By Nandita Bose, Steve Holland
DETROIT/LITITZ, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Democrat Kamala Harris made her closing pitch for the U.S. presidency at a historically Black church in the swing state of Michigan on Sunday, while her Republican rival Donald Trump rallied in Pennsylvania.
Opinion polls show the pair locked in a tight race, with Vice President Harris, 60, bolstered by strong support among women voters while former President Trump, 78, gains ground with Hispanic voters, particularly men.
Voters overall view both candidates unfavorably, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, but that so far has not dissuaded them from casting ballots. More than 76 million Americans have already done so ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, approaching half the total 160 million votes cast in 2020, in which U.S. voter turnout was the highest in more than a century.
Control of the U.S. Congress is also up for grabs on Tuesday, with Republicans favored to capture a majority in the Senate while Democrats are seen as having an even chance of flipping Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Presidents whose parties have not controlled both chambers have struggled to pass major new legislation over the past decade.
“In just two days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Harris told parishioners at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. “We must act. It’s not enough to only pray; not enough to just talk. We must act on the plans He has in store for us, and we must make them real through our works, in our daily choices, in services to our communities, in our democracy.”
Trump, at his first of three rallies on Sunday, frequently abandoned his teleprompter with off-the-cuff remarks in which he denounced polls showing movement for Harris. He called Democrats a “demonic party,” joked about the news media covering him being shot, ridiculed Democratic President Joe Biden and complained about the price of apples.
“Here’s all you need to know: Kamala broke it and we’re going to fix it,” said Trump, his voice raspy. In a speech where he repeatedly criticized the U.S. election process, he added, “It’s a damn shame and I’m the only one who talks about it because everyone is damn afraid to talk about it.”
Trump is later due to speak in Kinston, North Carolina, before ending his day with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia. Of the seven U.S. states seen as competitive, Georgia and North Carolina are the second-biggest prizes up for grabs on Tuesday, with each holding 16 of the 270 votes a candidate needs to win in the state-by-state Electoral College to secure the presidency. Pennsylvania offers 19 electors.
Nonpartisan U.S. election analysts reckon Harris would need to win about 45 electoral votes in the seven swing states to win the White House, while Trump would need about 51, when accounting for the states they are forecast to win easily.
HARRIS’ MICHIGAN WOES
After her Detroit appearance, Harris is due to head to East Lansing, a college town in an industrial state that is viewed as a must-win for the Democrat.
She faces skepticism from some of the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans who are frustrated Harris has not done more to help end the war in Gaza and scale back aid to Israel. Trump visited Dearborn, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday and vowed to end the wars in the Middle East.
Harris, who has met behind closed doors with selected Arab American and Muslim leaders, will focus her energy on Black neighborhoods on Sunday.
Samah Noureddine, 44, a Lebanese American from Grosse Ile, a town near Detroit, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but was casting a ballot for Jill Stein of the Green Party this year.
“I’m upset because Harris is funding the genocide and if we get Trump we’re going to suffer too,” she said. “I’m sick of both of them.”
In the campaign’s final days, Harris has sought to convince voters that she will bring down the cost of living, a top concern after several years of high inflation.
Trump has argued that Harris, as the sitting vice president, should be held responsible for rising prices and the high levels of immigration of the past several years, which he has portrayed as an existential threat to the country.
(Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici and David Ljunggren, Ismail Shakil and Andrea Shalal, writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
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