Harris, Trump deploy celebrity power in must-win states

Residents participate in early voting at a community centre in Detroit yesterday. Detroit is the first Michigan community to have early voting. – AFP

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump hit the campaign trail yesterday, pressing their case with voters from Georgia to Pennsylvania who are already starting to cast ballots in the US presidential election.
Harris and Trump are essentially tied in the most competitive states and many Americans are voting early by mail or in person, with just 17 days until the November 5 election.
Harris hosted a get-out-the-vote event in Detroit yesterday for the city’s first day of early voting, alongside Michigan-born rapper Lizzo.
She then travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, for a rally with pop singer Usher, who is currently headlining a sold-out, three-date concert tour in the southern city. Early voting started in Georgia this week.
“Donald Trump has proven himself to be increasingly unstable and unfit and he is trying to take us backward,” Harris told reporters in Detroit.
Harris will need strong results in the majority non-white cities of Detroit and Atlanta and their surrounding suburbs to repeat US President Joe Biden’s 2020 wins in Michigan and Georgia.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest man Elon Musk is to stump for Trump in Pennsylvania.
Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of President Joe Biden administration’s fiercest critics and has emerged as a loud voice in US politics since taking over Twitter, now known as X.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has taken an increasingly visible role in Trump’s campaign and has donated almost $75mn to his political organisation America PAC.
Trump planned to stage a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, seeking to take advantage of what he felt was an improved position for him in opinion polls that show a deadlocked race.
Some voters already have mail-in ballots in the state, which is the biggest prize on Election Day among battleground states and could tip the 2024 race.
Early voting also starts this weekend in Nevada, where former president Barack Obama was expected to campaign for Harris in Las Vegas.
Both 2024 candidates spent the day on Friday in closely contested Michigan, trading jabs about their fitness for office.
Trump, 78, dismissed accusations from Harris that he was exhausted by the pace of the campaign’s closing days.
Harris turns 60 today.
Trump said he had not cancelled any events.
However, an October 22 National Rifle Association of America (NRA) event in Savannah, Georgia, that he had planned to attend, was cancelled, according to organisers.
“I’m not even tired,” Trump said, and dismissed Harris’s calls for him to release his health records, adding that Harris should take a cognitive test.