for a second term and I was completely certain he was going to win.
“Trump is anointed and appointed by God to be the leader of the next revival that is going to happen in all the world.
“The Democrats stole it last time but they are not going to get away with it this time because God is involved. If he doesn’t win it’s going to be civil war.
“People are not going to put up with this garbage any more.”
‘Trump v Tramp’
Stalls selling merchandise at the rally peddled Trump T-shirts with slogans such as “Trump v Tramp” and “I’m voting for the outlaw and the hillbilly” alongside AI-generated images of Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
Many supporters wore rubbish bags or hi-vis refuse-worker jackets after earlier in the week President Joe Biden branded Trump supporters “garbage”.
Trump hit back at the comment with a stunt working on a rubbish collection route in a hi-vis jacket.
Retired garbage man Greg Pedersen, 62, from Greenfield, Wisconsin, was at the rally selling hi-vis jackets with “Trump 2024” emblazoned across the back for $35.
He said: “I don’t think Biden even really knew what he was saying but Trump really knows how to control the message.
“One party is panicking and being mean and throwing out slurs and the other is having a good time.
“Somebody said something, let’s turn it into a positive. The next thing you’ve got one of the moments of 2024, Trump in a garbage truck.
“He has so much common sense that I agree with but the main things for me are the border and the economy.
I’m praying it’s over on Tuesday, otherwise I think there are going to be a lot of problems.
BC Jones
“It’s down to the battleground states and they seem to be trending Trump’s way but the Democratic political machine is tough to beat, so who knows what lies ahead.”
Outside the arena a few Democrats staged a protest against Trump.
BC Jones, 75, a retired X-ray technologist and grandmother of six from Milwaukee, braved the fiercely pro-Trump crowd’s fury with a placard which read “Unfit! No more years”.
She said: “I’m hoping the Democrats have enough to win it. I’m praying it’s over on Tuesday, otherwise I think there are going to be a lot of problems.”
Last night Kamala Harris told news channel CNN: “I am working to earn the vote of all Americans, regardless of their gender, race or geographic location.”
She called Tuesday’s vote “one of the most, if not the most, consequential elections of our lifetime”, and in a swipe at Trump, she added: “People are exhausted with demeaning who we are as a country.
“They want a leader who has a sense of optimism and a work ethic . . . to actually seek solutions, common ground and get things done.”
In her final campaign ad due to be broadcast today she pleads: “Now I’m asking for your vote. Because as President, I will get up every day and fight for the American people.”