The 2024 presidential contest speeds into its final weekend with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a close contest.
While few voters might change their minds this late in a typical election, there is a sense that what happens in these final days could shift votes.
Vice President Harris and former President Trump are crisscrossing the country to rally voters in the states that matter most. They’re trying—with varying degrees of success—to stay focused on a clear and concise closing message. At the same time, each side is investing massive resources to drive up turnout for the final early voting period.
Here’s what we’re watching on the final weekend before Election Day, which is Tuesday:
Where Will Harris and Trump Be?
You only need to look at the candidates’ schedules this weekend to know where this election will likely be decided.
Note that schedules can and likely will change without warning. But on Saturday, Trump began with an appearance in North Carolina, with one eyebrow-raising stop in Virginia next, and planned to return to the Tar Heel state in the evening.
No Democratic presidential candidate has carried North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, although it has been decided by less than 3 points in every election since. Trump’s decision to spend Saturday there suggests Harris has a real opportunity in the state. But Trump is also trying to convey confidence by stopping in Virginia, a state that has been safely in the Democratic column since 2008.
There is perhaps no more important swing state than Pennsylvania, where Trump is expected to campaign Sunday. But he also has another appearance scheduled for North Carolina in addition to Georgia, another Southern state that has leaned Republican for almost three decades—that is, until Joe Biden carried it by less than a half percentage point four years ago.
Harris campaigned in Atlanta on Saturday before a rally in North Carolina’s capital—signs that her team is sensing genuine opportunity in the South. She’s planning to make multiple stops in Michigan on Sunday, shifting to a Democratic-leaning state in the “blue wall” where her allies believe she is vulnerable.
Do They Stay on Message?
Trump’s campaign leadership wants voters to be focused on one key question as they prepare to cast ballots, and it’s the same question he opens every rally with: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
Harris’ team wants voters to be thinking about another: Do they trust Trump or Harris to put the nation’s interests over their own?
Whichever candidate can more effectively keep voters focused on their closing arguments in the coming days may ultimately win the presidency. Yet both candidates are off to a challenging start.
Trump opens the weekend still facing the fallout from his recent New York City rally in which a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating pile of garbage.” Things got harder for Trump late Thursday after he raised the prospect of Republican rival Liz Cheney’s death by gunfire.
Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, is still working to shift the conversation away from President Biden’s comments earlier in the week that described Trump supporters as “garbage.” The Associated Press reported late Thursday that White House press officials altered the official transcript of the call in question, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity.
The spotlight of presidential politics always burns brightly. But it will burn brightest, perhaps, this final weekend, leaving the campaigns virtually no margin for error. In what both sides believe is a true tossup election, any final-hours missteps could prove decisive.
What Happens With Early Voting?
More than 66 million people have already cast ballots in the 2024 election, which is more than one-third the total number who voted in 2020.
They include significantly more Republicans compared with four years ago, largely because Trump has backed off his insistence that his supporters must cast ballots in person on Election Day.
And while early in-person voting has ended in many states, there will be a huge push for final-hours early voting in at least three key states as the campaigns work to bank as many votes as possible before Election Day.
That includes Michigan, where in-person early voting runs through Monday. Voters in Wisconsin can vote early in-person through Sunday, although it varies by location. And in North Carolina, voters have until 3 p.m. Saturday to cast early ballots in-person.
The early voting period officially ended Friday in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.