2024-08-29 10:35:31
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump embark on a marathon 10-week final race Friday toward the November 5 presidential election, with the Democrat soaring after an electrifying speech the day before in which she accepted the Democratic Party nomination.
With less than three weeks to go before a highly anticipated debate between the Democratic vice president and the Republican former president – and just a month before early voting begins – polls show the battle for the White House is close.
Harris leaves this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago with the wind at her back.
She has overtaken Trump in the polls, erasing the lead the Republican held before she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee a month ago.
However, he did not rest on his laurels. “This was good, but now we have to move on,” he told NBC News.
Dan Kanninen, one of Harris’s campaign managers, warned that the race “has not fundamentally changed” and remains “very, very close.”
A new twist in an already contentious race could come Friday with the expected announcement by third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he will endorse Trump.
Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist who has been shunned by much of his famous family, has little support of his own but could still swing the Republican’s way in an election likely to be decided by razor-thin margins.
Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination on a dazzling final night in Chicago, surrounded by a constellation of stars and celebrities, setting the stage for a grueling sprint to the election.
In just one month, the first black woman with a chance of winning the White House has managed to revitalize her party and attract record donations for her campaign of 500 million dollars and is now enjoying a honeymoon.
His campaign received another potential boost when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the “time has come” for an interest rate cut, something that would reduce mortgage costs and other inflationary pressures for voters.
– Kennedy’s retirement –
Potential obstacles for Harris come from internal party tensions over U.S. policy toward the Gaza Strip and Kennedy’s withdrawal from the race.
The Kennedy clan member is scheduled to make an announcement in Arizona, where Trump is also campaigning, on Friday and promises to introduce a “special guest.”
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, told X that Democrats were “inundating” her with “frantic calls, texts and emails.” They are “terrified at the idea of our movement joining forces with Donald Trump,” she said.
Analysts are divided, however, over the effect a Kennedy exit would have.
Democratic heavyweights such as Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton and Harris’ running mate Tim Walz have warned that the party could lose to Trump’s Republicans if it falls into triumphalism.
– Conquer the center –
Trump has largely been trying to mobilize his conservative base with apocalyptic warnings about “criminal immigrants” and painting a dark picture of a “failing” country that only he can save.
On the other side, Harris and the Democrats have moved closer to the center.
Throughout this week, Democratic strategists have paraded a parade of anti-Trump Republicans in Chicago, including former Trump Cabinet officials, a small-town mayor and a former statewide officeholder.
“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” said former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
Whereas they once characterized Trump as a demagogue, Democrats have now begun mocking the Republican nominee in ways designed to belittle him and dent his aura of invincibility.
Harris even called him “not serious” in her acceptance speech.
© Agence France-Presse
