 (File photo: Getty images) |
With the final voting day just four days away, both Harris and Trump are trying to win last minute support in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
Controversial remarks
This year’s campaign has been very controversial. Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on October 27 was overshadowed by racist remarks about Puerto Ricans delivered by one of the event’s speakers. Democrats are hoping that incident might help them regain the momentum they had 3 months ago when Harris replaced Joe Biden on the ticket.
Meanwhile, Republicans are claiming President Biden used offensive words to describe Trump’s supporters. These controversies have ratcheted up the tension as Trump and Harris step up their personal attacks against each other.
Darrell West, a senior expert with the Government Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, said the confrontation between Trump and Harris over the last 5 months has shown only a partial view of their political advantages.
“One of the top issues in this election that favors Republicans is immigration policy. People are worried about the border. They think that too many undocumented individuals are coming over the border, drawing on American resources, taking jobs, relying on social services. They don't like this. And this has been a big plus for former President Trump. On the Democratic side, abortion and reproductive rights in general has been a great issue for Democrats. The majority of Americans are on the side of Kamala Harris on that particular issue," said West
Public polling shows that American voters rate Trump higher on managing the economy and say Harris's economic positions are unclear. Some economists, however, say that economic policies of the two candidates are fundamentally similar.
Mark Weinstock, Professor of Economics at Pace University in New York, said: "In many ways they're closer than people imagine. Expenditures on our military and defense budget would probably be comparable under both plans. Both candidates are protectionist. They favor tariffs, but the differences to what degree."
 Chocolate boxes with images of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump sold at a store in New York. (photo: Reuters) |
Narrow gap
The latest polls showed Harris and Trump neck and neck in the battleground states, with only 1 to 2 percentage points separating them.
The one thing all the polls and analysts agree on that is that the race is too close to call.
A poll released on Thursday by AP and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago showed that only about one-third of the 1,200 people interviewed said they were excited about the election.
Kirby Goidel, a professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University, said: "Should people be nervous about this election? Absolutely. This is gonna be an incredibly competitive election. 2016 and 2020 were decided by less than 100,000 votes. We can put the number of people in a football stadium on a Saturday night and move them around the various States and we could have changed the outcome of either one of those elections. And so this is maybe even closer. You should be nervous about the election."
Approximately 80% of Democrats describe themselves as anxious about the election, up from 75% in the previous election cycle in 2020. Meanwhile, about 65% of Republicans felt the same, up from 60% in 2020.