The 2024 contest enters a critical new phase as the debate draws near and the first ballots are distributed. Kamala Harris is losing hope according to her speech in….
With Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump scheduled to debate and the first swing state ballots arriving in mailboxes just after Labor Day weekend, the 2024 presidential contest is about to reach a pivotal new turning point.
As September approaches, both camps are focusing more intently on the crucial battleground states. Harris is examining a larger map, while Trump is scouring the Upper Midwest states that gave him the presidency in 2016 and forced him out of office in 2020.
All of this is happening just before voting opens this week. One of the few potentially crucial Sun Belt states, North Carolina, will receive its first ballots for the 2024 election on Friday. Then, after two weeks, early in-person voting starts in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia.
With a bus trip in Georgia and a visit to North Carolina by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris concentrated on the Sun Belt last week.
During a stop at a campaign field office in Raleigh on Thursday, Walz remarked, “I think we know: very difficult for a Republican presidential candidate to win the White House if they can’t win North Carolina.”
To expand its popularity beyond Atlanta, Harris’ campaign is heavily investing in media advertising in Savannah. AdImpact data indicates that in the last three weeks, Harris’ campaign has spent roughly $1.7 million on advertising there.
During this time, Trump focused on the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. He held events in each of these states towards the end of the week and made promises of an economic recovery.
“At the outset of my speech at a steel distribution company in Potterville, Michigan, I’m here with a simple message for the American autoworker and for the American worker: Your long economic nightmare will very soon be over.”
The candidates are preparing for their ABC-hosted debate on September 10 in between their campaigning. That discussion, which is the first to be agreed upon by both campaigns and pits Harris against Trump, may prove to be the most important one of 2024.
Trump has enlisted former Hawaii Gov. During her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard engaged in several noteworthy debate stage confrontations with Harris about foreign policy and the latter’s criminal justice record. Meanwhile, Harris is collaborating closely with Philippe Reines, a former Hillary Clinton staffer who is returning to the Trump post at the Harris campaign’s request.
Polls in pivotal swing states and across the country indicate a close race. According to a Wall Street Journal survey conducted on Thursday, there was no obvious winner among registered voters, with Harris scoring 48% to Trump’s 47%. In a similar vein, a Quinnipiac University survey conducted that same day put Harris at 49% and Trump at 47% among potential voters.
States in the Sun Belt that previously seemed to have escaped Democratic influence have reappeared as front-runners. since Harris was selected as the party’s nominee. According to Fox News polls conducted on Wednesday, there was no obvious front-runner among Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and South Carolina’s registered voters. In Arizona, Harris was polled at 50% while Trump was at 49%; in North Carolina, the numbers were reversed, with Harris at 49% and Trump at 50%. Harris’s percentage in Georgia and Nevada was 50% compared to Trump’s 48%.
Polls have shown Trump with an advantage among men who are likely to vote, but Harris with a huge edge with women. That split is common in presidential elections, but Trump is attempting to chip away at Harris’ advantage with women in part through a focus on reproductive rights.
It’s a topic that has been a huge Democratic advantage since the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority that includes three members appointed by Trump, in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade’s nationwide abortion rights protections — opening the door to a new patchwork of state-level restrictions.
Trump last week infuriated conservatives with his answer to a question about how he plans to vote on a referendum that will decide the future of abortion access in his home state of Florida.
Most of the time after six weeks, abortion is prohibited by Florida law as it is. This fall, voters will decide on a ballot proposal that would allow abortions in the state up until the time of viability, which is generally accepted to be between 23 and 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
Though he had previously refrained to comment on the vote, Trump said on Thursday to NBC that he would be “voting that we need more than six weeks” and that Florida’s six-week ban was “too short.”
A day later, he declared that he would vote “no” in the referendum and repeated the untrue assertion that Democratic states are enacting legislation for the execution of newborns.
At a Michigan campaign event, Trump declared, “Under the Trump administration, your insurance company will be mandated to pay for – or your government will pay for – all costs associated with IVF treatment.” “Simply put, because we want more babies.”
But earlier this summer, a bill containing a similar clause was defeated by senators from his own party, including Vance, his running mate.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said on a Harris campaign call with reporters on Friday that Trump’s pledge to have fertility treatments covered for is “just smoke and mirrors” and that he has not promised to defend the procedures against legal challenges.
She cited the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision from earlier this year, which determined that frozen embryos are children and put the legitimacy of IVF procedures in jeopardy.
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