- Tuesday, November 05, 2024
A latest ABC News/Ipsos poll showed Harris slightly ahead nationally but Trump ahead in some key swing states — and the two candidates deadlocked in Pennsylvania
By: Shajil Kumar
US VICE PRESIDENT Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump on Monday rallied their supporters in key swing states on the eve of the polling day, Tuesday.
Harris, 60, is the Democratic presidential candidate, while Trump, 78, is her Republican rival.
Trump held four rallies, two of which were in Pennsylvania. He started the day with a campaign rally in North Carolina and was scheduled to end his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the venue of his last public event of his 2016 historic presidential elections.
The vice president on the other hand spent her entire day in Pennsylvania holding five rallies with the last one scheduled to be held in Philadelphia as late as 11 pm.
Pennsylvania and Michigan are considered to be the ground zero for the 2024 presidential elections.
Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia are the other five battleground states. A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to be declared the winner of the 2024 presidential elections.
A latest ABC News/Ipsos poll showed Harris slightly ahead nationally but Trump ahead in some key swing states — and the two candidates deadlocked in Pennsylvania.
On the eve of the polling day of November 5, both the campaigns exuded confidence over the state of affairs of their electoral prospects.
“They have an expression, I hate the expression actually, but it’s ours to lose. Does that make sense to you? It’s ours to lose. If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told his supporters in North Carolina.
“I will be president of all Americans,” Harris told her supporters in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Can you feel it. We have momentum,” a confident vice president said, adding that “it is time for a new generation of leadership in America”.
“Make no mistake, we will win,” Harris said. Both Harris and Trump urged their supporters to go out and vote.
“We will get this done, we will win, and it will be because we know what’s at stake, we love our country, and we know how to fight for all that is good and important for the future,” she said in a call with Black women.
The Trump Campaign said that the former president “is going into Election Day stronger than he has in any previous election and if patriots across the country keep the momentum and turn out as expected on Election Day, we will be swearing in President Trump in January”.
Indian American candidates
Nine Indian Americans are running for the US House of Representatives, including the re-election bid by five of them, while another three of them are having their maiden foray into Congressional politics.
Suhas Subramanyan, 38, is likely to create history by becoming the first Indian American to be elected from Virginia and the East Coast.
Running for the US House of Representatives from the 10th Congressional District of Virginia, a Democratic stronghold, Subramanyam is currently a Virginia State Senator.
He lives in a district that has a significant large Indian American population in a Virginia suburb of Washington DC.
Subramanyam, who previously served as a White House Advisor to President Barack Obama, is a Hindu by faith and is popular among Indian Americans nationwide.
A physician by profession, Dr Ami Bera is the senior-most Indian American Congressman representing the sixth Congressional District of California since 2013.
Bera, 59, is all set to get a senior leadership position if the Democrats gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
Representing the seventh Congressional District of Washington State, since 2017, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, 59, has emerged as a powerful legislative leader within the Democratic Party.
Her re-election is considered to be a foregone conclusion so does that of the three other Indian American lawmakers.
They are Raja Krishnamoorthi, representing seventh Congressional District of Illinois since 2017; Ro Khanna representing seventeenth Congressional District of California since 2017 and Shri Thanedar, 69, representing thirteenth Congressional District of Michigan since 2023. All the three are Democratic strongholds.
After three successful victories in the Arizona State Assembly in 2018, 2020 and 2022, Dr Amish Shah is now running for House of Representatives in Arizona’s First Congressional District.
An emergency room physician, Dr Shah is challenging seven-term incumbent Republican David Schweikert from Arizona’s First Congressional District.
Republican Dr Prasanth Reddy, is running for the House of Representatives from the third Congressional District of Kansas against three-term Democrat Sharice Davids.
Dr Rakesh Mohan is running for the House of Representatives from the third Congressional District of New Jersey. He is from the Republican party.
But both Dr Reddy and Mohan have a slim chance of winning this time.
Dalip Singh Saund was the first Indian American elected to the Congress from the 29th Congressional District of California in 1957. He served for three terms.
Decades later, Bobby Jindal was elected to the House of Representatives from Louisiana in 2005. He was elected for two terms, after which he went on to be elected as the Louisiana Governor for two terms. (PTI)
