Harris and Trump chase life advantage in latest installment – The Irish Times

Good morning

We have special elections in the USA today’s edition of Inside Politics, which comes to you from Palm Beach, Florida.

Election fever is brewing in Ireland as Taoiseach Simon Harris is expected to travel to Arras later this week, but the epidemic phase is approaching here.

There will be no shortage of clichés in the coming days, but here’s one to get you started: the race between Republican ex-Pres. Donald Trump and the Democratic vice president Kamala Harris seems too close to call.

Polls show the rivals are head-to-head in the popular vote, which does not determine who wins, as Hillary Clinton knew all too well eight years ago. The last numbers for seven key vibrational stateswhich should decide who triumphs under the electoral college systemaccording to RealClearPolitics, they are all within or close to the margin of error, though most have Trump slightly ahead.

Early voting for the election ended on Friday, and more than 70 million people have already cast ballots, about 45 percent of the total cast four years ago. The remainder of the active electorate will line up to vote tomorrow.

The democratic process is closely watched and this election is unlikely to end without some form of controversy or challenge, with paranoia is high after the 2020 experience.

Trump spent a good portion of his speech yesterday at a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, the most valuable of swing states, suggesting, without providing evidence, that the election system, polling firms and the media are corrupt and conspiring against him.

A poll in Iowa, which showed him ahead of Harris, appeared to be particularly supportive of him. American correspondent Keith Duggan wrote about it here.

Trump also suggested that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after the 2020 election, given what has happened to the economy and the border since then. “Here’s all you need to know: Kamala broke it and we’re going to fix it.”

Harris made a series of stops in another battleground state, Michigan, yesterday, hinting to the crowd in East Lansing that she has “momentum” on her side, but that no one should “sit back” or take anything for granted.

“Can you feel it? And we have momentum because our campaign is about the ambitions, aspirations and dreams of the American people.”

“Nauseatingly optimistic” was the term used by one pundit when talking about the Harris campaign on CNN Sunday night.

Trump is scheduled to visit the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and Michigan today to make a final pitch to voters. He will be in Florida tomorrow night and his election watch party will be held at a convention center near his Mar-a-Lago residence. Harris, who will host an election night event at Howard University in Washington, is scheduled to visit Pennsylvania later, but her campaign is holding rallies in seven states.

In a polar race between two very different candidates, there aren’t too many undecideds or voters, so the key for Harris and Trump will be to energize those who still voted and maximize their turnout on Election Day.

Having driven thousands of miles across the US in the past two weeks and spoken to hundreds of voters, it appears that many of those who plan to vote for Trump are true believers, while a small minority support Harris as she is, but also support her for what she is. not trump . Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that Trump has been on the ballot for three election cycles, and Harris only entered the race a few months ago when it became clear that Joe Biden would not be up to the task of defeating the Republican for a second term.

Fact abortion is on the ballot in several states After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Trump took credit, which could motivate more moderate Republican women to get out and vote for the Democratic candidate.

In any case, we won’t have to wait long for the election results, will we?

There should be some signs on Wednesday morning when voting closes, exit polls and partial results start coming in. However, with everything as close as it seems and more focus on the wider election process than ever before, it could be a long week.

Four years ago, the television networks did not predict that Biden would win until the Saturday morning after the Tuesday election. Buckle up.

View of two – what do voters think in a swing state?

In Atlanta, Georgia, Jefferson Fields, a retired author and broadcaster, explained that he is a registered independent whose “first vote was for Richard Nixon and my last vote was for Kamala Harris.” He says he would “vote for The Wizard of Oz over Donald Trump.”

“I was sad to see Joe Biden go, I really was, but after he did, I knew it was the right thing to do because we could have lost this election to Donald Trump,” he says.

“It’s a very unequal race, and it’s an amazing thing for me to recognize that half the people in my country are so ignorant that they support this man and want him back in office. This is madness. I am absolutely ashamed of the United States and that this is happening while the world watches.”

What is he afraid of if Harris loses?

“Utter chaos with a barely literate autocrat suddenly given the power of Hitler and Putin to persecute his political enemies, deport millions of immigrants (many of them legal), cancel deals and give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.”

In Tuscon, Arizona, Rick Grossman said he voted for Trump in three elections and his main thought was that Harris would be a disaster as president.

“She has no ideas, she can’t speak without a teleprompter, I can’t imagine her being president of the United States,” he says. “Millions of people (will vote for Harris), which shows that millions of people don’t understand what’s going on.”

Grossman agrees with Trump that areas like Arizona are being “invasioned” by immigrants. When asked if he has seen evidence of this, he replies: “Actually, I haven’t. I really don’t.

“I don’t go downtown; I have no business there. I don’t go to the border, but I see what happens in places where immigrants go. I see it on the news, I see it in the papers, on TV. But as for me personally, no, I didn’t have any.”

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