Trump and Harris hold high-stakes dueling campaign in Wisconsin, Star Power

Milwaukee:

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will hold dueling campaign rallies in Wisconsin’s largest city, Milwaukee, on Friday as both candidates make a desperate appeal to wavering voters as Election Day approaches.

Republican Trump will return to the spot where he was crowned his party’s presidential candidate last summer, his ear bandaged with bright white gauze after being wounded in an attempted assassination just days earlier, while Democrat Harris will lean on rapper’s star power Cardi B to surpass her rival.

Their race back to the so-called Blue Wall states came after the pair spent Thursday in the Western US, making three appearances each.

The highlight for Harris had been a star-studded rally in Las Vegas, where she was introduced by pop star Jennifer Lopez, while Trump spent a comfortable evening basking in mutual affection with right-wing provocateur Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona.

With Tuesday’s vote looming, the candidates appear poised for a photo finish despite fierce efforts by the rival campaigns to switch gears and dominate the news cycle in a week so far marked by bitter disputes and blunders on both sides. sides on issues of race, gender. and reproductive rights.

Wisconsin, one of the key battleground states that will influence the Nov. 5 election, was decided by less than one percentage point in 2016 and 2020, and the race for the 10 Electoral College votes is just as close this time around.

Harris — who has fought to maintain her image as a “joyful warrior” even as Trump insults her and other Democrats — tried to harness the power of musicians like GloRilla, the Isley Brothers and Flo Milli on a “When We Vote We Win” rally and concert in Milwaukee.

Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B would speak at the event, Harris’ campaign said.

Trump returned to the Fiserv Forum, the site of perhaps the highlight of his campaign: the Republican National Convention.

The convention came as the tycoon was riding high in the polls after two major events — the assassination attempt and a debate with then-candidate Joe Biden, which proved disastrous for the Democrat — but before Biden dropped out of the race and handed over the baton. to Harris.

Lifted by a wave of enthusiasm, Harris quickly ate away at Trump’s lead, but polls have remained largely deadlocked since.

With fears growing that Trump might refuse to accept the outcome if he loses the election, many Americans braced for violence and unrest in the days after November 5.

Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told a news conference this week that no “credible threats” had been identified against the capital, which was the site of a deadly riot by Trump supporters seeking to overturn Biden’s election victory on January 6, 2021.

Smith said officials remained “vigilant.” Police would support peaceful protests, she said, but “we will not tolerate any violence.”

“We will not tolerate rioting, we will not tolerate the destruction of property, we will not tolerate unlawful behavior,” she said.

About 63.5 million people voted early, more than 40 percent of the total votes in 2020.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)