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What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning in three key states after she delivered what her campaign billed as her closing argument in a speech yesterday in Washington, D.C. She spoke in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and she's now in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Former President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina as well for remarks in Rocky Mount in the early afternoon. He then spoke at a rally with former NFL quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
- Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also campaigned today in North Carolina, speaking in Greensboro, Charlotte and Asheville.
- Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, held a town hall in Bedford, Pennsylvania, with former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has endorsed Trump.
Uncomfortable Nikki Haley backers weigh their options with Election Day looming
Harris' deployment of prominent Republican Trump critics hasn’t convinced a new focus group of voters who backed Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primaries.
But even if many of those Haley voters won’t cast their ballots for Harris, the constant controversy surrounding Trump may cost him votes — a dynamic typified by the almost universally negative reaction to the harsh and at times racist rhetoric at his weekend rally in New York City.
With the election less than a week away, many voters are still weighing key issues, including abortion rights. NBC News’ Laura Jarrett interviews a group of female voters in Sarasota, Florida, who are forming unexpected alliances to help galvanize support for the future of abortion rights.
Trump campaign releases video compilation of Black men backing him
The Trump campaign has released a video montage of Black men making their support for Trump clear while criticizing Harris.
“I believe Donald J. Trump is well-suited for the job because he’ll bring back manufacturing to our country, create economic growth and more importantly preserve our traditional values,” said Henry Ike, a man featured in the video.
The video, titled “I’m Not With Her,” features roughly half a dozen men from across the country. Of the men who share their states of residence, none appear to be from battleground states.
The video is the latest effort by the Trump campaign to tout its support among Black men, a voting bloc it has been courting in recent months through barbershop roundtable events, Black church leader discussions and other community events. Allies of Trump have launched their own efforts, including bus tours in cities with large Black populations, in a bid to further solidify that support.
In an interview with the Breakfast Club this week, Harris dismissed the notion that Trump’s efforts will result in a substantial shift in support from Black men.
“The brothers aren’t saying that,” Harris said. “I mean, I was just at the barbershop in Philly talking with very incredible and distinguished men who are leaders in their community and small business and education. And these men, these Black men, were talking about not only their support for me, but most importantly, their support from my perspective on what we can do that lifts up the community and taps into the ambitions and the aspirations.”
The Trump campaign released a video compilation this summer of Black women praising Trump, also titled “I’m Not With Her.”
Trump says he would protect women 'whether the women like it or not'
Trump insisted tonight that he would protect women whether they "like it or not," a comment that immediately drew criticism from the Harris campaign.
Speaking at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump indicated that his advisers had said they didn't think he should say he wanted to "protect the women."
"I said, 'Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not,'" Trump added. "I’m going to protect them."
The Harris campaign quickly highlighted his remarks on X.
"Donald Trump thinks he knows better than the women of America," Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a post. "To him, our choices don’t matter, our decisions are his to control, and he’s going to ban abortion nationwide whether we like it or not."
Reached for comment on Trump's remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Harris "may be the first woman Vice President but she has implemented dangerously liberal policies that have left women worse off financially and far less safe than we were four years ago under President Trump."
"Women deserve a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps our families thrive — and that’s exactly what President Trump will do," Leavitt added.
Polling shows a massive gender gap in voters' candidate preferences, while it indicates the overall race is extremely close.
Nikki Haley says Pennsylvania voters ‘can’t be emotional’ and ‘have to elect’ Trump
Nikki Haley told voters to put their feelings aside about “noisy” Trump and cast ballots for him during a pair of stops in swing-state Pennsylvania today.
Campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in suburbs near Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and onetime GOP presidential candidate, told voters to “pull the emotion out” and “focus on the policies,” adding that “it’s not about us” but about future generations.
A lot of state poll results show ties. So are they tied because of voters — or pollsters?
Recent polls in the seven core swing states show an astonishingly tight presidential race: 124 out of the last 321 polls conducted in those states — almost 39% — show margins of 1 percentage point or less.
In fact, the state polls are showing not just an astonishingly tight race, but also an improbably tight race. Even in a truly tied election, the randomness inherent in polling would generate more varied and less clustered results — unless the state polls and the polling averages are artificially close because of decisions pollsters are making.
The results of a poll depend on the opinions of the voters and the decisions of the pollster. Decisions about how to weight polls to match the expected composition of the electorate can move the results of a poll up to 8 points. That is true even if pollsters are making perfectly reasonable decisions about how to weight their survey data, as survey researchers have been forced to consider new methods and ideas for weighting and addressing falling response rates after polling misses in 2016 and 2020.
Walz says 'all votes matter' when asked about reports of lagging Black turnout in early N.C. voting
Walz pushed back in an interview that aired today during a discussion about reports that turnout among Black voters has lagged in North Carolina during early voting compared with 2020.
Asked whether the Harris-Walz campaign is resonating with Black voters, Walz said, "Well, it is, and all votes matter."
"What I think right now is, is folks have a little bit of fatigue because of Donald Trump, hoping to kind of suppress these votes," Walz told WSOC-TV of Charlotte. "Look, you can feel the energy. We know things are turning — we’re seeing that happening. We’re seeing the numbers coming out. And the only thing that matters to us is making sure by Election Day we got the folks to the polls."
Early voting in North Carolina got underway on Oct. 17 and runs until Saturday. The state was rattled by Hurricane Helene this fall.
Asked earlier in the interview whether he was concerned about lower voter turnout among Democrats overall during this phase of voting, Walz responded: "No, the folks can vote early or they can vote on Election Day. They all matter at the end of the day."
Trump, who in 2020 suggested that early and mail-in voting were vulnerable to fraud, has offered support for early voting this time around while also delivering mixed messages about mail-in voting.
Abortion-related ads in Nebraska prompt tension between health department and doctors
Just a week before an election in which Nebraska voters will decide on two competing ballot initiatives related to abortion rights, the state health department sent doctors an alert about what it called “misleading information” in radio and TV ads.
Nebraska’s chief medical officer, Dr. Timothy Tesmer, wrote in the alert that recent ads had generated confusion about Nebraska’s law restricting abortions after 12 weeks’ gestation, though he did not specify which ads.
He listed some exceptions to the policy, among them that Nebraska law does not prohibit removal of an ectopic pregnancy. Abortions in the state are allowed in cases of rape or incest, the advisory said, and when there is a threat to a woman’s life or a risk of irreversible harm to a major bodily function.
Walz voices support for Asheville after hurricane destruction
During his campaign trip to the hard-hit city of Asheville, North Carolina, Walz emphasized his support for the community after Hurricane Helene's destruction.
"You demonstrated that the spirit of Asheville is the spirit of this country. Tough, tenacious and never going down without a fight," Walz said.
Walz also said he and Harris "are not going to rest until you get all the support to rebuild this community."
He encouraged Americans to visit and spend money in Asheville to help it rebuild. Western North Carolina, where Asheville is located, is a tourism destination, but Helene caused flooding and destruction in the area.
Pa. Democrats accuse Erie County of failing to fix mail-in ballot issues
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is accusing the Erie County Board of Elections of failing to urgently address issues related to mail-in ballots that "threaten to disenfranchise thousands of registered voters from casting ballots" this election, according to a complaint filed today.
State party officials contend that 10,000 to 20,000 voters who requested mail-in ballots "have not received or submitted such ballots" and that more than 300 voters even received two mail-in ballots, according to the party's filing in common pleas court in Erie. Of the two ballots a voter could receive, one might not correspond with local races the voter is registered to participate in, the filing adds.
The state Democratic Party said that even though the Board of Elections said it has sent notices to the affected voters, the party is unaware of any voters who've received such correspondence and that the board hasn't shared it with the party. The party also claims that some registered party members have said they still haven't received their mail-in ballots even though they were requested "weeks ago" and that the U.S. Postal Service can't account for having received 1,800 mail-in ballots from the county's vendor. The party believes those ballots have been "lost" and won't be delivered in time for voters to cast their ballots, according to the filing.
As part of its complaint, the party is requesting several remedies, including requiring the board to release the names of affected voters who have received duplicate or incorrect ballots and provide any correspondence it has given to affected voters. The party also wants its representatives and other major political parties to observe the opening of duplicate ballots.
Thomas Talarico, a lawyer for the Erie County Board of Elections, said a hearing is scheduled for tomorrow morning after the county's "attempt to resolve some of the disputes broke down last night."
Talarico said in an email that the board has already implemented much of what's asked for in the party's lawsuit, including contacting voters who requested mail-in ballots but haven't received them and advising them of their other options.
He added that the state Republican Party disagrees, "arguing that the mail-in voters who did not receive a ballot have only one option, to vote provisionally."