Harris woos minority votes in Philadelphia; Trump rallies in NYC

Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off the last full week of campaigning before Election Day at a church in Philadelphia in her latest bid to energize Black voters, while former President Donald Trump is betting on a famous New York City venue — Madison Square Garden — to give him a final-stretch push on Sunday evening.

Harris plans to give a similar “closing argument” speech at the Ellipse near the White House on Tuesday, sandwiched between campaign stops in battleground states that conclude with rallies in Nevada and Arizona on Thursday. Trump’s swing-state schedule this week includes a stop in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he’s flagging an appearance by former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

Both candidates are vying for a last-minute edge, seeking to turn out core supporters and sway the few undecided voters as polls show them in a dead heat heading into Nov. 5. Harris widened her advantage over Trump in an ABC News/Washington Post national poll of likely voters released Sunday — to 51% to 47% from 50% to 48% two weeks earlier — though the difference remains within the margin of error.

Here’s the latest from the campaign trail:

Stop by stop

Harris is spending Sunday in Philadelphia, making a series of stops in historically Black and Latino neighborhoods to help turn out the vote. At a barber shop in West Philadelphia, she chatted with several men about topics including teachers’ pay and student loan debt.

Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes make it the biggest prize among seven battleground that are likely to decide the election. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where President Joe Biden also made a campaign stop on Saturday, are key to Democrats’ chances of holding the state.

“Philly is a very important part of our path to victory,” Harris told reporters. “Pennsylvania will be key.”

At the Church of Christian Compassion in West Philadelphia, Harris talked about faith and attending Sunday school in her native Oakland, California — and the closing days of campaigning ahead.

“These nine days will test us,” she told the congregation. “They demand everything we’ve got.”

Trump in NYC

The Republican nominee returned to his native New York for a 5 p.m. rally at Madison Square Garden, an iconic venue in a deeply Democratic city and state. Trump supporters, some wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, began arriving early on a chilly fall morning, admiring a large image of the former president above the building’s Pennsylvania Station entrance.

Musical guests

Harris is enlisting musical artists in a bid to add star power in the final stretch, including singers Maggie Rogers and Gracie Abrams, folk rock group Mumford and Sons as well as Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of the rock band The National.

Turn-out-the-vote rallies in western swing states will feature performances by Latin rock band Maná in Las Vegas and Los Tigres del Norte in Phoenix, according to the Harris campaign.

Harris previously got celebrity support from artists including Bruce Springsteen, who performed at a rally in Atlanta, and Beyonce, who endorsed Harris at an event in Houston last week.

Ellipse symbolism

Harris said she chose the Ellipse — just south of the White House on the National Mall in Washington — for her “closing argument” speech on Tuesday to frame voters’ choice for Nov. 5. It’s also the place where Trump held a rally before his supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Harris said she thinks “about that place more in the context of what will be behind me, which is the White House.”

“I’m doing it there because I think it is very important for the American people to see and think about who will be occupying that space on Jan. 20,” she said in a CBS News interview broadcast Sunday.

_____

(With assistance from Riley Griffin.)

_____