Kathmandu: Democrat Kamala Harris made her closing pitch for the US presidency at a historically Black church and to Arab Americans in battleground Michigan on Sunday, while her Republican rival Donald Trump embraced violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Opinion polls show the pair locked in a tight race, with Vice President Harris, 60, bolstered by strong support among female voters while former President Trump, 78, gains ground with Hispanic voters, especially men. Voters overall view both candidates unfavorably, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, but that has not dissuaded them from casting ballots.
More than 77 million Americans have already done so ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, approaching half the total 160 million votes cast in 2020, in which US voter turnout was the highest in more than a century.
Control of Congress is at stake Tuesday, with Republicans favored to win the Senate majority, while Democrats have a strong chance to flip the narrow Republican majority in the House.
Democrat Kamala Harris made her closing pitch for the US presidency at a historically Black church and to Arab Americans in battleground Michigan on Sunday, while her Republican rival Donald Trump embraced violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“In just two days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Harris told parishioners at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. “We must act. It’s not enough to only pray; not enough to just talk. We must act on the plans He has in store for us, and we must make them real through our works, in our daily choices, in services to our communities, in our democracy.”
Later in a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans, starting her speech with a nod to civilian victims of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Harris said to applause.
She faces skepticism from some who are frustrated that Harris has not done more to help end the war in Gaza and scale back aid to Israel. Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday and vowed to end the conflict in the Middle East without saying how.
Samah Noureddine, 44, a Lebanese American from Grosse Ile, a town near Detroit, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but was casting a ballot for Jill Stein of the Green Party this year.
“I’m upset because Harris is funding the genocide and if we get Trump we’re going to suffer too,” she said. “I’m sick of both of them.”
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