ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump gave their final speeches to voters at roughly the same time in the same part of Pennsylvania on Monday, spending the final full day of the presidential campaign in the state. It can make or break an opportunity.
Focusing on the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage in Redding, about 30 miles from Allentown, where Harris opened her own event about 30 minutes later.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we win a whole ball of wax,” Trump said. “It’s over.”
In fact, a Trump victory in Pennsylvania would overturn 19 Electoral College votes, shattering the Democratic “blue wall” and making it more difficult for Harris to get the 270 votes she needs.
Harris, the Democratic candidate, spent most of Monday in Pennsylvania, the biggest draw among states expected to decide the Electoral College results, and offered a similarly blunt assessment.
“We need everyone in Pennsylvania to vote,” she said. “This election will make a difference.”
In addition to Allentown, Harris visited Scranton and Redding, President Joe Biden’s birthplace, and stopped in Pittsburgh, concluding with a late-night rally in Philadelphia that will feature Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.
“Are you ready for this?” Harris shouted in Scranton on Monday, holding a large hand-made “VOTE FOR FREEDOM” sign and holding a similar “VOTE” banner at her side.
Trump first went to North Carolina before visiting Redding. He then headed to Pittsburgh, at the other end of the state, and finished in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, he will hold his final campaign rally at the same location where he ran for office in 2016 and 2020.
Southeastern Pennsylvania is home to thousands of Latinos, including a sizable Puerto Rican population. Harris and her allies repeatedly attacked Trump for scouting out comedians in Puerto Rico during the former president’s tented Madison Square Garden event. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.”
“It was outrageous,” said German Vega, a Dominican American who lives in Redding and became a U.S. citizen in 2015. “It bothered too many people, even many Republicans. “It wasn’t right and I think Trump should have apologized to Latinos.”
But Emilio Feliciano, 43, was waiting outside Reading’s Santander Arena for a chance to take a photo of Trump’s motorcade. He dismissed any mention of Puerto Rico, even though his family is from the country, and said he would vote for Trump because he cares about the economy.
“Are the borders safe? Are you going to curb crime? “That’s what I care about.”
Harris told the crowd: “I am proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and its people.”
“And I will be a president for all Americans,” she said, adding, “The momentum is on our side.” “Can you feel it?”
Meanwhile, Trump continued to talk about his proposed immigration crackdown. He called to the stage Patti Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, 37, who was found dead a day after she went missing while on a hike. Authorities say the suspect in her death, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernández, entered the United States illegally after allegedly killing the woman in his native El Salvador.
About 77 million Americans voted early. A victory for either side would be unprecedented.
If Trump wins, he would become the first president-elect to be charged with and convicted of a felony after a trial in New York. He would be granted the authority to close other federal investigations pending against him. Trump also became the second president in history to win non-consecutive White House terms, following Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Harris is vying to become President Joe Biden’s second-in-command, breaking the same barriers in national office and becoming the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to hold the Oval Office in four years.
The vice president rose to the top of the Democratic nomination after Biden’s woeful performance in the June debate led to his withdrawal from the race, one of a series of spasms to hit this year’s campaign.
Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by millimeters. His Secret Service detail thwarted a second attempt last September, when a gunman planted a rifle while Trump was golfing at one of his courses in Florida.
Harris, 60, has pitched herself as a generational change from Biden, 81, and Trump, 78. She has emphasized her support for abortion rights following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion services, and has regularly referenced the former president’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Harris, whose coalition includes progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney, called Trump a threat to democracy and later in the campaign called Trump a “”fascist member.”
Heading into Monday, Harris has largely stopped referring to Trump by name, instead referring to him as “someone else.” She promised to resolve the issue and seek an agreement.
Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters that not mentioning Trump by name was intentional because voters “want to see an optimistic, hopeful and patriotic vision for the future from their leader.”
Harris also offered some insight into her personal formation as a politician that she doesn’t often reveal. In Scranton, she talked about how she was once a candidate and “used to campaign with my ironing board” while running for San Francisco district attorney in 2002.
“I walked up to the front of the grocery store and set up an ironing board, because ironing boards make really great standing desks,” the vice president said, recalling how he taped them up. Put a poster on the outside of the board, fill the top with flyers, and “require people to talk to me when they come in and out.”
In Allentown, Harris rallied with rapper Fat Joe. She visited Redding in person after the Trump rally, visiting Puerto Rican restaurant Old San Juan Cafe with Ocasio-Cortez. Both Fat Joe and Ocasio-Cortez, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, are of Puerto Rican heritage.
As the vice president’s motorcade began, supporters chanted “Sí se puede” and “Kamala.” Once inside, Harris struck up a conversation with some diners and even mixed in a few Spanish words with “Gracias.” The vice president later noted that he was too busy campaigning to find time to eat much, saying he was “very hungry” and ordered cassava, yellow rice and pork.
Harris then visited two homes in Redding with campaign volunteers to conduct canvassing herself.
“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to stop by and say I want to get your vote,” she said at one home.
“You already got my vote,” the woman responded, adding that her husband would vote the next day.
Ron Kessler, 54, an Air Force veteran and Republican-turned-Democrat, said he planned to stand in line at Harris’ Allentown rally and vote for the second time in his life. Kessler said he didn’t vote for a long time because he thought the country would “vote for the right candidate.”
But “now that I’m older and much wiser, I believe it’s important and a civic duty.” And it’s important for me to vote for myself and for my democracy and my country.”
As recently as Sunday, Trump reiterated his false claims that the U.S. election was rigged against him, reflected on violence against journalists and said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House in 2021. This is a dark turn that masks another anchor of his final argument. : “Kamala broke it. “I’ll fix it.”
Your support has never been more important
Support HuffPost
Already participated? Please log in to hide this message.
Superville reported from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Barrow reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
