In his final speech, Harris speaks to a specific group of undecided voters

WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign focuses on two different audiences that form a small group of undecided voters who could tip the election if the Democratic candidate closes the race with a warning about putting Donald Trump back in the White House.

Now that Harris has stepped up her rhetoric against Trump – label him a fascist − some Democratic allies have questioned a Trump-centric strategyand called it a risk for Harris to focus narrowly on the character of the former president and the Republican nominee.

Republican critics have charged this the vice president leaving the ‘joy’ behind as she prepares to deliver her ‘closing argument’ speech at the Ellipse in Washington DC, the same place where Trump gave his speech on January 6, 2021, before his supporters stormed the Capitol attacked.

But in a historically close election in seven battleground states, the Democratic nominee’s latest argument — portraying Trump as too dangerous to gain power — is intended to appeal directly to some 3% to 5% of the electorate whose decision has not yet been made. a week before Election Day, or could change, according to a Harris campaign official.

One camp is “convincing voters to participate,” the official said. This includes young voters, voters of color and others who are inclined to vote for Harris but still need to be motivated. The group includes so-called “low-information voters” who do not closely follow the daily news of the campaign.

The second group consists of more committed traditional voters: independent and Republican voters from suburbs who may have supported Nikki Haley in the Republican primary against Trump, but who disagree with Harris. Many of these people voted Democratic in the 2022 midterm elections, largely driven by the issue of abortion following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign chairman, said in a call with reporters on Tuesday that presidential campaigns have historically focused solely on getting votes so close to Election Day. But she said the Harris campaign remains in persuasion mode in addition to mobilization.

“We do know that there really is a segment of undecided voters who are open — and frankly after this weekend — maybe some new voters who are open to supporting us,” O’Malley Dillon said, referring to Trump’s campaign rally Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden in New York, which has received a bipartisan backlash for its racist tropes and vitriol.

“These are exactly the people we’ve been talking to all along,” O’Malley Dillon said of the two different camps. “And there’s no doubt that we think we have an opportunity to move away from Trump’s past support.”

Trump says Harris is waging a “campaign of hate.”

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University national polltaken from October 14 to 18, found that 5% of the likely electorate was undecided in a race that Harris narrowly led 45%-44% over Trump. A New York Times/Siena College pollfrom October 20 to 23, found Harris and Trump tied for 48% of likely voters nationally, while less than 4% were undecided.

More than 50 million people across the country voted early ahead of the Nov. 5 election, according to the newspaper’s tracking The University of Florida Elections Laboratory.

The seven battleground states expected to decide the election — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — are all within 1 or 2 percentage points, according to to the FiveThirtyEight average of recent polls.

Trump accused Harris of waging a “campaign of hate” during remarks to supporters at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida ahead of his Democratic rival’s Ellipse speech. The Trump campaign has landed on a closing message of ‘Harris Broke It, Trump Will Fix It’ in an attempt to link Harris to Biden’s unpopularity and his poor records on handling the economy and immigration.

“She is waging a campaign of ‘immoralization’ and actually a campaign of destruction,” Trump said Tuesday morning. ‘But actually, perhaps more than anything, it is a campaign of hate. It is a campaign of absolute hatred.

Harris’ attempt to portray Trump as dangerous comes as positive ratings for the former president are higher than when he ran for re-election in 2020 while leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times/Siena College Poll found that Trump is viewed favorably by 48% of likely voters and unfavorably by 50%. Trump was viewed favorably by 43% of voters and unfavorably by 54% in the final Times poll before the 2020 election.

In her closing arguments Tuesday, Harris is expected to portray Trump as fixated on self and personal retribution – who would bring an “enemies list” into the White House – unlike Harris and her “to-do list” of policies for the American people.

The campaign says Harris will present herself as a “new generation of leadership” to leave behind a decade of Trump-dominated politics and discuss her various policy proposals to improve housing affordability and boost small business growth stimulate.

“This is not a presidential candidate who is thinking about how to improve your life,” Harris wants to say about Trump, according to excerpts of her speech provided by the campaign.

Harris faces questions about the closure strategy

The Ellipse on the National Mall was chosen not only to reminisce about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — in which Trump supporters tried to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. But with the White House as a backdrop, the location is meant to remind Americans of the “seriousness of the job,” O’Malley Dillon said, so they can imagine the different approaches in the Oval Office.

“This speech is really intended to reach those undecided voters, those people who are making the decision, to break through at a time when sometimes it’s hard to break through,” O’Malley Dillon said.

Some Democrats have argued that Harris should make a more aggressive economic call in the final days of the campaign.”

“When she transitioned to Trump’s attacks on democracy, Harris’ campaign ground to a halt.” Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, wrote in a column in The Guardian on Tuesday. “I think that’s because Americans continue to focus on the economy and want an answer to why they continue to struggle economically.” Reich urged Harris to connect Americans’ persistent economic concerns to the power of big corporations.

Harris has seized on recent comments from John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff. who said Trump fits the description of a fascist and in the past made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler.

But leaders of Future Forward, the leading super PAC backing Harris’ presidential bid, have expressed concern that Harris would end her campaign by attacking Trump solely as a fascist.

In a Future Forward email to fellow Democrats: reported by The New York Timesthe group wrote: “Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’ plans to meet the needs of everyday Americans.”

The Harris campaign has pushed back on criticism of the strategy, arguing that the heightened warnings about Trump are central to the contrast message with Harris.

“America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the top and hurt everyone else,” Harris wants to say in her speech. “I offer a different path.”

Reach Joey Garrison at X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.