Sunday, July 28 marks 100 days until the November 5 presidential election.
Interest in the election – at least in terms of visits to 270toWin – has picked up significantly since the debate in late June, and has accelerated since President Biden’s subsequent withdrawal from the race last Sunday. July visitor traffic has doubled since the same month in 2020.
As a nice round number, there will be no shortage of articles mentioning ‘100 days until the election’. Here are links to a few of them.
Polls
There have been quite a number of Harris vs. Trump polls released in recent days. Broadly speaking, Trump still holds a small edge, but the race seems to have tightened since Biden’s withdrawal and endorsement of the Vice President.
Donald Trump says Liz Cheney might not be such a ‘war hawk’ if she had guns pointed at her, prompting response by ex-Republican lawmaker.
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has attacked Liz Cheney, suggesting the former lawmaker who has endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the race to the White House should face combat with guns trained on her for her policy stance.
“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said on Thursday at a campaign event with ex-Fox News television host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, also calling Cheney “a deranged person” and “a very dumb individual”.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained to her face,” he added, noting that she and her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, refused to back his third presidential run.
Trump has repeatedly promised to investigate or prosecute his political rivals, including Cheney, as well as election workers, journalists and left-wing Americans, among others. The former president has also said the military could be used against what he calls “radical left lunatics” if there is unrest on Election Day.
In response, Cheney on Friday called Trump a “vindictive, cruel” dictator.
“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant,” Cheney responded in a post on X on Friday, adding “#Womenwillnotbesilenced.”
Later on Friday, Harris described Cheney as a “a true patriot” and said Trump’s increasing “violent rhetoric” should disqualify him from becoming president again.
“His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme,” Harris told reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, one of her campaign stops on Friday. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.”
One of the most high-profile Republicans to turn against Trump, Cheney has endorsed Harris in the November 5 election, saying she crossed party lines to put the country before politics and calling Trump a “danger”.
Once one of the party’s top leaders in the US House of Representatives, Cheney lost her seat in Congress after backing Trump’s second impeachment for his role in his supporters’ January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol and then helping to lead the investigation into the attack.
In recent weeks, Cheney has campaigned with Harris, including in Michigan, a crucial battleground state with large Arab and Muslim populations who the Democrats are trying to win over.
Her father has long been pilloried by Democrats for his central role in pushing for – and executing – the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 on grounds that turned out to be fake. Cheney has embraced her father’s neoconservative legacy throughout her career, leading to questions where Cheney’s support could help Harris win votes in the knife-edge race or end up hurting her prospects.
“When you have surrogates like Liz Cheney campaigning across the state of Michigan, talking about how even Dick Cheney – the war criminal – is supporting Vice President Harris, is that supposed to be a welcoming message to this community?” Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, home to the largest per capita Muslim population in the US, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, are targeting key swing states in a final push to win over undecided voters as they continue to crisscross the United States before Tuesday’s election.
The two contenders, who are locked in a tight race for the White House, will host duelling rallies on Friday night about 10km (6 miles) from one another in Milwaukee, the largest city in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
Milwaukee is home to the most Democratic votes in the state, but its conservative suburbs are where most Republicans live and are a critical area for Trump as he tries to reclaim the state he narrowly won in 2016 and lost in 2020.
Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than 1 percentage point, or fewer than 23,000 votes, and the race is just as tight this time around.
After appearing with music star Jennifer Lopez at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday, Harris will tap musicians such as GloRilla, the Isley Brothers and Flo Milli in Milwaukee. Grammy award-winning rapper Cardi B, who has more than 200 million followers on social media platforms, was also due to speak at the campaign event.
Trump, meanwhile, will return to the Fiserv Forum, the venue where in July he formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention.
Earlier, he made a campaign stop in Michigan, in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, home to a large Arab American community.
Asked why Dearborn was important to him, the former president said: “We have a great feeling for Lebanon, and I know so many people from Lebanon, Lebanese people and the Muslim population [like] Trump, and I’ve a good relationship with them.”
He said: “We want their votes. We’re looking for their votes, and I think we’ll get their votes.”
Trump also disparaged Harris and claimed if elected to the White House again, “we’re going to have peace in the Middle East”.
In comments that echoed claims he has made about ending the conflict in Ukraine, he said bringing peace to the Middle East was possible “but not with the clowns you have running the US right now”.
Opinion polls, both nationally and in the seven closely divided battleground states, suggest the two candidates are virtually tied with four days to go before election day. More than 66 million people have already cast early ballots.
Trump has focused his campaign on stirring fears about violence he blames on immigrants and pessimism over the economy. The former president continues to falsely claim his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud in multiple states, and he and his supporters have spread baseless claims about this election in the key state of Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, Trump stepped up his unfounded allegations that probes into suspect voter registration forms are proof of voter fraud. Some of his supporters also alleged voter suppression when long lines formed this week to receive mail-in ballots.
“This is sowing the seeds for attempts to overturn an election,” said Kyle Miller, a strategist with the advocacy group Protect Democracy. “We saw it in 2020, and I think the lesson Trump and his allies have learned since is that they have to sow these ideas early.”
State officials and democracy advocates said the incidents show a system working as intended. A judge extended the mail-in ballot deadline by three days in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, after the Trump campaign sued over claims that some voters were turned away before a Tuesday deadline.
Election officials discovered potentially fraudulent registrations in Lancaster and neighbouring York counties, prompting investigations by local law enforcement. There is no evidence the applications have resulted in illegal votes.
“This is a sign that the built-in safeguards in our voter registration process are working,” Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top election official, told reporters this week.
Harris, meanwhile, is running on warnings about an authoritarian takeover, pledging to help the middle class and pushing back against Republican abortion bans and restrictions.
An issue top of mind for voters is the economy, with many complaining about inflation and wages that do not keep up with rising prices.
Economists said the US economy is actually in robust shape, shrugging off the remaining impact of the coronavirus pandemic with low unemployment and strong growth. New figures on Friday, however, showed drastically lower job growth last month with only 12,000 new jobs created.
Analysts largely attributed this to knock-on effects from hurricanes and a strike at the aerospace giant Boeing.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Two days out from Election Day, Kamala Harris dashed through four stops across battleground Michigan on Sunday without uttering Donald Trump’s name, while urging voters not to fooled by the GOP nominee’s disparagement of the electoral system that he falsely claims is rigged against him.
The vice president said she trusts the upcoming vote tally and urged voters, “in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
At a Michigan State University rally, Harris got a rousing response when she asked who had already voted and then gave students another job – to encourage their friends to cast ballots in a state that allows Election Day voter registration.
And instead of her usual speech riffs about Trump being unstable, unhinged and out for unchecked power, Harris sought to contrast her optimistic tone with the darker message of the Republican opponent she did not name.
It was all in service of trying to boost her standing in one of the Democratic “blue wall” states in the Midwest considered her smoothest potential path to an Electoral College majority.
“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division,” she said in a oblique reference to Trump. “We are done with that. We are exhausted with that. America is ready for a fresh start, ready for a new way forward where we see our fellow American not as an enemy, but as a neighbor.”
Harris also avoided direct mention of Trump during her 11-minute morning talk at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. But her comments nonetheless served as a clear juxtaposition with the Republican nominee.
“There are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos,” she said. She spoke at the same time Trump was in Pennsylvania declaring the U.S. a “failed nation” and saying that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after the 2020 election, which he denies losing to Democrat Joe Biden.
As Trump referred to Harris’ party as “demonic,” Harris quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and told her friendly audience she saw ready to “chart a new way forward.”
Addressing what was a largely student crowd in East Lansing, Harris promised to seek consensus.
“I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “In fact, I’ll give them a seat at the table because that’s what strong leaders do.””
That was enough for Alexis Plonka, a Michigan State junior who will be voting in her first presidential election. Plonka, who said she has family members who support Trump, applauded the vice president for not referencing the former president directly.
“I think one of the things that turns people off from Trump a lot is the fact that he is so against people that don’t agree with him and that he’s not willing to work with them,” she said.
What to know about the 2024 Election
The approach reflects the wide net Harris has cast since taking the Democratic Party mantle in July after 81-year-old President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid. Casting Trump as erratic and unfit for office, she has attracted supporters ranging from progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York to Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Still, Harris is looking to capitalize on core Democratic constituencies — including young voters like those she addressed at Michigan State — in part by emphasizing her support for abortion rights and Trump’s role in ending a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. One of the loudest cheers she received in East Lansing on Sunday evening came when she declared that government should not tell women what to do with their bodies.
Speaking to reporters Sunday afternoon, Harris pushed back at Trump’s characterizations of U.S. elections, charges that the former president elevated again as he campaigned in Pennsylvania. Harris said his latest comments were “meant to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.” Those “good systems” were in place in 2020, Harris said, and “he lost.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two as she departs Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township, Mich., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, en route to Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Harris used her last Michigan swing to acknowledge progressives and members of the state’s significant population of Arab Americans who are angry at the Biden administration for its continuation of the U.S. alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu government presses its war against Hamas in Gaza.
“I have been very clear that the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.
In East Lansing, she addressed the issue soon after beginning her remarks: “As president I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination.”
Some students in East Lansing voiced their opposition Sunday with audible calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. At least one attendee was escorted out after those cease-fire calls.
After attending church in Detroit, Harris greeted customers and picked up lunch at Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles, where she had collard greens at the Detroit restaurant owned by former Detroit Lions player Ron Bartell, a Detroit native. Later, Harris stopped by Elam Barber Shop, a Black-owned business in Pontiac, where she took part in a moderated conversation with local leaders and Black men.
As she returned to Detroit at the end of the day, Harris hopped on a Zoom call from the airport tarmac with “Win With Black Women,” the group that jumped into action for her on the night she first joined the race. Harris thanked the women for their organizing work and urged them to make one final push to “mobilize our Facebook groups, our family group chats and everyone we know” to turn out the vote.
Michigan, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is critical to Harris’ fortunes. Barack Obama swept the region in 2008 and 2012. But Trump flipped Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016, prompting considerable criticism from Democrats who said nominee Hillary Clinton took the states for granted. Biden returned the three to the Democrats’ column in 2020.
Losing any of the three would put pressure on Harris to notch victories among the four Sun Belt battleground states: North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Russia denies the claims as ‘baseless’ and ‘malicious slander’, says it respects ‘the will of the American people’.
Intelligence agencies in the United States have accused “Russian influence actors” over a video that falsely claimed election fraud was taking place in the battleground state of Georgia, days before the country’s knife-edge presidential vote.
The video began circulating on X, the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk – a staunch supporter of Republican candidate Donald Trump – on Thursday afternoon. It claims to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs who says he is planning to vote multiple times in two counties.
In a joint statement issued on Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said “Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally” in Georgia.
“This judgment is based on information available to the IC [intelligence community] and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities,” the agencies said
The activity is “part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans”, the statement alleged.
Russia, which has previously dismissed as absurd US intelligence claims that it is seeking to meddle in the November 5 election, on Saturday called the latest allegations “baseless”.
Russia’s embassy in the US said it “has not received either any proof for these claims during its communications with US officials, or any inquiries regarding the narrative being promoted by the press” in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
“As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, we respect the will of the American people. All insinuations about ‘Russian machinations’ are malicious slander, invented for use in the internal political struggles” in the US, Moscow’s mission said.
It described as an “unfortunate tradition” that US authorities and media “descend into hysteria about ‘Russian disinformation and interference’, attempting to attribute any problems to external influence”.
Earlier on Friday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his state has been targeted with a video that is “obviously fake”.
He added that the clip is likely the product of Russian trolls “attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election”, calling on social media companies to remove it from their platforms.
The original video was no longer on X on Friday morning, but copycat versions were still being shared widely.
An analysis of the information on two of the IDs in the video confirmed it did not match any registered voters in the counties, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Trump referenced the claims during an election debate against his rival, Democrat Kamala Harris, in September viewed by tens of millions of people. Following that, Springfield saw dozens of bomb threats that forced evacuations and public building closures, as well as the cancellation of a diversity festival.
Opinion polls, both nationwide and in the seven closely divided battleground states, suggest Trump virtually tied with Harris, with four days to go before Election Day. More than 66 million people have already cast early ballots.
As the United States presidential election approaches on November 5, polls show Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump locked in a tight, too-close-to-call race.
But while the US election is about who the American people want to see leading them, the country’s outsized influence means the contest is being watched closely in capitals around the world.
So who would various world leaders want to see in the White House?
Vladimir Putin, Russia
While the Russian leader has suggested — perhaps in jest — that he might prefer Harris as president, many signs point towards Putin actually favouring a Trump win.
“Putin would love Trump as president for various reasons,” Timothy Ash, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.
“First, Putin thinks Trump is soft on Russia and will roll over to give him a great deal on Ukraine – cutting military support to Ukraine and lifting sanctions on Russia,” he said.
“I think Putin looks at Trump and sees a mirror image of himself, an authoritarian, sociopath. He likely thinks he understands Trump,” Ash added.
Furthermore, Putin “hates” the system of Western liberal market democracy, and the Russian leader “thinks Trump will continue where he left off in Trump 1.0 in sowing disunity and chaos”, undermining institutions like NATO and the European Union.
However, Russian analysts say regardless of who wins, Moscow officials believe the US’s aversion towards Russia will remain, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Putin has previously been outspoken about his thoughts on US presidential politics and has made endorsements for candidates time and time again since 2004.
Before the 2016 election, Putin talked Trump up to reporters during an annual news conference. “He is a bright and talented person without any doubt,” he said.
In July 2016, the US intelligence community accused Putin of election interference with the aim of helping Trump defeat Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. In 2020, a bipartisan US Senate report found that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election. US intelligence also alleged that Russia meddled in the 2020 election.
On July 9 this year, a US intelligence official – without naming Trump – indicated to reporters that Russia favoured Trump in the 2024 race.
“We have not observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections, given the role the US is playing with regard to Ukraine and broader policy toward Russia,” the official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said.
In September, Putin made a tongue-in-cheek reference to Harris, describing her as having an “expressive and infectious laugh” which, he said, indicates “she’s doing well” and maybe would not impose sanctions on Russia.
“I don’t know if I’m insulted or he did me a favour,” Trump responded at a campaign rally on the same day as Putin made the wry remarks.
In October, veteran reporter Bob Woodward alleged in his new book that Trump had made at least seven phone calls to Putin since he left the presidency in January 2021. These allegations were rejected by Trump’s campaign and by Trump himself. “He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” Trump said about Woodward to ABC News.
Later in October, during the closing of the BRICS summit, Putin said Trump “spoke about his desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine. I think he is being sincere”.
Trump has been critical of the aid the US sends to Ukraine against Russia’s war and says he will promptly “end the war” if elected.
US President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018 [Pablo Martinez Monsivais/File]
Xi Jinping, China
China’s President Xi Jinping has not publicly made an endorsement.
As with Russia, both Democrats and Republicans have taken a tough stance towards China. During his presidency, Trump started a trade war with China, imposing tariffs on $250bn of Chinese imports in 2018. China hit back, placing tariffs on $110bn of US imports.
It does not seem like Trump would back down from that if elected, but Democrats could also rally against China’s growing influence worldwide.
When Joe Biden became president, he kept Trump’s tariffs in place. Furthermore, on September 13 this year, the Biden administration announced increases in tariffs on certain Chinese-made products. If Harris wins, she is expected to stay consistent with Biden’s policy towards China.
Neither Trump nor Harris have gone into detail about what their course of action would be towards China if they are elected.
Despite Trump’s trade war, he has boasted of his good relationship with Xi. After Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 14, he said world leaders had reached out to him. “I got along very well with President Xi. He’s a great guy, wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened,” Trump told a rally.
However, behind the scenes, Chinese officials may be slightly leaning towards Harris, NBC News quoted Jia Qingguo, the former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, as saying.
“The irony is, Xi probably wants Harris, as does Iran,” Ash told Al Jazeera while talking about Putin.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly endorsed either candidate. However, it is widely believed that he leans towards a Trump win.
Netanyahu and Trump had a good relationship during the former US president’s first term. In 2019, at the Israeli-American Council, Trump said: “The Jewish state has never had a better friend in the White House than your president.”
The feelings were mutual. Netanyahu, in a 2020 statement, said that Trump was “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House”.
Relations between Trump and Netanyahu soured after Biden was elected. When Biden was sworn in, Netanyahu congratulated him. Trump said he felt betrayed by this, in an interview.
However, the Israeli prime minister has made attempts to rekindle the old bond. During a US visit in July this year, Netanyahu visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Axios reported that an ally of Netanyahu even travelled to Mar-a-Lago before the actual meeting of the two leaders, to read passages from Netanyahu’s book, praising Trump.
The Israeli leader also posted a video on social media expressing shock about the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, which was reposted by Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social.
At the same time, the Biden administration has shown unwavering diplomatic and military assistance to Netanyahu’s government amid Israel’s war on Gaza, where the death toll of Palestinians stands at 43,061 according to the United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA), as of October 29.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7 last year – following a Hamas-led attack on villages and army outposts in southern Israel – Biden’s government has sent billions of dollars in military aid to Israel.
Last October 4, Biden told a news conference that he does not know whether Netanyahu is purposefully holding up a ceasefire deal in Gaza, despite reports and speculation that the Israeli leader might have been holding up an agreement on purpose, possibly to influence the US election result.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden said during the news conference, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Former US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they pose for a photo at their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in Palm Beach, Florida, United States, on July 26, 2024 [Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images]
European and NATO leaders
A majority of European leaders prefer Harris as the US president.
“I know her well. She would certainly be a good president,” Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany told reporters.
Trump has threatened to leave NATO several times. However, Politico reported that his national security advisers and defence experts say it is unlikely he will exit the alliance.
Regardless, his complaints about NATO remain. It is expected that he would want NATO allies to increase their defence spending targets.
In February, Trump stirred the pot with allies in Europe by suggesting he would tell Russia to attack NATO allies that he considered “delinquent”.
Additionally, Trump’s victory could mean less alignment with European countries on collaboration for renewable energy initiatives.
This is because Trump has campaigned for more fossil fuel production to enable the US to reduce reliance on foreign energy imports. “We will drill, baby, drill,” he told the Republican National Convention while accepting the party’s nomination in July.
On the other hand, Harris is likely to continue with Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and clean energy transition plans, creating opportunities to collaborate with Europe. However, Harris has also been accused of making a U-turn on sustainability promises such as fracking.
During her 2019 run for the presidential primaries, Harris had promised to ban fracking, a technique of extracting oil and gas by drilling into the earth – which environmental campaigners say is particularly damaging as it consumes large amounts of water and releases the greenhouse gas methane. Trump had criticised her for this promise.
During the presidential debate between Harris and Trump in Pennsylvania in September, however, Harris said: “I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking as vice president.”
Narendra Modi, India
While India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a close relationship with Trump during the latter’s presidency, Modi was also one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden on his 2020 election victory.
“I don’t believe that Modi has a strong preference for one candidate over another,” Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for the South Asia, Asia-Pacific Programme at the Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.
“There is a high degree of bipartisan consensus in Washington on deepening relations with India and viewing it as a long-term strategic partner – arguably as much consensus as there is on viewing China as a long-term strategic rival,” Bajpaee wrote in an article for Chatham House.
He wrote that the three key pillars of US engagement with India are that India is the world’s largest democracy, that the US sees India as a bulwark against China, and India’s potentially growing economy.
Michael Kugelman, the director of the Washington, DC-based Wilson Center think tank’s South Asia Institute, told Al Jazeera that the Indian government will weigh the pros and cons for both candidates.
When it comes to Trump, “there may be a sense in New Delhi that that would be a good thing for India because there may be a perception that Trump would not make a fuss about internal matters in India, including human rights issues,” Kugelman said, adding that despite this, the government of India would be concerned about Trump’s “unpredictable” governing style.
“While Donald Trump is more familiar to Modi from his first term in office, a Kamala Harris presidency offers a degree of continuity from the current Biden administration,” Bajpaee told Al Jazeera.
Under Biden, ties between the US and India deepened in terms of defence, technology and economy. Biden made India a Major Defence Partner, despite India not being a formal military ally and its reliance on Russia for military assistance.
In May 2022, on the sidelines of the Quad summit in Tokyo, India and the US announced an Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), to enhance cooperation in AI, quantum computing and other technological advances.
Before Modi’s visit to India in September this year, Trump called Modi “fantastic” but, at the same time, called India an “abuser of import tariffs”.
South Korea
South Korea is a key ally of the US in the Asia-Pacific. While the country’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has not explicitly endorsed a candidate, the relationship between South Korea and the US has flourished under Biden.
Commentary published in September by US think tank Brookings said that during the Trump administration, “South Koreans were dismayed by charges they were not contributing enough to their defence and to the upkeep of US forces, despite providing the bulk of front-line combat forces against North Korea”.
On the other hand, “the Biden administration has done little to address the North Korean nuclear threat. It has, however, focused on strengthening bilateral and trilateral ties between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul,” Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera.
Howell said this was made evident at the Camp David Summit of 2023, as well as in presidential-level meetings between Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol.
Howell added that South Korea will want to make sure that US support for it does not wither under the next president “at a time when the East Asian region faces not just the threat of a nuclear North Korea, but an increasingly coercive and belligerent China”.
Japan
For US ally Japan, a Trump win may mean he will shift focus to domestic policy and reduce collaboration with Japan, increase tariffs, as well as expect Japan to increase military spending, an analysis published by the Japanese website Nippon Communications Foundation says.
However, Japanese government officials have formed relationships with officials from the last Trump administration, including Bill Hagerty, who is a former ambassador to Tokyo and is seen as a favourite for secretary of state, the analysis by Kotani Tetsuo says.
On the other hand, while a Harris administration would mean more consistent policy with the Biden administration, new relationships would have to be formed with the officials on Harris’s team.
Australia
For US ally Australia, “a Trump victory would raise many questions”, Australian reporter Ben Doherty wrote for The Guardian.
Doherty added that many in Australia believe Trump is likely to withdraw from the Paris Agreement if he is re-elected, which could weaken the influence of the informal climate coalition, the Umbrella Group, which Australia is a part of.
Australia also shares a trade relationship with China and a Trump win could mean a trade war with China, which could be detrimental to Australia’s economy.
Republicans are already laying the ground for rejecting the result of next week’s US presidential election in the event Donald Trump loses, with early lawsuits baselessly alleging fraud and polls from right-leaning groups that analysts say may be exaggerating his popularity and could be used by Trump to claim only cheating prevented him from returning to the White House.
The warnings – from Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans – come as Americans prepare to vote on Tuesday in the most consequential presidential contest in generations. Most polls show Trump running neck and neck with Kamala Harris, the vice-president and Democratic nominee, with the two candidates seemingly evenly matched in seven key swing states.
But suspicions have been voiced over a spate of recent polls, mostly commissioned in battleground states from groups with Republican links, that mainly show Trump leading. The projection of surging Trump support as election day nears has drawn confident predictions from him and his supporters.
“We’re leading big in the polls, all of the polls,” Trump told a rally in New Mexico on Thursday. “I can’t believe it’s a close race,” he told a separate rally in North Carolina, a swing state where polls show he and Harris are in a virtual dead heat.
An internal memo sent to Trump by his chief pollster is confirming that story to him, with Tony Fabrizio declaring the ex-president’s “position nationally and in every single battleground state is SIGNIFICANTLY better today than it was four years ago”.
Pro-Trump influencers, too, have strengthened the impression of inevitable victory with social media posts citing anonymous White House officials predicting Harris’s defeat. “Biden is telling advisers the election is ‘dead and buried’ and called Harris an innate sucker,” the conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec posted this week.
GOP-aligned polling groups have released 37 polls in the final stretch of the campaign, according to a study by the New York Times, during a period when longstanding pollsters have been curtailing their voter surveys. All but seven showed a lead for Trump, in contrast to the findings of long-established non-partisan pollsters, which have shown a more mixed picture – often with Harris leading, albeit within error margins.
Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on 30 October. One poll puts her ahead of Trump by one point in the state, but another behind him by three points. Photograph: Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images
In one illustration, a poll last Tuesday by the Trafalgar Group – an organisation founded by a former Republican consultant – gave Trump a three-point lead over Harris in North Carolina. By contrast, a CNN/SRSS poll two days later in the same state put the vice-president ahead by a single point.
The polling expert Nate Silver – who has said his “gut” favours a Trump win, while simultaneously arguing that people should not trust their gut – cast doubt on the ex-president’s apparent surge in an interview with CNBC. “Anyone who is confident about this election is someone whose opinion you should discount,” he said.
“There’s been certainly some momentum towards Trump in the last couple of weeks. [But] these small changes are swamped by the uncertainty. Any indicator you want to point to, I could point to counter-examples.”
Democrats and some polling experts believe the conservative-commissioned polls are aiming to create a false narrative of unstoppable momentum for Trump – which could then be used to challenge the result if Harris wins.
“Republicans are clearly strategically putting polling into the information environment to try to create perceptions that Trump is stronger. Their incentive is not necessarily to get the answer right,” Joshua Dyck, of the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, told the New York Times.
Simon Rosenberg, a Democrat strategist and blogger, said it followed a trend set in the 2022 congressional elections, when a succession of surveys favourable to Republicans created an expectation of a pro-GOP “red wave” that never materialised on polling day.
“These polls were usually two, three, four points more Republican than the independent polls that were being done and they ended up having the effect of pushing the polling averages to the right,” he told MeidasTouch News.
“We cannot be bamboozled by this again. It is vital to Donald Trump’s effort if he tries to cheat and overturn the election results, he needs to have data showing that somehow he was winning the election.
“The reason we have to call this out is that Donald Trump needs to go into election day with some set of data showing him winning, so if he loses, he can say we cheated.”
Trump, who falsely claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, is also paving the way for repeating the accusation via legal means.
Bucks County, in Pennsylvania, was ordered to extend early voting by a day after voters waiting to submit mail-in ballots were turned away. Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
He told a rally in Pennsylvania that Democrats were “cheating” in the state, and on Wednesday his campaign took legal action against election officials in Bucks County, where voters waiting to submit early mail-in ballots were turned away because the deadline had expired. A judge later ordered the county to extend early voting by one day. There is no evidence of widespread cheating in elections in Pennsylvania or any other state, and mail-in ballots are in high demand in part because Trump himself has encouraged early voting.
Suing to allege – without evidence – that there has been voting fraud is part of a well-worn pattern of Trump disputing election results that do not go his way. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, his team filed 60 lawsuits disputing the results, all of which were forcefully thrown out in court.
Anti-Trump Republicans have expressed similar concerns to Democrats about Trump’s actions. Michael Steele, a former Republican national committee chair and Trump critic, told the New Republic that the GOP-commissioned polls were gamed to favour Trump.
“You find different ways to weight the participants, and that changes the results you’re going to get,” he said. “They’re gamed on the back end so Maga can make the claim that the election was stolen.”
Stuart Stevens, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican candidate, and a founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told the same outlet: “Their gameplan is to make it impossible for states to certify. And these fake polls are a great tool in that, because that’s how you lead people to think the race was stolen.”
Trump-leaning surveys have influenced the polling averages published by sites such as Real Clear Politics, which has incorporated the results into its projected electoral map on election night, forecasting a win for the former president.
Elon Musk, Trump’s wealthiest backer and surrogate, posted the map to his 202 million followers on his own X platform, proclaiming: “The trend will continue.”
Trump and Musk have also promoted online betting platforms, which have bolstered the impression of a surge for the Republican candidate stemming from hefty bets on him winning.
A small number of high-value wagers from four accounts linked to a French national appeared to be responsible for $28m gambled on a Trump victory on the Polymarket platform, the New York Times reported.
Trump referenced the Polymarket activity in a recent speech. “I don’t know what the hell it means, but it means we’re doing pretty well,” he said.
MIAMI (AP) — Concerts and carnivals hosted at polling precincts. “Souls to the Polls” mobilizations after Sunday service. And star-studded rallies featuring Hollywood actors, business leaders, musical artists and activists.
Such seemingly disparate efforts all have a single goal: boost Black voter turnout ahead of Election Day.
How Black communities turn out in the 2024 election has been scrutinized due to the pivotal role Black voters have played in races for the White House, Congress and state legislatures across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who if elected would be the second Black president, has made engaging Black voters a priority of her messaging and policy platform. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has sought to make inroads with Democrats’ most consistent voting bloc with unorthodox and at times controversial outreach.
A first-time voter cheers before former first lady Michelle Obama speaks, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in College Park, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Democratic candidates, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, and unincorporated Miami-Dade voters dance to the sounds of the Bahamian Junkanoo band during a festive visit to the polls at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
Voters and attendees gather around for t-shirts in support of the Harris-Walz ticket at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, the last day of early voting in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
A key strategy in Harris and Democrats’ Black voter outreach includes dispatching the first Black president and his wife, the former first lady, to battleground states where winning may come down to how well the Obamas convince ambivalent or apathetic voters that they must not sit this one out.
Democratic efforts have ranged from vigorous door-knocking campaigns in Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia this weekend to swing state rallies. Michelle Obama rallied voters in Norristown, Pennsylvania on Saturday alongside Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Keys while Barack Obama stumped in Milwaukee on Sunday. The former first lady also conducted her own scrupulously nonpartisan rally on Tuesday where speakers evoked the South’s Civil Rights history.
“I’m always amazed at how little so many people really understand just how profoundly elections impact our daily lives,” Michelle Obama said. “Because that’s really what your vote is, it is your chance to tell folks in power what you want.”
Efforts to boost Black voter turnout often start at the community level. In Miami, members of local churches gathered Sunday at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and marched to a nearby early voting center as part of a Souls to the Polls event.
“It helps a lot to encourage others to vote,” said Regina Tharpe, a Miami resident. She had voted earlier, but said people “get excited when they see us walking down the street. It encourages them to get out.”
Sharina Perez, a first-time voter, brought her mother, Celina DeJesus, to vote on the last day of early voting in Florida. She said a number of issues inspired her to vote. “It was for myself, my future, my mom’s future and for the younger generation,” she said.
Organizers focused on Black communities say they are often combating exhaustion and cynicism about politics, especially among younger Black voters and Black men. But they are cautiously optimistic that their efforts will bear fruit.
“If you want the people who are going to be most impacted to come out, you have to go where they are,” said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, whose campaigns aimed at Black voters included live events in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group has reached more than 8 million voters in those states through text messaging and digital in the last month, he said.
”We’ve been going to those precincts and communities, those new platforms and websites where there is so often misinformation targeting our communities,” Brown said.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Other events have had a more free-flowing structure. The Detroit Pistons, for instance, hosted a “Pistonsland” festival in a majority Black neighborhood featuring musical performances from rappers including Lil Baby, carnival games, food trucks and other fanfare alongside the opportunity to cast a ballot. The nonpartisan carnival was constructed next to an early voting polling place.
Democratic candidates, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, left, and unincorporated Miami-Dade voters dance to the sounds of the Bahamian Junkanoo band during a festive visit to the polls at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
“I don’t like neither one,” said Karl Patrick, a Detroit native who attended the festival. He strongly backed Harris, however, “because Trump wants to be a dictator.” Not all of his close friends had come to the same conclusion — at least one of his friends was fervently backing the former president, he said.
Black voters are the most overwhelmingly Democratic voting demographic in the country. But the Trump campaign has made a more concerted pitch to win a greater share of Black voters this year, particularly Black men.
The Trump campaign has similarly zeroed in on economic arguments. Trump has repeatedly argued that undocumented immigrants take “Black jobs,” despite economists finding the claim unfounded. The campaign believes the former president’s broader pitch on the economy, crime and traditional values has appeal in Black communities.
“If Kamala wanted to turn our country around, then she would do it now,” said Janiyah Thomas, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. “We deserve more than token gestures — we deserve a leader who respects us, empowers us, and backs it up with action.”
GOP Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt have emerged as key surrogates in Trump’s outreach to Black men. The campaign hosted a Black men’s barbershop roundtable with Donalds in Philadelphia in October. The Black Conservative Federation, which hosted a gala Trump attended earlier this year, held a “closing argument” event Sunday with Donalds and Hunt.
Millions of Black voters, like many Americans, have already cast a ballot in the election, including in Georgia and North Carolina.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, spoke about that state’s turnout at a Tuesday brunch and bus tour launch hosted by the Black Music Action Coalition.
Miami-Dade residents wait in line to vote at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
“The truth of the matter is that Trump has been advising his people who always vote on Election Day to get out early. So they’re the ones that are making these numbers look so big. On our behalf, Black people, we have been slightly underperforming,” Johnson said.
Early Black voter turnout slightly lagged in North Carolina compared to 2020, though increased turnout at the close of early voting shrunk the gap. Whether Black voter turnout breaks records in 2020 hinges on Election Day. Many veteran Black leaders are confident the myriad strategies will bring voters out.
“Now obviously, there’s always a group of people who still don’t believe that their vote makes a difference and they lag behind,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a Detroit pastor and the president of the city’s NAACP chapter. But so far, he added, “the indicators to us are such that those people are going to turn out. They’re not going to miss this this historic moment.”
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Matt Brown reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.
New York City, the US – In Queens, 26-year-old Claudia, a first-generation college-educated Latina born in the United States, sat at her family’s dinner table engaging in heated political debates that switched seamlessly between English and Spanish. She and her immigrant parents from Mexico and El Salvador clashed over the future of the country they all call home.
“It’s not about loving [Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala] Harris,” Claudia said, disappointed with the administration’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza and immigration, but committed to voting against Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump’s return.
Her parents, US citizens for more than a decade, feel differently. They worry about their economic security – like 52 percent of Latinos, according to a June survey. And they support Trump for his economic policies and in frustration at the inflation the US has experienced in the last few years.
Their resentment is directed towards the support of President Joe Biden’s administration for “new immigrants arriving with benefits, a hotel, and a pathway to documents”, while their own relatives remain undocumented – a population that Trump has threatened to deport.
This generational divide within one family – part of one of the fastest-growing demographics in the US, with 36.2 million eligible voters making up 14.7 percent of the electorate – illustrates the challenges both parties face in appealing to a group that resists simple categorisations.
‘Latinos are not a monolith’
Eligible Latino voters in the US are demographically diverse. About 60 percent are of Mexican heritage, 13 percent are Puerto Rican, while Cubans, Dominicans, and other Central and South Americans each represent less than 7 percent, according to the National Museum of the American Latino.
Latino voters are also, of course, men and women, young and old, and immigrants and US-born.
But despite this diversity, political campaigns and the media often approach Latinos as a single voting bloc. “The biggest misconception is treating Latinos as if they’re the same or can be reached with a single message. It’s about the diversity of ideas, experiences, ideologies,” Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of The Latino Newsletter and an MSNBC columnist, told Al Jazeera.
“The phrase ‘Latinos are not a monolith’ should be eliminated—it’s already mainstream. The real question is, why haven’t political parties realised this?” he asked.
As polls reveal that immigration ranks lower among Latino voter priorities, campaign ads are adjusting their focus to better connect with new voters. Both Trump and Harris have expanded outreach, including town halls with Latino voters hosted by Univision, one of the largest Spanish-language networks in the US.
However, the rise of misinformation on social media, often spreading in Spanish and targeting immigrant communities, complicates these outreach efforts and has shaped perceptions on critical issues.
Misinformation on social media spreads false claims about issues like immigration policies, voting processes, and government benefits. This can foster confusion and mistrust, potentially affecting how Latino voters perceive campaign messages.
Experts agree that campaigns now face a dual challenge: reaching Latino voters with tailored messages while also countering misleading narratives that may distort views.
However, Trump’s strongest appeal lies in fearmongering about communism, a message spread widely on Spanish-language social media by Trump and his affiliates.
This outreach has also resonated with Latino evangelical communities, who make up 15 percent of Latinos in the US and are a fast-growing group among American evangelical Christians, with nearly half leaning Republican, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey.
For many Latino immigrants, especially those from Cuban and Venezuelan communities, Trump’s messaging also resonates with memories of leftist regimes. “Republicans have weaponised the fear of socialism and communism, especially in Florida,” said Paola Ramos, author of Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America.
According to Varela, Trump’s tactics mirror Latin American political strategies that shape election narratives and outcomes.
Recently, Trump shared an AI-generated image of Vice President Kamala Harris addressing a “communist” crowd on X, which garnered more than 81 million views.
Varela also notes that anti-communist ads in Spanish media specifically target working-class, Spanish-speaking men, framing economic security as a defence against ideological threats.
NYU professor and political scientist Cristina Beltran suggested that Trump’s appeal taps into ideals of masculinity and hierarchy, offering a sense of belonging within a nationalist vision of the US.
“Whiteness has historically been a way of understanding American membership as a politics of domination,” she explained to Al Jazeera.
For some Latino men, this framework provides a sense of elevated status, as Trump’s promise of prosperity and stability appeals to those who see themselves positioned above the undocumented. Beltran added that Trump “gives Americans a permission structure to embrace these attitudes”.
Harris moving beyond identity politics
Polling indicates that most Latino voters still favour Harris over Trump.
Under campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the first Latina to lead a general election effort, the Harris team has broadened Latino outreach, expanding efforts September 15 to October 15, during Hispanic Heritage Month.
The campaign has ramped up ad spending directed at specific Latino groups, such as Hispanic women, “Hombres con Harris” [Men for Harris], and 13 diaspora groups like “Boricuas con Kamala” [Puerto Ricans for Harris] and “Mexicanos con Kamala” [Mexicans for Harris]. The campaign also allocated $3m for Spanish-language radio ads.
Harris’s message moves beyond identity politics, with recent ads in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania focused on economic concerns, high drug prices, and crime.
Political scientist Beltran observed that Harris is balancing her identity as a woman of colour with broader policy appeals. “Nobody wants to be simply reduced to their race or gender,” she explained.
“The Harris campaign recognises this and aims to connect with voters on a range of issues, understanding that identity encompasses much more than demographics.”
Her outreach has included ads tailored to Puerto Rican communities, contrasting with Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally, which faced backlash over controversial remarks made by a comedian about Puerto Rico.
Beltran noted that Harris’s approach has been strategic: “It’s been interesting watching Harris run ads where Latinidad [Latino cultural identity] isn’t explicitly mentioned, but the visuals feature people who look identifiably Latino – often brown-skinned individuals with voiceovers in accented English.”
“This is a subtle way to signal that these ads are targeted at Latinos. I actually wish they included voices with and without accents to further reflect diversity.”
Varela pointed out that “the campaign is shifting to recognise it’s about regional diversity”. He also highlighted Harris’s “opportunity economy” plan, which appeals to Latinos by emphasising pragmatic economic growth, through job creation, small business support, and affordable housing, especially in underserved communities.
“Harris positions herself as a ‘pragmatic capitalist’,” he explained, noting that Latinos are reshaping the US economy, contributing $3.6 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP). This impact is driven by high rates of entrepreneurship, labour force participation, and essential roles in sectors like manufacturing, retail, and construction, though representation issues persist.
A politically independent generation
Analysts agree that campaigns are increasingly leveraging social media to reach a new generation of Latino voters, who may no longer see themselves as defined solely by their Latinidad.
These diverse perspectives are amplified by Latino influencers, some aligning with Harris, others with Trump, each reflecting a spectrum of political allegiances.
“There’s also a growing movement among young Latinos identifying as politically independent,” noted Varela, that has often been overshadowed by traditional party narratives.
Now, more young Latino voters are reasserting this stance, demanding a political representation that speaks to their unique experiences and values.
“Latinos are no longer confined to Democrat or Republican labels,” Varela concludes. “This politically independent movement is not just asking for recognition—it’s reshaping the boundaries of American politics.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s election will test whether the state maintains its new reputation as a Republican stronghold, or whether Democrats make some gains by tapping into the support for abortion and marijuana ballot questions and the new energy Vice President Kamala Harris brings to the race.
Gone are the days when Florida was looked at as the biggest prize among swing states. After former President Barack Obama won Florida twice, former President Donald Trump carried the state by a whisker in 2016 and then by a much larger share in 2020. In 2022, Republicans took all five statewide seats on the ballot by landslide margins.
Still, there is a lot of buzz over constitutional amendments that could protect abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana, with both sides of each issue pumping millions of dollars into advertising. Democrats support the ballot measures and hope they boost turnout to give them at least a chance stopping Trump’s third straight Florida victory and keeping U.S. Sen. Rick Scott from winning a second term.
The only statewide office on the ballot is Scott’s Senate seat. Scott is being challenged by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Murcarsel-Powell in a race that’s been overshadowed by the presidential election and the abortion and marijuana ballot questions.
Even if Trump and Scott are victorious in Florida, Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said the election will be a huge success if the amendments pass and the party flips enough legislative seats to take away the Republicans’ supermajority.
“Look where we were in of November 2022. We had the largest loss that Florida Democrats have ever experienced,” Fried said. “Nobody anticipated that we would even have this conversation today, that the polls are showing that we are tight, that there was even a possibility that Florida would be in play. Everybody counted us out.”
Still, it’s an uphill climb. The amendments need support from at least 60% of voters, and there’s enough money being spent against them that it could create doubts among voters who normally support the issues, said Florida-based Republican political strategist Jamie Miller.
“As a general rule, amendments pass if there’s no real effort against them and they fail when there are real efforts against them,” Miller said.
Miller also believes Democrats are motivated to vote against the Republicans they don’t like rather than be inspired by their own candidates.
“I see excitement against Donald Trump and against Rick Scott, but that as a general rule in the state the size of Florida is not enough to get you across the line,” he said.
Scott served two terms as governor, winning each with less than 50% of the vote. In 2018, he defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a race decided by 0.2 percentage points. But Florida politics changed. The last time Scott was on the ballot, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the state. Republicans now have a million-voter advantage.
Scott, one of the richest members of Congress, pumped millions of dollars of his own money into the race, as he has with his previous three elections. Far outspent, and with little money coming in from national Democrats until the last few weeks of the race, Murcarsel-Powell struggled to gain attention.
While Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t on the ballot, he spent time campaigning against the abortion rights and marijuana amendments. DeSantis even used state agencies to fight the amendment, with the Agency for Health Care Administration set up a website and aired TV ads providing information on abortion and the Department of Health tried to stop television stations from airing a pro-amendment ad.
What to know about the 2024 Election
The abortion amendment would protect the rights of women to have an abortion up to the point the fetus can survive outside the womb. Florida now bans abortion six weeks after conception, when many women don’t realize they are pregnant.
Voters overwhelming approved medical marijuana in 2016. This year they’re being asked to legalize recreational marijuana. The marijuana industry has spent tens of millions of dollars on the campaign, while DeSantis has raised money against it and criticized it often during official events.
Very few, if any, of Florida’s 28 congressional seats are competitive, but the state will elect at least one new member to Congress. Former Senate President Mike Haridopolos is favored to replace retiring Republican Rep. Bill Posey. He’s being challenged by Democrat Sandy Kennedy in a strong Republican district.
Republicans will maintain firm control of the Legislature. Democrats will consider it a major victory if they flip enough seats to remove the supermajority GOP hold in the House and Senate.
One of the legislative seats being heavily targeted is held by Republican Sen. Corey Simon, a former Florida State and NFL football star who is being challenged by nationally known civil rights lawyer Daryl Parks, who is the former partner of civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
