Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s presidential campaigns are ramping up after the first debate, with visits to major swing states planned in the coming days.
Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting North Carolina on Thursday, appearing in Charlotte in the afternoon and in Greensboro later in the evening. She will then rally in Pennsylvania on Friday, starting her day off in Johnstown and speaking in Wilkes-Barre in the evening.
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will be in Michigan Thursday, speaking in Grand Rapids before he travels to Wisconsin Friday. Walz will hold a rally at the University of Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday afternoon.
The two top Democrat’s spouses will also be hitting the campaign trail, with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visiting Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, while Gwen Walz is set to visit the New England region, with stops in Maine and New Hampshire.
On the other side of the aisle, Former President Donald Trump will hold rallies in Arizona on Thursday, Las Vegas on Friday.
At Saturday’s rally, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will campaign for Trump in Glendale, Arizona. Kennedy and Gabbard were both once prominent Democrats, but have since left the party.
The frequency of events has increased as the race tightens after Tuesday’s presidential debate. Nielsen reported Wednesday that 67.1 million viewers watched the ABC News simulcast.
Both campaigns have framed their candidates as the winner of Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia. Shortly after, a spokesperson for Harris expressed openness to a second debate with Trump. However, Trump announced on Thursday that he will not agree to another debate with Harris.
Polls are showing a notably close race. According to Thursday’s RealClear Polling average, Harris is leading Trump by 1.3 percentage points nationwide.
Jim McLaughlin, of McLaughlin & Associates Polling, thinks Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are going to be the deciding factor in determining who wins the White House in November.
“It wasn’t that long ago they were calling Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin the ‘blue wall,’ and that’s where the candidates are spending the most time campaigning, what does that tell you?” McLaughlin told NTD.
“It was 20 years ago where basically Ohio decided the presidential election. The demographics in Ohio are very similar to Pennsylvania. You look at the registration numbers, the Democrats still have a slight advantage by registration, but it’s becoming more and more Republican,” McLaughlin said.
Early voting was scheduled to begin last week in another important swing state—North Carolina—but the state’s Supreme Court decided 4-3 on Monday that the general election’s ballots shall be reprinted without Kennedy listed as a choice.
In the decision, the North Carolina Supreme Court stated, “We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State. But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count.”
With Alabama becoming the first state to begin mailing absentee ballots yesterday, early voting has officially begun. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, South Dakota, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Missouri all feature early voting as early as September.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.