Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are campaigning in the swing state of Pennsylvania this weekend, before the vice president, who continues to make significant gains in the polls, heads to the big Democratic convention.
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The former president is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday afternoon in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania, while his rival takes a bus Sunday to travel through several counties in the western state crucial to November's presidential election.
Kamala Harris will then travel to Chicago to celebrate her inauguration during a large gathering of her party, which united around her after the explosion caused by the withdrawal of Joe Biden's nomination at the end of last July.
Since then, good polls have been piling up in favor of the candidate, who would become the first female president of the United States if elected.
A new poll published Saturday by the magazine New York Times Siena College now shows Kamala Harris leading in key states Arizona and North Carolina. She's also closing in on her rival in Georgia and Nevada.
The same poll last week in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania showed her slightly ahead of Donald Trump there.
However, all of these states are likely to swing the election, which is expected to be very close.
Faced with the momentum of the Democratic campaign, Donald Trump is struggling to find a solution, despite a growing number of speeches — such as a last-minute press conference in New Jersey on Thursday that was seen as particularly disjointed.
The battle over the economy
So Donald Trump will have to try on Saturday to find a second wind with his supporters in Pennsylvania, the state where he was targeted in an assassination attempt in early July.
In 2020, the 78-year-old billionaire narrowly lost to Joe Biden, but still benefits from strong support in rural areas and small towns.
The Republican campaign wants to focus more on its messages about immigration and inflation rather than on direct attacks on its rival, which don't necessarily resonate with undecided voters.
“American workers are suffering because of the dangerous liberal policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” he said in a statement to his team ahead of the rally.
But on Thursday, Donald Trump said he felt “legitimate” to personally attack the Democrat, whom he called a “communist” and questioned his “intelligence.”
The two candidates clashed over the economy this week, with the former Democratic president blaming the “devastating” rise in prices while presenting herself as a champion of the middle class.
The 59-year-old candidate laid out some concrete proposals during a trip to North Carolina on Friday, such as building three million new housing units.
Building enthusiasm
Kamala Harris will be accompanied on Sunday by her lieutenant governor, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and their spouses on a bus tour that will start in Pittsburgh but also pass through a “historically conservative” county, according to her rural team.
The goal will be to consolidate or even “expand” Joe Biden’s success in this state four years ago, and to continue to seek to distinguish themselves from the dark vision portrayed by Donald Trump.
The former California attorney general will then travel to Chicago, where she will have to build on the enthusiasm generated by her entry into the race just a month ago, which should give her camp hope of winning at the ballot box.
She will be supported by Joe Biden – who was reduced to the role of host after being pushed to give up a second term over concerns about his vitality – and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, before speaking herself on Thursday evening.
