PHILADELPHIA — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump closed out this year’s presidential race with a fierce battle for Pennsylvania on Monday, making their final pitch to voters across a state that could prove decisive in the campaign for the White House.
Harris ended her night in Philadelphia at the art museum steps made famous in the movie “Rocky,” where she said “the momentum is on our side.” She also rallied with supporters in Allentown, Scranton and Pittsburgh, and she swung through Reading to visit a Puerto Rican restaurant and do a little canvassing herself, knocking on doors alongside campaign volunteers.
“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris told one woman, who said she had already cast a ballot for the Democratic nominee.
Trump started the day in North Carolina and finished it in Michigan, but he spoke in Reading and Pittsburgh in between. The former president delivered stemwinders at each stop, blending false claims about voter fraud with warnings about migrants committing crimes and promises to revitalize the United States.
While Harris focused on optimism about the future and never mentioned Trump by name, the Republican nominee excoriated his opponent at every turn. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, followed Trump’s lead during his own rally in Atlanta, telling the crowd that “we are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris.”
In his final rally, Trump called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who led the House when it impeached him twice, a “crazy, horrible human being” and barely restrained himself from using a sexist slur.
“She’s a crooked person, she’s a bad person, evil,” Trump said. “She’s an evil, sick, crazy – oh no. It starts with a b, but I won’t say it. I want to say it.”
The last day of campaigning was an appropriately frenetic ending to a presidential race that has defied expectations at every turn.
Trump was convicted during a felony trial involving hush money payments and survived two assassination attempts. He remains under indictment for trying to overturn the last presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
Harris became Democrats’ replacement candidate this summer when Biden was pushed off the ticket and forced to abandon his reelection bid after stumbling badly in his debate with Trump.
One of the few constants in the campaign has been how close it’s remained. The election is expected to be decided by razor-thin margins, and the results may not be known for days.
Pennsylvania has the most Electoral College votes of any battleground state, making it the top prize of the campaign. A victory there would clear a path to White House for either candidate.
“You are going to make the difference in this election,” Harris said in Allentown.
About 30 miles away in Reading, Trump told supporters that “if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax.”
In Pittsburgh, Trump delivered what his campaign aides described as his closing argument after his previous attempt — a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York — was derailed by crude and racist jokes. He has also veered into invocations of violence and said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after he was voted out.
“Over the past four years, Americans have suffered one catastrophic failure, betrayal and humiliation after another,” Trump said. He added that “we do not have to settle for weakness, incompetence, decline, and decay.”
The crowd exploded in cheers when Trump said the country should tell Harris, “You’re fired,” his catchphrase from “The Apprentice,” the reality television show that made him a nationally recognized star.
Harris arrived in Pittsburgh while Trump’s rally was underway. By the time she finished her succinct remarks, he was still talking.
