Washington DC [US], July 31 (ANI): US Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased former President Donald Trump’s lead in seven key battleground states, roughly a week after becoming the likely Democratic nominee, The Hill reported.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll showed Harris and Trump in a tight race across all battleground states, with 48 per cent backing Harris and 47 per cent showing support for Trump.
The breakdown among individual states shows each candidate leading comfortably in one swing state, with the others closely contested.
It is a notable shift the same poll results conducted at the start of July that showed Trump leading Biden overall by 2 percentage points, and Trump leading in five of seven battleground states.
Tuesday’s poll showed Harris opening up an 11-point lead on Trump in Michigan, a 2-point lead in Nevada, a 2-point lead in Arizona and a 2-point lead in Wisconsin.
Trump, meanwhile, led Harris by 4 points in Pennsylvania and 2 points in North Carolina. The candidates were tied in Georgia at 47 percent support, as reported by The Hill.
The poll surveyed 4,973 registered voters from July 24-28. It has a margin of error of 1 percentage point.
The Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll is the latest sign that Harris’s campaign has given significant momentum to the Democratic Party following President Biden’s pulling out of the race.
Harris rapidly consolidated support among Democrats in the hours after Biden stepped aside, and she raised more than USD 200 million in her first week as a presidential candidate.
Other polls released since Harris became the likely Democratic nominee have similarly shown a close race between her and Trump. But Harris herself has said her campaign is the underdog in a matchup with the former president, The Hill reported.
“Let us be clear-eyed: We have a fight ahead of us. We got a fight ahead of us. And we are the underdogs in this race,” Harris told donors in Massachusetts on Saturday. “But this is a people-powered campaign, and we have momentum.” (ANI)
“If you got something to say, say it to my face”: Kamala Harris challenges Donald Trump
Georgia [US], July 31 (ANI): US Vice President Kamala Harris has challenged Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to meet her on the debate stage.
Harris made the remarks while addressing an enthusiastic crowd in Georgia on Tuesday (local time). She called out Trump for “pulling out” of the debate in November after Trump said he would “probably” debate Harris at the previously agreed upon debate in September, The Hill reported.
Sharing a short video of her remarks in a rally in Georgia on X, Harris stated, “Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, “If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face. She made the remarks amid cheers from the crowd in the rally.
Kamala Harris said, “The momentum in this race is shifting and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it — you may have noticed.”
Harris visited Atlanta as she tries to build on a wave of enthusiasm, witnessed through fundraising and volunteer signups since she announced her intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, The Hill reported. She highlighted her focus on Georgia, where US President Joe Biden secured a win in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes.
Highlighting the importance of Georgia in the US presidential elections, she said, “The path to the White House runs right through this state and you all helped us win in 2020, and we’re going to do it again in 2024. Yes, we will.”
Kamala Harris pledged to get the bipartisan immigration legislation that was negotiated in the Senate signed into law if she is elected.
She said, “In this campaign, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.” Harris stated that as attorney general of California, she went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers.
“I prosecuted them in case after case and I won. Donald Trump, Donald Trump on the other hand has been talking a big game about securing our border but he does not walk the walk or, as my friend Quavo would say, he does not walk it like he talks it,” Kamala said, quoting the American rapper Quavo, who addressed the crowd before her at the rally, The Hill reported.
She said that Republicans in the Senate did not allow the passage of the bill twice after Trump urged Republican lawmakers to oppose the legislation, suggesting it could give Biden an election-year win.
Harris said, “Which goes to show, Donald Trump does not care about border security, he only cares about himself.” She stated, “When I am president, I will work to actually solve the problem.”
She vowed to bring back the border security bill if she gets elected as the US president. She said, “As President I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the Harris campaign shared a new video on the border, slamming Trump after his campaign debuted an ad tagging Harris as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” a reference to her work addressing root causes of migration in the Northern Triangle region.
While addressing the crowd in Atlanta, Harris said that “prices are still too high” and spoke on what she would do to lower them, saying that “on Day One,” she would implement policies like reducing price gouging, capping “unfair” rent rises, placing a ban on more hidden fees, and capping prices of prescription drug for all Americans.
In addition, she said that as president, she would pass voting rights bills, including the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Georgia has remained a centre of controversial election policies since Governor Brian Kemp (R) passed a law in 2021 that bans the distribution of food or water to voters waiting to vote, among other restrictions.
Two popular rappers, Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion, made remarks at the rally before Harris and called on the crowd to show up in November. Grammy award-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion performed a medley of some of her top songs, according to The Hill report.
Quavo stated that he had previously worked with Harris to address gun violence. He further said, “One thing I learned about working with vice president is she always stands on business.” (ANI)