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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are set to resume their campaign trail on Thursday. The Democrat is aiming for a surge in her chances in the closely contested United States election following her strong performance in the first presidential debate.
The opponents are traveling to important swing states that will determine the outcome of the November election, just a couple of days after Harris put Republican Trump on the defensive in a heated debate that was watched by 67 million viewers nationwide.
The impact of the vice president’s lively performance on the undecided voters in the closely contested election is still uncertain as there are less than two months left until the final decision.
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Harris, 59, will seek to capitialize on her debate momentum as she heads to North Carolina on Thursday, holding back-to-back rallies in the cities of Charlotte and Greensboro promising a “new way forward.”
Harris has closed a six-point gap with Trump over the past month to tie in North Carolina, where she is working to energize important Black and young voters in support of her campaign to become the first female commander in chief of the United States.
Amid media reports of turmoil in his camp over the way Harris succeeded in goading him at the debate, the 78-year-old former president is due onstage in Tucson, Arizona to focus on “our struggling economy.”
The state of Arizona saw intense competition in the 2020 election, with Joe Biden narrowly defeating Trump by approximately 10,000 votes. It is anticipated that Arizona will once again be hotly contested.
Their return to the swing states at the heart of the election came a day after a brief truce when they attended Wednesday’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York.
The Philadelphia debate provided Harris with a much-needed lift as the initial excitement following her sudden substitution for the elderly Biden as the Democratic candidate appeared to be fading..
Trump insisted it was one of his best debates, but snap polls and even allies disagreed as Harris riled him up with taunts about crowd sizes and his 2020 election loss, then scored points on issues like abortion.
Close Trump ally Senator Lindsay Graham told reporters afterwards that it was a “missed opportunity” while US media reported there was discontent among Trump donors.
Harris has eliminated Trump’s lead in polls, but the candidates are still tied, and she maintains that she is the less-favored candidate in the White House election.
And America’s deeply polarized politics mean however that big showpiece events like debates rarely move the polls that much — even if it was a disastrous debate against Trump that forced Biden to drop his reelection bid.
Both candidates will keep bashing the battlegrounds in coming days, knowing a few thousand undecided votes in the northeastern “Rust Belt” and the booming southern “Sun Belt” could decide everything.
On Friday, Harris will make appearances in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre, two crucial swing states in Pennsylvania, where the competition has been intense. On Saturday, she will attend an awards dinner with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Also on Friday, Trump will speak about the cost of living in Las Vegas as he focuses on winning over Nevada, another important swing state. Additionally, he is scheduled to hold a press conference in Los Angeles.
Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, will be traveling to Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday as part of the campaign’s New Way Forward swing state tour.
