With the November 5 election fast approaching, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are intensifying their campaigns in key battleground states.
Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first campaign appearances with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, two of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, at get-out-the-vote events this month in Georgia and Michigan.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is set to appear with Obama in Georgia on Oct. 24 and with Mrs. Obama in Michigan on Oct. 26, according to a Harris campaign senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events before they are officially announced.
Follow live campaign updates.
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Here’s your guide to the 2024 election in Mass., from local races to ballot questions
Election Day arrives on Nov. 5, when Massachusetts voters will cast their ballots for president, decide on a number of congressional and local races, and weigh in on five ballot questions.
In our 2024 election voter guide, find information about the state’s congressional races, explore what your vote on all five ballot questions would mean, and see how to vote early.
Harris seeks to win over Republicans uneasy about Trump with visits to Midwestern suburbs — 5:30 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Democrat Kamala Harris is out to win over suburban voters uneasy about Republican Donald Trump as she touches down in three Midwestern battleground states on Monday to hold moderated conversations with Republican Liz Cheney.
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The vice president will make appearances in three suburban counties won by Republican Nikki Haley before she dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination: Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Harris’ travel companion, Cheney, is a former GOP congresswoman from Wyoming and a fierce critic of Trump. Their conversations will be moderated by a conservative radio host and a GOP strategist.
‘Stunning security failures’ led to assassination attempt at Trump rally, House report finds — 5:15 a.m.
By the Associated Press
The assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July was “preventable and should not have happened,” according to a bipartisan House panel that is investigating the shooting and what it calls the “stunning security failures” at the event.
The report from a House task force, released Monday, is just the latest look at the cascading and wide-ranging law enforcement failings that preceded the July 13 shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where Trump was struck in the ear by gunfire. One rallygoer was killed in the shooting and two others were wounded.
Members of both the House and Senate have repeatedly questioned why the Secret Service, an agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders, didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the campaign rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb up and shoot.
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In North Carolina, Trump and Harris navigate a hurricane and a rollercoaster governor’s race — 5:01 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Renee Kyro already has voted for Republican nominee Donald Trump for the third consecutive presidential election. But she plans to volunteer for the first time, reaching out to her neighbors in hurricane-battered western North Carolina to make sure they have a voting plan amid a flurry of precinct changes.
“I want to say I’m confident he wins, but I’m worried that people are just overwhelmed and may need some help or encouragement,” she said, standing outside an early voting site in the conservative stronghold of Rutherford County. “I just can’t imagine Kamala Harris as president.”
To the east, in heavily Democratic Winston-Salem, Dia Roberts described the fear that has her writing postcards urging voters to back Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee.
Harris sets record for biggest fundraising quarter ever — 4:13 a.m.
By The New York Times
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign set a record for the biggest fundraising quarter ever this fall, raising $1 billion in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30.
Harris’ campaign and its allied party committees raised more than $359 million in September alone, compared with the $160 million reported by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and allied groups.
Harris and her groups entered October with more than $346 million on hand; Trump’s aides said his campaign and its affiliated groups had $283 million.
The vast gap between Harris’ and Trump’s committees was laid bare in new filings made with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday evening. The figures show the state of the race as of the end of September, and they capture the fallout of the presidential debate that month, which Harris was widely perceived to have won.
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Some Jewish voters in presidential swing states reconsider their longtime devotion to Democrats — 3:53 a.m.
By the Associated Press
For Rona Kaufman, the signs are everywhere that more Jews feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and may vote for Republican Donald Trump.
It’s in her Facebook feed. It’s in the discomfort she observed during a question-and-answer at a recent Democratic Party campaign event in Pittsburgh. It’s in her own family.
“The family that is my generation and older generations, I don’t think anybody is voting for Harris, and we’ve never voted Republican, ever,” Kaufman, 49, said, referring to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. “My sister has a Trump sign outside her house, and that is a huge shift.”
How big a shift? Surveys continue to find that most Jewish voters still support the Democratic ticket, and Kaufman acknowledges that she’s an exception.
Should the minimum wage be lower for workers who get tipped? Voters in Massachusetts and Arizona are set to decide. — 2:42 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.
“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”
That uncertainty exists largely because federal labor law allows businesses to pay tipped workers, like food servers, bartenders and bellhops, less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference. Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts will decide in November whether it’s good policy to continue to let employers pass some of their labor costs to consumers.
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How does abortion translate? Ballot measures are a challenge for interpreters. — 2:03 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Reproductive rights measures are on the ballots in 10 states after heated debates over how to describe their impact on abortion — and that’s just in English.
In 388 places across the U.S. where English isn’t the primary language among communities of voters, the federal Voting Rights Act requires that all elections information be made available in each community’s native language.
Such translations are meant to help non-native English speakers understand what they’re voting for. But vague or technical terms can be challenging, even more so when it comes to Indigenous languages that have only limited written dictionaries.
Immigrants help power America’s economy. Will the election value or imperil them? — 1:53 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Few things say America like Janille and Tom Baker’s ranch, with its grazing cattle, scrub brush-dotted desert and snow-capped mountains.
If only they could get American citizens to work on it.
The ranch in remote eastern Nevada produces around 10,000 tons of hay annually, and combines cowboy culture with a dash of Manifest Destiny. Rabbits, gophers and the occasional badger always outnumber humans and the nighttime sky is dark enough to count the stars.
But the Bakers’ business couldn’t survive without an agricultural guest worker program that brings in Mexican immigrants for about nine months a year to help harvest crops in fields where temperatures frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Most voters think the economy is poor, but split on whether Trump or Harris can fix it, new poll shows — 1:30 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll.
A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction.
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But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.
Trump serves up McDonald’s fries, but dodges question on minimum wage — 12:05 a.m.
By The Washington Post
Former president Donald Trump briefly manned the fry station at a McDonald’s franchise here on Sunday, but dodged a question about increasing the minimum wage.
Wearing an apron, the Republican presidential nominee lifted fries out of the hot oil, shook them, salted them, and placed them into containers for service. He praised the staff and the company, then popped his head out the drive-through window and waved at a crowd that had gathered across the street. He began to hand out paper bags to the cars that had been waiting in line before his arrival. One man said, “Trump 2024!” as he drove away.
Trump responded to several reporters’ questions through the drive-through window. Asked whether he’d accept the 2024 election results, he did not commit. “Sure, if it’s a fair election,” he said, as he has before.
Donald Trump stops by primetime NFL matchup between the Jets and Steelers to cap dizzying weekend — 11:17 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attended Sunday night’s NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets as the guest of an unidentified suite holder at Acrisure Stadium.
Trump arrived about midway through the first quarter and was greeted by a small crowd of supporters wearing Pittsburgh jerseys toting a banner that read “Trump Nation.” He later waved from the suite, with some fans chanting “USA.” A female fan wearing black-and-gold — the Steelers’ colors — jumped onto the field in the third quarter carrying a pro-Trump sign, briefly disrupting play. She was quickly escorted from the field by authorities.
The former president’s visit capped a dizzying weekend in pivotal Pennsylvania for Trump’s campaign with the election a little over two weeks away.
Musk offers voters $1 million a day to sign PAC petition backing the Constitution. Is that legal? — 9:18 p.m.
Associated Press
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X and owner of X who’s gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House, has already committed at least $70 million to help the former president. Now he’s pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution.
The giveaway is raising questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote.
Tim Walz makes campaign stop in Boston, tells supporters ‘go get those swing states’ — 7:40 p.m.
Jeremy C. Fox, Globe Staff
Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz greeted supporters in Boston at a fund-raising event Sunday, one day after early voting kicked off in Massachusetts, organizers said.
Walz thanked the Massachusetts Democratic Party for its support and told members to “go get those swing states,” at an afternoon reception hosted by Alan Solomont, the former US ambassador to Spain, celebrity event planner Bryan Rafanelli, and others, according to a statement from organizers and a social media post from Steve Kerrigan, the state party chair.
Governor Walz gives @massdems a big thank you hug and then tells us to “get to those swing states!” And we are on it, Coach @Tim_Walz
— Steve Kerrigan (@stevekerrigan) October 20, 2024
16 days to win it for you, @KamalaHarris & for America. pic.twitter.com/bUYNDQhNUe
Harris urges Black churchgoers to vote against ‘chaos, fear, and hate’ — 6:57 p.m.
By The Washington Post
Kamala Harris spent the Sunday of her 60th birthday working to turn out Black voters in Georgia, where she asked congregants at two churches outside of Atlanta to choose between a country of “chaos, fear, and hate” — represented, she implied, by former president Donald Trump — and the “country of freedom, compassion, and justice” that she envisions.
Harris’s campaign hopes that high turnout among Black voters will help the vice president beat Trump in a race where polls in every key swing state, including Georgia, have shown the two candidates neck-and-neck.
The campaign still has work to do. Among Black registered voters, 72 percent of men and 85 percent of women support Harris, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Those are strong majorities, but Harris’s numbers with Black voters are weaker than President Biden’s were at this point in 2020.
Kamala Harris and McDonald’s: A college job, and a Trump attack — 1:08 p.m.
New York Times
Birtherism, meet burgerism.
Vice President Kamala Harris has recalled her stint at a Bay Area McDonald’s 41 years ago in introducing herself to voters — a biographical detail relatable to millions of Americans who have toiled in fast-food restaurants.
But former President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused her of inventing it. Lacking a shred of proof, he has charged that she never actually worked under the golden arches — recalling his earlier false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Trump’s latest allegation also appears to be false.
Whether a presidential candidate actually flipped burgers as a college student is a far less serious allegation, of course. But Trump’s seeding of doubts about Harris’ story, while insidious and outside the lines of traditional fair play in politics, advances his goal of portraying Harris as a fraud.
Kamala Harris attending church in Georgia to encourage Black congregants to vote — 10:23 a.m.
Associated Press
Kamala Harris is going to church in Georgia on Sunday, where she will speak to the faithful and encourage Black congregants to vote as part of a nationwide campaign push known as “souls to the polls.”
The Democratic nominee for president plans to attend services at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest and Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, joined by singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is scheduled to go to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, will be at a service in Las Vegas.
Donald Trump fixates on Arnold Palmer as ‘all man’ in showers during profane rally — 11:15 p.m.
By the Washington Post
Seventeen days from the election, in Pennsylvania, arguably the most decisive swing state, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spent the first 10 minutes of his speech without mentioning politics.
Instead, he delivered a long tribute to Arnold Palmer, the late golfer who was born here and is the namesake of the airport where Trump was speaking. Trump’s soliloquy about Palmer included an account of how other athletes reacted to seeing him in the showers.
“Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refused to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable,’” Trump said.
“I had to say it,” Trump continued.
At about 10 minutes, the digression about Palmer lasted roughly as long as Vice President Kamala Harris’s entire speech at a get-out-the-vote event earlier Saturday in Detroit. Trump’s speech was filled with asides, abrupt changes of subject and profane and personal attacks.
Harris and Lizzo praise Detroit — in contrast to Trump — ahead of an Atlanta rally with Usher — 6:47 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared with Lizzo on Saturday in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Republican nominee Donald Trump recently disparaged it.
“All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo,” the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
She said it was time to “put some respect on Detroit’s name” noting that the city had revolutionized the auto and music industries and adding that she’d already cast her ballot for Harris since voting early was “a power move.”
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump, the former president, insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, “Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history.”
Trump thinks the border got him elected in 2016. He’s convinced it will do so again. — 3:43 p.m.
New York Times
Donald Trump turned his back to the crowd and stared up at the screen. Ominous music rang out. For the next minute and a half, the former president and his audience in Atlanta stood and silently watched clips of news reports of immigrants in the country without legal permission committing horrific crimes.
When the montage ended, Trump said out loud what he has been telling his advisers in private for weeks: that, in his view, immigration is the “No. 1″ issue in the 2024 election.
“That beats out the economy. That beats it all out to me; it’s not even close,” Trump said of the immigration issue, after playing the video Tuesday night. “The United States is now an occupied country. But on Nov. 5, 2024, that will be liberation day in America.”
Obama uses withering mockery in Arizona as he questions Trump’s competence — 2:13 p.m.
Washington Post
Former president Barack Obama further sharpened his criticism of Donald Trump at a rally Friday, casting the Republican nominee as a huckster who lacks the mental fitness to lead the nation, leaning into a strategy of withering mockery as he hits the campaign trail in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.
With just over two weeks until Election Day, Obama spoke to a crowd the Harris campaign estimated at 7,000 people, who packed onto the turf field inside the University of Arizona’s football practice facility the night before the school’s hotly anticipated homecoming game. The Tucson rally was Obama’s first stop in a six-day, five-state whirlwind tour of the election’s fiercest battlegrounds.
The speaking spree underscores Obama’s evolving role in the presidential campaign’s waning days: from Harris’s trusted behind-the scenes sounding board and fundraising powerhouse, to a visible and vocal presence on the trail itself.
Harris eyes a rural Maine congressional district — 11:02 p.m.
Associated Press
Rob Rogers has seen his rural corner of New England turn into a stronghold for Donald Trump in two consecutive elections. But this year he’s feeling hopeful that Vice President Kamala Harris could reclaim a potentially decisive electoral vote for Democrats.
Rogers is a registered Democrat and a draftsman in tiny Chesterville, Maine.
In a presidential contest that’s expected to be tight, this year every electoral vote could matter. That’s why the Harris campaign has cast its eyes northward to Maine, home to one of the largest, coldest and most rural congressional districts in the country. At least part of the state could play an unexpected role in deciding this year’s presidential election — not to mention control of Congress.
Maine is one of two states that apportions electoral votes by congressional district — the other is Nebraska. Trump has won Maine’s 2nd Congressional District vote by more than 7 percentage points twice in a row. Both times, it was the only electoral vote he won in New England, and in 2020 it was his only electoral vote northeast of Appalachia.
Judges punishing Jan. 6 rioters say they fear more political violence as Election Day nears — 12:18 a.m.
By Michael Kunzelman, the Associated Press
Over the past four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming.
Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election. But the veteran judge expressed concern that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
“That sore loser is saying the same things he said before,” Walton said earlier this month without mentioning the Republican presidential nominee by name. “He’s riling up the troops again, so if he doesn’t get what he wants, it’s not inconceivable that we will experience that same situation again. And who knows? It could be worse.”
Walton, a nominee of President George W. Bush, is not alone. Other judges have said the political climate is ripe for another attack like the one injured more than 100 police officers at the Capitol. As Election Day nears, judges are frequently stressing the need to send a message beyond their courtrooms that political violence can’t be tolerated.
Trump makes quip about immigration chart — 9:28 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Donald Trump likes to rail against illegal immigration. But Friday night in Detroit, he had something nice to say about it.
“Illegal immigration saved my life, if you think about,” Trump said.
The Republican presidential candidate was referencing the chart on illegal immigration that he turned to look at, just as an assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
“I sleep with it. I kiss it every night,” Trump said of the chart. He added, “I do have that throbbing feeling in my right ear.”
Harris crowd chants ‘lock him up’ — 9:20 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Kamala Harris supporters chanted “lock him up,” when the Democratic nominee told the crowd at a Michigan rally on Friday that Donald Trump was an “unserious” man who should not be allowed near the White House.
“Here’s the thing about that. The courts are going to take care of that,” she said, referencing the Republican nominee’s multiple criminal cases.
“We’re gonna take care of November,” she said, talking about winning the presidential election.
A failed mic leaves Donald Trump pacing the stage in silence for nearly 20 minutes — 8:55 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Donald Trump paced his rally stage in silence for nearly 20 minutes Friday night in Detroit after his microphone cut out.
The Republican nominee and former president was about to wax on about one of his favorite subjects, tariffs, working up to naming it by first teasing “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” Very quickly afterward, the sound went down.
The crowd chanted “USA” and “We love Trump” in support. But with no microphone, Trump simply wandered around the stage. Looking frustrated, his back was turned to most of his audience at times.
Harris rally sings ‘Happy Birthday’ at Michigan rally — 8:50 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Kamala Harris supporters at a Michigan rally erupted Friday in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for the Democratic presidential nominee, who turns 60 this weekend.
Harris’ birthday is Sunday. She is 18 years younger than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. President Joe Biden, who is 81, stepped away from the presidential race earlier this year over concerns about his age.
“Thank you!” Harris said to the singing crowd. And let’s get to work.”
Audio issues frustrate Trump at Michigan rally — 8:16 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump paced the stage in silence for several minutes on Friday night in Detroit as his microphone cut out.
The crowd chanted “USA” and “We love Trump” in support. But with no microphone, Trump simply wandered around the stage. Looking frustrated, his back was turned to most of his audience at times.
Harris says personal experience distinguishes her from Biden — 6:30 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Biden has said Harris will “cut her own path” as president, but the vice president gave a meandering answer on what that would look like.
In an NBC interview Friday, she said that she would “bring my own experiences and my own life experiences” to the table. She talked about how her approach to Medicare comes from taking care of her mother when she was sick, and her housing comes from knowing what it means to have affordable housing as the daughter of a single mom.
But she said that, generally, vice presidents aren’t critical of their presidents. “It does not make for a productive and important relationship,” she told NBC.
Harris claims Trump doesn’t value manufacturing work — 6:09 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Speaking at the United Auto Workers union hall in Lansing, Kamala Harris members that Donald Trump would undermine collective bargaining and worker protections, adding that “we’ve got to get the word out to all the brothers and sisters in labor to remind them what this dude does.”
Harris played a clip of Trump saying it’s not hard to build a car. “We could have our child doing it,” he said.
“He’s saying that the value of your work is essentially meaningless,” Harris said.
“The work you do is complex. You do it with great care,” she said. “You work hard. You are highly skilled. You are highly trained. The best auto workers in the world is who you are.”
Trump has “had everything handed to him,” Harris said, and he never worked a job “that came with calloused hands or an hourly wage.”
Trump touts labor union support in Michigan — 6:00 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump is talking up his support from labor union members as he campaigns in Oakland County, Michigan.
The Republican former president opened a roundtable event in Oakland County by praising Teamsters President Sean O’Brien as “a great guy.” O’Brien, of course, spoke at the Republican National Convention and his union declined to endorse Harris, which was viewed as a victory for Trump given the union’s past support for Democrats.
“I think it’s been many decades before they endorsed a Republican. I think they’ll start very soon,” Trump said Friday, adding that he has the support of “rank and file Teamsters all over the country.”
At least a few of them were at the roundtable event with Trump.
One of them addressed Trump directly: “I don’t know if you heard about us Teamsters here in Michigan love Donald J. Trump.”
Harris is hosting a dueling event at the United Auto Workers Local 652 hall in Lansing, Michigan.
Trump calls killed Hamas leader ‘not a good person’ — 5:45 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, who was killed by Israelis, “was not a good person.”
“That’s my reaction. That’s sometimes what happens,” he said at the airport in Detroit.
Trump also said he would be speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said President Joe Biden “is trying to hold him back ... he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” he said.
Both Biden and Harris have said Sinwar’s death is an opportunity to stop the violence. “My message remains, first of all, we have got to end this war,” Harris said.
Harris says she believes in unions — 5:24 p.m.
By the Associated Press
She said she was a “living recipient of what collective bargaining can do,” and that bargaining benefits “our entire nation.”
She’s in Michigan trying to shore up support from union workers ahead of the election.
Trump honored by the mayor of a Muslim-majority city in Michigan — 5:11 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump is promising that more manufacturing and auto companies will be built in Michigan once he is elected president.
Trump said Friday during a stop at a campaign office in Hamtramck, one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, that his tariffs proposal would scare companies into halting plans to take plants overseas.
Trump was given a certificate of appreciation by the mayor of the town, a Democrat, who said he supports Trump.
“His visit today is to show respect and appreciation to our community,” said Mayor Amer Ghalib.
Usher concert attendees cheer get-out-the-vote volunteers — 5:00 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Concertgoers at Usher’s tour-opening show in Atlanta on Thursday greeted get-out-the-vote volunteers with excitement. Usher will join Democrat Kamala Harris at a rally in the city on Saturday.
Volunteers with HeadCount, a nonpartisan group that partners with artists to mobilize voters, weaved their way through the crowds. Georgia’s voter registration deadline passed, but as they held up clipboards that read, “Register to Vote,” people cheered them on.
“We voted!” said one woman with a thumbs-up.
“Already did, baby!” said another.
Outside of the venue, Channal Gross-Anderson said she was eager to vote for a Black woman. “She’s passionate about female rights and not just the welfare of the rich or the wealthy, but for everyone,” Gross-Anderson said.
Others, such as Cassandra Johnson, were not enthusiastic about either candidate. Johnson will vote for Harris even though she has reservations about Harris’ past as a prosecutor.
“We got four years with Trump already, and I kind of see how that went, and I didn’t particularly enjoy it,” Johnson said. “And I definitely didn’t enjoy our rights being taken away as women.”
Ashlan Hawkins is concerned about reproductive rights in the wake of recent deaths in Georgia tied to abortion restrictions.
“For that reason alone, I will vote for Kamala,” Hawkins said.
Voices from Harris’ Grand Rapids rally — 4:51 p.m.
By the Associated Press
A handful of people protesting the United States’ military aid to Israel, especially in light of the nation’s deadly military operation in Gaza, stood at the entrance to Riverside Park before and after Harris’ rally, forcing those driving in and out of the parking area to hear their chants “Free free Palestine.”
Emerson Wolfe, co-chair of Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, said the group does not endorse candidates and came to the rally to pressure Harris as vice president to end America’s military aid to Israel and to ask rallygoers to do the same.
“Pressure the Democratic Party to end the siege on Gaza,” Wolfe said.
Inside the event, many attendees took a seat in the park under autumn leaves and bright blue skies to wait out the line of cars leaving the rally. Bob Dragan, 76, a volunteer with the Kent County Democratic party, said he wishes Harris would be even “sharper” against Trump. Dragan said he wants to see Trump prosecuted and imprisoned for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Kent County swung for Biden in 2020 but backed Trump in 2016. Dragan said he sees another Democratic victory for the county in a few weeks, citing the energy he sees from local Democrats.
“It’s even better, bigger and higher than it was in 2020,” he said.
Constance Green, 64, left the rally with a pot of yellow and white chrysanthemums that decorated the stage where Harris spoke. Green said someone gave them to her and she plans to put them next to her front door.
Harris: ‘So much is on the line in this election’ — 4:02 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Before the crowd gathered in Grand Rapids, Harris spoke for roughly half an hour about her plans for an “opportunity economy” and cast her opponent as politically and dispositionally dangerous.
Harris discussed her proposal to allow Medicare to cover in-home care for the elderly, recounting how she took care of her mother as she aged, and said she would sign a federal bill in support of abortion rights if it reached her desk.
The large crowd listened attentively to Harris’s remarks as they crammed into a space between the Grand River and a forested area in the park.
Harris told the crowd that Trump has “no plan” to protect the American people, but that she would “stand up for all Americans.” The crowd reacted by shouting “concepts of a plan,” a reference to a remark Trump made during his debate with Harris. The vice president took up the phrase, repeating it back to the crowd a few times with a laugh while making quotation marks with her hands.
She also said she’s witnessed “a full-on assault” of American freedoms, saying that “so much is on the line in this election.”
Wrapping the event, Harris implored the crowd to make a plan to vote. Early voting begins Saturday in Detroit.
“Don’t ever let anybody take your power,” she said.
Trump compares jailed Capitol rioters to Japanese internment during World War II — 3:43 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump compared the people jailed on charges that they stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to the more than 120,000 people of Japanese origin incarcerated on US soil during World War II.
“Why are they still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. “Maybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly. They were held, too.”
The GOP presidential nominee has consistently tried to play down the storming of the Capitol by his supporters who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, portraying it earlier this week as a “day of love.” About 140 officers were injured that day, making it likely the largest assault of American law enforcement in a single day. Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by police.
Trump keeps up the interviews — mostly on friendly outlets — 3:18 p.m.
By the Associated Press
While Trump has backed out of some interviews with mainstream media outlets, he also continues to appear regularly on friendly cable shows and conservative podcasts — often sitting for hours of interviews a day.
On Thursday, he taped a sit-down with Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones inside a barber shop in the Bronx and later sat down with George “Tyrus” Murdoch for a video interview with OutKick, before he attended the Al Smith charity dinner, where he delivered remarks.
On Friday morning, he spent 40 minutes on set with the hosts of “Fox & Friends,” before he joined “The Dan Bongino Show,” a video podcast. He also recorded another interview before he departed for a multistop trip to Michigan.
Watch live: Harris takes the stage in Grand Rapids — 2:35 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Harris walked across a rail trail bridge to enter the outdoor stage at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. She was introduced by a union carpenter.
Her stage front was decorated with seasonal potted chrysanthemums and pumpkins.
The gathered crowd started to sing “Happy Birthday” to Harris, who will turn 60 over the weekend on Oct. 20.
Watch it live:
Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer stumps for Harris with other Democratic governors — 2:15 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer stumped for Harris in Grand Rapids, appearing with Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. The three have been campaigning for Harris and Walz on a “Blue Wall bus tour.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore also joined Whitmer on stage.
“We need strong, stable partners in the White House who have our backs,” Whitmer said.
Trump has courted auto manufacturing workers in Michigan, a key voting bloc, especially in the Detroit area. Whitmer attacked the Trump administration’s record on the industry as “broken promises.”
The crowd interrupted during Whitmer’s speech to chant “Big Gretch,” Whitmer’s state nickname.
Usher to join Harris for Atlanta rally — 2:10 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Music star Usher will join Kamala Harris at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, her campaign announced.
He will speak at the event — no word if he’ll perform any of his hit songs like “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” or “Love In This Club.”
Harris is heading to Georgia for part of the weekend as early voting begins in the battleground state.
Judge unseals heavily redacted trove of evidence in Trump’s 2020 election interference case — 2:05 p.m.
By the Associated Press
The judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election interference case made public Friday a heavily redacted trove of documents that provide a small glimpse into the evidence prosecutors will present if the case ever goes to trial.
The nearly 1,900 pages of documents collected by special counsel Jack Smith’s team were initially filed under seal to help U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan decide what allegations can proceed to trial following the Supreme Court opinion in July that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office.
The information that could be seen in the redacted version released Friday appeared to be material that for the most part had already been made public, including screenshots of Trump social media posts about the 2020 election and a transcript of the video statement he made on Jan. 6, 2021 in, which he told the rioters attacking the Capitol to go home, but added: “we love you” and “you’re very special.”
Harris hosts ‘fall fest’ in Grand Rapids — 1:47 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Perhaps in a move to instill joy back into her message again, Harris is scheduled to speak outside a “fall fest” in Grand Rapids, Mich., hosted by the campaign. Thousands waited in long security lines to get into the rally at a park by the Grand River with food trucks, free donuts and pumpkins to decorate.
Mary Muller, 70, and Kathi Padula, 77, said the high stakes of the election motivated them to attend the first political rally of their lives. The two Grand Rapids residents volunteer with the Democratic party in Kent County, a major target within Michigan for Harris and Trump.
“I think Kamala Harris embodies everything that I’m looking for as far as having the experience, the wisdom, the dignity, the caring,” Muller said. “I love the fact that she seems to be a very joyful, caring person yet she’s very smart.”
Marnie Becker-Baratta, 32, attended the rally with the youngest two of her four children. While speaking at a pumpkin decorating table, she said she wanted her kids to see “history happen,” with Harris, who would be the first woman to hold the office of president of the United States if elected.
Becker-Baratta’s kids motivate her to vote and be politically active.
“I don’t want to see their rights taken away,” she said. “My oldest daughter identifies as trans.”
Trump compares convicted Jan. 6 rioters to interned Japanese Americans in World War II — 1:27 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump said that rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are being treated like Japanese Americans who were incarcerated on US.= soil during World War II.
“Why are they still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. “Maybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly. They were held, too.”
Trump made the comments after claiming the defendants “won in the Supreme Court.” His reference concerns a ruling from this past June that limited a federal obstruction law that had been used to charge hundreds of Capitol riot defendants as well as the former president himself.
The justices, in a 6-3 opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents.
The overwhelming majority of the approximately 1,000 people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to Capitol riot-related federal crimes were not charged with obstruction and will not be affected by the outcome.
Martin Luther King III backs Harris — 1:09 p..m.
By the Associated Press
Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., said said: “We must never forget our vote is our voice” while endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the nation’s top executive.
Martin Luther King III, his wife Arndrea Waters King and other community leaders are working to rally Black voters ahead of the 2024 election, warning about civil rights should Trump win.
King said Republican Donald Trump is who he has “always been — a man willing to hurt others for his own profit and notoriety.”
Trump will visit a Muslim-majority city’s campaign office — 1:01 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump is expected to visit a new campaign office in one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities.
That’s according to a person familiar with Trump’s schedule who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event hasn’t been publicly announced.
The visit to Hamtramck, located in metro Detroit, comes after the city’s mayor endorsed him last month.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has tried to cut into Harris’s support with Arab Americans in Michigan. Many Muslim and Arab voters are frustrated with Harris over the US backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, both following Hamas’ attack on Israel last October.
Trump’s allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in Michigan, which is a critical swing state in the November election and has a sizable population of Arab Americans particularly in and around Detroit.
Trump has vowed to gut climate rules. Oil lobbyists have a plan ready. — 12:44 p.m.
By the Washington Post
An influential oil and gas industry group whose members were aggressively pursued for campaign cash by Donald Trump has drafted detailed plans for dismantling landmark Biden administration climate rules after the presidential election, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The plans were drawn up by the American Exploration and Production Council, or AXPC, a group of 30 mostly independent oil and gas producers, including several major oil companies. They reveal a comprehensive industry effort to reverse climate initiatives advanced during nearly four years of Democratic leadership. At the same time, the documents contain confidential data showing that industry’s voluntary initiatives to cut emissions have fallen short.
Trump considers no taxes for military, police, and firefighters — 12:30 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump said he’d consider exempting police officers, firefighters, active duty military and veterans from paying taxes, the Republican nominee’s latest campaign trail idea to deliver tax breaks to key groups of supporters.
“It’s something I would think about,” Trump said in response to a question about excluding first responders and military members from tax bills on an online show Maintaining with Tyrus that aired Friday.
“You’re like my tax person there, but yeah. I mean something has to be done,” he said. “It’s almost an incentive to where you can get people interested.”
The idea to exempt military members and first responders from taxation is the latest in a long list of tax proposals the former president has talked about while campaigning against Democrat Kamala Harris. He’s pledged to eliminate taxes on tipped wages, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. Trump didn’t give any more details about the service member tax exclusion. All of those ideas would require congressional approval in order to become law.
Harris will campaign with the Obamas later this month in Georgia and Michigan — 11:11 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Harris will make her first campaign appearances with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, two of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, at get-out-the-vote events this month in Georgia and Michigan.
It will be the former first lady’s first time hitting the trail for Harris.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is set to appear with Obama in Georgia on Oct. 24 and with Mrs. Obama in Michigan on Oct. 26, according to a Harris campaign senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events before they are officially announced.
The official did not disclose the cities where Harris will join the Obamas.
Fear and loathing among Wisconsin voters in the final stretch — 10:47 a.m.
By James Pindell, Globe Staff
Katie Parham walked the aisles of a discount grocery store in the Milwaukee suburbs seeking cheaper canned goods and a conversation about the election with a stranger. She hoped her red Donald Trump hat would attract comments, preferably from Democrats so she could engage them about policy.
But, there were no takers.
“There is a tension here around the election and I guess it’s the thing that no one really wants to talk about,” said Parham, 42, who described herself as a stay-at-home cat mom from Brookfield.
The apprehension of Parham’s fellow shoppers to engage was indicative of something bigger. Here in this key swing county of a key swing state that may well decide the presidency, voters across the political spectrum are gripped by fear over who will win the upcoming election.
Instead of expressing excitement about supporting their candidate — or simply relief that the election will soon be over — more than 50 voters interviewed here three weeks before Election Day repeatedly used words like “anxious,” “apprehensive,” “scared,” “worried,” and “terrified” to describe their feelings about the other party’s candidate winning.
Voters supporting Trump said they fear that if Harris wins, inflation, crime, and illegal immigration will rise, leading to a fundamental change in American life. And Harris supporters say another four years of Trump would increase division and undermine the country’s democratic institutions.
Early voting in Massachusetts starts tomorrow — 10:32 a.m.
By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff
With Election Day approaching on Nov. 5, Massachusetts voters can begin casting early ballots in person on Saturday, joining the hundreds of thousands who have already begun submitting their ballots by mail.
In several states, early voting has been underway for the past few weeks.
As of Thursday, Massachusetts voters have returned 279,821 mail-in ballots, contributing to the 7,036,530 early ballots cast nationwide for the 2024 general election, according to the Associated Press. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of voters opted to vote early, a significant increase driven by the pandemic and part of a broader trend toward voting before Election Day.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State William L. Galvin’s office said it had mailed out more than 1.3 million ballots to state voters.
A lot of people didn’t like Trump’s jokes at charity dinner — including Trump — 9:16 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump says he wasn’t a fan of many of the jokes he told at last night’s Al Smith charity dinner.
“For the most part, I didn’t like any of them,” he said in a live appearance on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning.
Trump said a number of people had helped him with material, including some from Fox - though he didn’t say whom.
Trump made a similar aside mid-speech after a particularly pointed joke targeting Doug Emhoff, the husband of Harris.
He seemed to acknowledge he’d gone too far, calling the joke “nasty” and saying he’d told the “idiots” who’d written it that it was “too tough.”
He also said during the speech that he’d gone “overboard” in his 2016 appearance at the event, when he laced into his then rival Hillary Clinton.
Best, worst, and most awkward lines at the Al Smith dinner — 8:46 a.m.
By the New York Times
The two people running for president in one of the most pivotal and divisive elections in American history both tried to be funny at a Catholic charity event Thursday night.
Results were mixed at best, uncomfortable at worst. Maybe it didn’t cost them any votes. Certainly, it cost them some laughs.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered remarks to the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Harris in a recorded video and Trump in person in a ballroom in Manhattan packed with New York’s political elite, business leaders and religious luminaries.
Trump rushed through prepared remarks, stumbling at times as he read through pointed political jokes, bitter grievances and crude and at times profane personal attacks. He seemed most energized when he ditched his script, caught between being an insult comic or just being insulting.
Trump says Haley ‘helping us already’ on campaign — 8:32 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump says he’ll “do what I have to do” to drum up support from one of his former GOP primary rivals, Nikki Haley.
Trump gave that response during a live appearance on “Fox & Friends” when asked if he would seek the former South Carolina governor’s support on the campaigning trail in the election’s closing days.
Trump said Haley “is helping us already” and “is out campaigning” but questioned why political watchers seemed so concerned that she and not other former rivals, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, stump for him.
Harris has been courting some of Haley’s former supporters in the closing days of the general election campaign.
Haley, who also served as Trump’s United Nations ambassador, was the last foe remaining against Trump in the Republican primary earlier this year, shuttering her campaign after the former president’s romp through the Super Tuesday contests. She didn’t immediately endorse him in the race but said in May she’d vote for him, leaving it up to the former president to work toward winning over support from her backers.
Haley called for GOP unity around Trump in a speech at this summer’s Republican National Convention.
Singer Marc Anthony slams Trump in a new ad — 7:01 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Grammy Award winning singer Marc Anthony in a new TV ad for Harris is lambasting Trump for blocking disaster relief for Puerto Rico after a 2017 hurricane devastated the US territory.
The ad released Friday and aimed at Latino voters includes footage of the ravaged island following Hurricane Maria and Trump tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd during a visit to an island church following a hurricane, behavior from the then-president that was derided by some as disrespectful.
“Even though some have forgotten, I remember what it was like when Trump was president,” said Anthony, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “I remember what he did and he said about Puerto Rico, our people.”
Trump publicly feuded with the mayor of San Juan over her criticism of his administration’s response to the storm that killed 3,000 and withheld billions in congressionally approved aid to Puerto Rico. He eventually relented and announced less than 50 days before his losing 2020 reelection bid that he was releasing $13 billion in aid. At the time, he declared himself the “best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico.”
The Harris campaign said that the ad will air on the popular Spanish-language Telemundo and WAPA America TV, during this Sunday’s coverage of the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards and in Pennsylvania on Telemundo and Univision.
Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, but Republicans have made inroads with the group in recent years.
Residents of Puerto Rico, a US territory of more than 3 million people, cannot vote in the general election. But there are more people of Puerto Rican descent on the mainland than on the island, and they could play a key role in the Nov. 5 vote.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said she would be willing to reconsider the same border bill she voted against this year — 8:40 p.m.
By Anjali Huynh, Globe Staff
Senator Elizabeth Warren said during a US Senate debate that she would be willing to reconsider the same bipartisan immigration measures she voted against earlier this year if it was brought before the Senate again under a Kamala Harris presidency.
“If it’s the same exact bill, then I’ll certainly take a hard look at it, especially if it’s not already dead,” Warren said in Springfield, at a debate hosted by NEPM News and GBH News.
Her comments came in the first few minutes of the debate, after her opponent, personal injury attorney John Deaton tried to tie her to former president Donald Trump’s opposition to the legislation that effectively killed it.
“Senator Warren had the same exact position as Donald Trump: do nothing,” said Deaton, who has repeatedly said he would have supported the legislation, even though the vast majority of Republican senators did not after Trump urged them to kill it.
What we learned from this week’s debates between Senator Elizabeth Warren and GOP challenger John Deaton — 8:04 p.m.
By Samantha J. Gross and Anjali Huynh, Globe Staff
Senator Elizabeth Warren and John Deaton faced off on stage Thursday night in their second and final debate in the race for the US Senate seat Warren has occupied since 2012. Thursday’s hourlong debate, cosponsored by New England Public Media and GBH News, marked the closed out a week in which voters had two hours to watch candidates duke it out as they compete for the only statewide race on the ballot.
Warren, who is seeking a third term in office, spent much of the debates defending her record in Washington and highlighting Republican-backed policies that could advance if Democrats lose their slim majority in the Senate. Political newcomer Deaton, a cryptocurrency advocate, Marine Corps veteran, and personal injury attorney, used the debates to cast Warren as a partisan “extremist,” framing himself as a political outsider and moderate Republican who would bring a common-sense approach to the Senate job.
Here are three things we learned watching the candidates over the last week.
Harris campaign features less talk of joy and more head-on digs at Trump as Election Day nears — 8:03 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Joy Olson proudly wore a “Make America Joyful Again” button Thursday as she waited in line to attend a Kamala Harris rally. But that doesn’t mean the 70-year-old retiree with the happiest of names wants the Democratic nominee to shy away from taking the heat to Republican Donald Trump.
“I’m tired of her being so nice sometimes,” said Olson, who called Trump “evil and scary.” She added: “I hope she calls him out.”
That’s exactly what the vice president is doing as the campaign enters its final days.
Less than three weeks from Election Day, Harris is closing out her campaign painting a dark vision of the country if Trump is sent back to the White House, including airing video clips at her own rallies of the Republican nominee’s more alarming rhetoric.
Trump will attend Al Smith charity dinner with his wife, Melania, while Harris appears virtually — 6:30 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Trump will trade the rally stage for comedy as he headlines the annual Al Smith charity dinner, where he was jeered eight years ago while delivering an especially pointed speech.
Harris is skipping attending the event in person as she campaigns in battleground states, breaking with presidential tradition. But she will appear on screen in a recorded video, organizers said.
The white tie dinner in New York raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally offered candidates from both parties the chance to trade light-hearted barbs and show that they can get along — or at least pretend to — for one night in the election’s final stretch.
It’s often the last time the two nominees share a stage before Election Day.
Trump will be joined at the dinner by his wife, Melania, who has been an infrequent presence on the campaign trail, according to a seating chart shared by organizers.
Mark Cuban says Trump’s tariffs proposal would make holiday gifts cost more — 5:38 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Mark Cuban is telling supporters of Harris at a rally that Trump used to be “a little bit coherent.”
“But I don’t know what happened to him,” said Cuban, an owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and celebrity investor on “Shark Tank.”
The rally is at Recreational Eagle Center, the main sports and recreation facility on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus. The school has about 9,400 undergraduates and about 930 graduate students. A large sign on one end of the arena reads, “A New Way Forward for La Crosse.”
Cuban warned the crowd that if Trump was elected in November, his tariffs proposal would make holiday gifts cost 60 percent more than they are now.
“You won’t be able to afford the presents you want for your family and friends,” he said. The choice, he said, is to elect Harris.
Biden says Harris turned in a strong performance during her first interview on Fox News — 4:51 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Biden thinks Harris turned in a “strong” performance during her first interview on Fox News.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden caught the interview, which was broadcast nationally on Wednesday night, and thought the Democratic presidential nominee’s performance was “strong.”
“I think what you saw, and this is what he believes, is that you saw why Americans and people want to see her continuing to fight for them” Jean-Pierre told reporters accompanying Biden on a trip to Germany on Thursday. “She was strong and incredibly impressive.”
Harris engaged in a combative interview with Bret Baier, the host of “Special Report,” sparring with him on immigration and shifting policy positions while asserting that if elected, she would not represent a continuation of Biden’s presidency.
Trump visits barbershop in Bronx borough of New York City — 4:49 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Trump stopped by a barbershop in the Bronx borough of New York City on Thursday.
The former president entered the barbershop through a security tent that been set up outside and once inside, greeted a room full of men who were seated in barber chairs.
“How good are the barbers here?” Trump asked the room, according to a video posted on social media by his spokesman Steven Cheung. “I can see they’re good.”
With just weeks before election day, Trump has often taken a hypermasculine tone as he tries to secure support from male voters, including Black and Hispanic men.
‘Now we’re starting to understand.’ Waves of migrants push immigration to the fore for Massachusetts voters. — 3:24 p.m.
By Samantha J. Gross and Matt Stout, Globe Staff
As a first-time legislative candidate, John Gaskey estimated that he personally knocked on 600 doors across his district, a collection of modest, wood-shingled homes, strip malls, and cranberry bogs. Gaskey asked every voter who answered the same question: What do you care about? Nearly every one, he said, gave him the same response: immigration.
“It makes us feel like we are being invaded,” he said voters told him, over and over again.
Gaskey wasn’t running for office in El Paso, where he grew up. The Coast Guard veteran lives in Carver, a blue-collar town that sits on the doorstep of Cape Cod, 2,000 miles from the US-Mexico border.
When his family moved to Carver in 2017, Gaskey hardly talked about immigration with his friends and neighbors. That changed in the last few years, he said. After weeks of door-knocking, he realized immigration could be a winning issue for him in an area where dozens of migrant families have stayed in nearby hotels or shelters.
Harris says the killing of Sinwar is an opportunity ‘to finally end the war in Gaza’ — 3:16 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Harris said the killing of Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar, by Israel “gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”
Speaking from a Wisconsin college campus where she was campaigning, Harris said the war “must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
“It is time for the day after to begin,” she said.
As she arrived to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, protesters shouted outside “Free, free Palestine.”
Israel says Sinwar was killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Iaraeli Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”
Sinwar was a chief architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that precipitated the war and escalating conflicts across the Middle East.
Harris has described Trump’s behavior as ‘unstable’ and ‘unhinged.’ Watch clips on what he’s said recently. — 3:00 p.m.
By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff
In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, former president Donald Trump has repeatedly insulted Harris, calling her “mentally impaired.” He has labeled Democrats as “the enemy from within,” suggesting military action against them, and falsely claimed a peaceful transition of power after the 2020 election, while downplaying the violence that erupted at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
During a campaign rally in Coachella, Calif., on Saturday, Trump paused his speech to confront a heckler, suggesting the protester would eventually “get the hell knocked out of her.”
“Back home to mommy, she goes back home to mommy,” Trump said, appearing to address the heckler. “‘Was that you darling?’ And she gets the hell knocked out of her. Her mother’s a big fan of ours, you know that right? Her father, her mother. You always have that.”
At a campaign event in Aurora, Colo., on Oct. 11, Trump intensified his anti-immigration rhetoric, reaffirming his commitment to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history. Just days earlier, he claimed that undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes have “bad genes.”
Democrats and critics argue that Trump’s recent outbursts indicate he is unfit for a return to the White House. At a rally in Erie, Penn., on Monday night, Harris played clips of Trump calling his critics the “enemy from within” and suggesting they “should be put in jail.” Highlighting the former president’s recent remarks, Harris called Trump “unstable and unhinged.”
“He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Harris said after playing a clip. “This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”
Take a look at a series of recent remarks made by Trump.
Former NBC anchor Brian Williams is returning to election night and hosting an Amazon special — 2:30 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams will be working again on election night, anchoring a live special with results and analysis to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon announced the plans on Thursday, saying the election night streamcast will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern, with no end time given. His longtime NBC colleague, Jonathan Wald, will be executive producer.
An election night telecast is a new frontier for a big streaming service, one that doesn’t have its own news operation. Prime Video was scant on details in a news release, saying the show will have results from third-party news sources and a variety of as-yet unnamed guests to talk about them.
Williams and Wald were not immediately available, according to Amazon.
Walz will make the talk show rounds — 1:15 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Walz is making the talk show rounds with scheduled appearances on “The View,” and “The Daily Show.”
The Minnesota governor will appear on both shows Monday, with just a few weeks to go before the presidential election. He’s heading to ABC’s “The View” after Kamala Harris was on Oct. 8. Her appearance delivered the longtime talk show’s highest ratings in three and a half years, according to ABC.
Walz will be interviewed on Comedy Central’s popular talk show by Jon Stewart, campaign officials said. Stewart, the show’s longtime leader, has come back to host once a week on Mondays.
Biden says Harris would cut her own path as president, warns that Trump is dishonest — 12:07 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Biden left the White House on his way to Germany, he was asked about Trump’s recent social media post that Harris was “the worst vice president in history.” Biden, walking from the White House to Marine One on the South Lawn, stopped and said: “You don’t listen to Donald Trump, do ya?”
Biden hasn’t had any nice words for the Republican nominee, calling him a “loser” during a campaign event earlier this week. He also said that Harris, if elected, would cut her own path as president and her “perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective is old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”
Electoral battleground North Carolina starts early in-person voting while recovering from Helene — 12:05 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Early in-person voting began statewide in the presidential battleground of North Carolina, including in mountainous areas where thousands of potential voters still lack power and clean running water after Hurricane Helene’s epic flooding.
More than 400 locations in all 100 counties were slated to open for the 17-day early vote period, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell. Only four of 80 sites in the 25 western counties hardest hit by the storm weren’t going to open.
Helene’s arrival three weeks ago in the Southeast decimated remote towns throughout Appalachia and killed at least 246 people, with a little over half of the storm-related deaths in North Carolina. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005.
Early in-person voting, which continues through Nov. 2, is very popular in North Carolina. More than 3.6 million ballots — 65 percent of all cast ballots — were cast this way in the 2020 general election. In the 2016 election, 62 percent of all cast ballots were cast during early in-person voting.
Absentee voting in North Carolina began a few weeks ago, with over 67,000 completed ballots turned in so far, election officials said. People displaced by Helene are being allowed to drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site in the state.
Walz is expected to campaign in Winston-Salem and in Durham, where he was to be joined by former president Bill Clinton.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley were expected to appear on the “Team Trump Bus Tour” when it resumes Thursday in Rutherford County, which was among the hardest-hit areas.
Harris and Trump offer new details about policies and strategy in dueling interviews — 11:48 a.m.
By The Associated Press
As the presidential race moves into its final weeks, Harris and Trump embarked on an interview blitz that offered new details about their policy priorities and their political strategies.
In recent days, Harris has sat with Charlamagne tha God, whose radio show is especially popular among younger and Black audiences, and appeared in a combative 30-minute interview on Fox News, typically a safe haven for Republicans. Trump, meanwhile, participated in a contentious interview with the editor of Bloomberg News at an economic forum in Chicago, though the crowd was friendly to him, and participated in town halls on Fox News and the Spanish-language network Univision.
Read more takeaways from the cascade of appearances.
Trump is consistently inconsistent on abortion and reproductive rights — 11:31 a.m.
By The Associated Press
Trump has had a tough time finding a consistent message to questions about abortion and reproductive rights.
The former president has constantly shifted his stances or offered vague, contradictory and at times nonsensical answers to questions on an issue that has become a major vulnerability for Republicans in this year’s election. Trump has been trying to win over voters, especially women, skeptical about his views, especially after he nominated three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the nationwide right to abortion two years ago.
The latest example came this week when the Republican presidential nominee said some abortion laws are “too tough” and would be “redone.”
“It’s going to be redone,” he said during a Fox News town hall that aired Wednesday. “They’re going to, you’re going to, you end up with a vote of the people. They’re too tough, too tough. And those are going to be redone because already there’s a movement in those states.”
Trump did not specify if he meant he would take some kind of action if he wins in November, and he did not say which states or laws he was talking about. He did not elaborate on what he meant by “redone.”
6 takeaways from Harris’s contentious interview on Fox News — 10:50 a.m.
By the New York Times
Harris sat for the most adversarial interview of her campaign Wednesday, sparring with Fox News anchor Bret Baier over the US border, President Biden’s mental fitness and whether Trump is a threat to American democracy.
For a Democratic presidential candidate, appearing on Fox News is about as close as going into the lion’s den as it gets. On Wednesday, the lion was Baier, who repeatedly interrupted the vice president and tried to talk over her.
But Harris — giving her first interview on Fox News in an attempt to reach millions of voters, especially conservative-leaning women, who have probably not heard much of her message — largely steered the conversation in her preferred direction.
Here are six takeaways from the interview.
Trump faces tough questions from Hispanic voters, but largely defends or dodges — 10:01 a.m.
By the New York Times
Halfway through a town hall hosted by Univision on Wednesday, Ramiro Gonzalez stood in front of Trump and told the former president that he had lost his support.
Gonzalez, 56, a self-described Republican, said he was alarmed when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not like Trump’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, and he was dismayed by the chorus of former Trump administration officials who no longer support him. “I want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote,” Gonzalez, of Tampa, Florida, said.
Trump declined to take it.
Instead, he defended his actions on Jan. 6, offering a picture often at odds with reality. He insisted the crowds who came to Washington “didn’t come because of me, they came because of the election,” ignoring his own role in stoking election denialism. And he added: “Some of those people went down to the Capitol — I said, ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ Nothing done wrong. At all, nothing done wrong.”
Then, after criticizing the Biden administration and pivoting to the border, Trump addressed Gonzalez’s plea. “Maybe we’ll get your vote,” he said. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK, too.”
Panel looking into Trump assassination attempt says Secret Service needs ‘fundamental reform’ — 9:29 a.m.
By The Associated Press
An independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally faulted the Secret Service for poor communications that day and failing to secure the building where the gunman took his shots. The review also found more systemic issues at the agency such as a failure to understand the unique risks facing Trump and a culture of doing “more with less.”
The 52-page report issued Thursday took the Secret Service to task for specific problems leading up to the July 13 rally in Butler as a well as deeper one within the agency’s culture. It recommended bringing in new, outside leadership and refocusing on its protective mission.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the authors wrote Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the Homeland Security Department, the Secret Services’ parent agency, in a letter accompanying their report. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
McConnell called Trump ‘stupid’ and ‘despicable’ in private after 2020 election, a new book says — 8:32 a.m.
By The Associated Press
McConnell said after the 2020 election that Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month.
McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal oral histories that he made available to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press. Tackett’s book, “The Price of Power,” draws from almost three decades of McConnell’s recorded diaries and from years of interviews with the normally reticent Kentucky Republican.
The animosity between Trump and McConnell is well known — Trump once called McConnell “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.” But McConnell’s private comments are by far his most brutal assessment of the former president and could be seized on by Democrats before the Nov. 5 election. The biography will be released Oct. 29, one week before Election Day that will decide if Trump returns to the White House.
Despite those strong words, McConnell has endorsed Trump’s 2024 run, saying earlier this year “it should come as no surprise” that he would support the Republican party’s nominee. He shook Trump’s hand in June when Trump visited GOP senators on Capitol Hill.
Vance says ‘no’ when asked whether Trump lost 2020 election — 7:41 a.m.
By The Associated Press
In the months since he became Donald Trump ‘s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance has repeatedly deflected questions about whether the Republican presidential nominee lost the 2020 election, saying he was focused on the future.
During a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, where Vance was asked by a reporter about his lack of straight answers so far, he was more declarative.
“What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd before Vance responded, saying he has answered the question “a million times.”
“No. I think there were serious problems in 2020,” Vance said. “So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use, OK?”
Sen. @JDVance: "On the election of 2020, I've answered this question directly a million times. No. I think there were serious problems in 2020. So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use." pic.twitter.com/xLTDQeUmo7
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 17, 2024
Harris interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier gets combative — 8:06 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Vice President Kamala Harris had a combative interview on Fox News where she tried to defend her record on immigration and make the case that former President Donald Trump is a danger to democracy.
Interviewer Bret Baier talked over Harris frequently as the two sparred over the Biden administration’s record at the border, Biden’s own mental acuity and even Harris’ critique of Trump’s recent suggestion to use the military against critics whom he called “the enemy within.”
Of families who had loved ones killed by migrants who entered the country under the Biden administration, Harris said, “Those are tragic cases, there’s no question about that.” She rued an immigration system she said had been broken since before Trump’s presidency and said “I’d follow the law” when asked about prior support for things like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.
Harris tried to argue Trump is a unique threat to democracy and tout her backing from former members of his administration, but had a hard time finishing her argument as she and Baier sparred during the 30-minute interview.
Judge invalidates new Georgia election rules, including ones on ballot hand count and certification — 6:47 p.m.
By The Associated Press
A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the State Election Board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox issued the order Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention — one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Elon Musk commits $70m to boost Donald Trump — 6:19 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Elon Musk, a tech mogul who is the world’s richest person, plunged more than $70 million into helping Donald Trump and other Republicans win in November’s election, making him one of the biggest donors to GOP causes this campaign season, according to campaign finance disclosures released this week.
Musk made the donation over the summer to America PAC, a super political action committee he launched in May to aid Trump in his bid to return to the White House. It quickly became a central player in Trump’s election effort.
“The America PAC is just aiming for common sense, centrist values,” the Space X and Tesla founder said Tuesday on his social media platform X, shortly after the sum of money he contributed was made public in a campaign finance filing.
Harris interview with Fox News showcases a change in strategy for Democrats with network — 6:00 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Harris’s interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier on Wednesday is the latest indication that Democrats during this campaign are increasingly willing to engage with a network well-stocked with supporters of opponent Donald Trump.
Since the party’s convention in August, roughly twice as many Democrats have been on Fox than during the same period in President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, which itself was more often than when Hillary Clinton was the nominee in 2016, according to the network.
Whether to ignore Fox or seize opportunities to change the viewpoints of some audience members has long been a subject of internal debate among Democrats. Biden didn’t make a Fox-specific appearance during his campaign. Clinton made one appearance during her primary campaign and another in mid-summer 2016.
These Republicans back Harris, saying it’s time to put ‘country over party’ — 5:09 p.m.
By The Associated Press
A group of Republicans is supporting the Harris campaign in historic Washington Crossing, Penn., where Gen. George Washington launched his forces across the Delaware River in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
Among those taking the stage was former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who said it’s time to put “country over party.” Kinzinger said Trump has abandoned Republican values and is a “whiny, weak, tiny man who is scared to death.”
Pennsylvania farmers Bob and Kristina Lange also spoke, describing themselves as lifetime Republicans who’ve had enough. Kristina Lange said “it’s time to turn the page on Trump and on his chaos and the way he divides us.”
The Democratic nominee then took the podium. Harris said the Constitution is meant to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power, and “is not a relic from our past.” She said the Constitution “determines whether we are a country where the people can speak freely, and even criticize the president, without fear of being thrown in jail.”
Biden and Pelosi speak for the first time since president abandoned reelection bid — 4:34 p.m.
By The Associated Press
A Washington memorial service brought President Biden and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi together.
They spoke for the first time since the president dropped out of his reelection race for the White House, a choice he made in July after the former House speaker had publicly and privately encouraged him to consider his decision.
They both were in the front row, along with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, at the church service for Ethel Kennedy, the wife of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
In race to shore up support, Harris seeks out skeptics; Trump plays it safe — 3:56 p.m.
By Tal Kopan, Globe Staff
Toward the end of a radio town hall in Detroit focused on Black voters, Harris was asked a question about the rollout of her “opportunity agenda for Black men.”
“What would you say to the people that would consider the timing of this proposal as political timing?” local rapper Chivez “Icewear Vezzo” Smith asked during the town hall with host Charlamagne tha God, noting that some Black men feel they are only noticed during election cycles.
Harris responded by detailing how her commitment to such policies goes back for years, but the exchange highlighted why she was there in the first place. Democrats fear that Trump is eating into Harris’s support among voters of color, particularly men. Once a reliable source of votes for Democrats, their potential drift away from the party, even in small numbers, could prove a tipping point in an election that is a dead heat.
Asked what he likes about Harris, Trump calls her a survivor — 3:39 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Trump is calling Harris a survivor, offering faint praise while noting her early failure in the 2020 presidential nominating campaign.
Asked during a Univision town hall-style event to name three things about his opponent he likes, Trump said, “She seems to have an ability to survive.”
“Because she was out of the race, and all of a sudden she’s running for president,” Trump added.
The vice president ended her Democratic primary campaign in 2020 and emerged as the nominee four years later after President Joe Biden dropped out.
“That’s a great ability that some people have, and some people don’t have,” Trump said, adding, “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships.”
“And she seems to have a nice way about her,” Trump said, offering an uncharacteristic personal compliment for someone he has described as “stupid” and “incompetent.”
Trump fields tough questions during Univision town hall — 2:25 p.m.
By The Associated Press
The question came from a man asking about the January 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol, when thousands of Trump supporters attacked Capitol police and breached the building trying to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump, in a typical refrain about the violent confrontation, said, “That was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions.”
Trump also fielded questions about immigration, guns and abortion, including whether he agrees with his wife, Melania, whose says in a new memoir that she supports abortion rights.
“Do you agree with her?”
Trump said he encourages Melania to support what she wants to support, and in true fashion, plugged the book.
As for the justices he picked for the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights, he said it “is what everybody wanted for 52 years.”
“This issue has torn our country apart,” Trump said, claiming that the country will now “heal.”
Harris calls Trump’s ‘father of IVF’ comment to women ‘quite bizarre’
— 2:02 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Harris says Republican Donald Trump’s comment that he is the “father of IVF” is “quite bizarre, actually.”
Trump made the comment during a Fox News town hall with an all-female audience that aired Wednesday.
Asked about the Trump comment as she departed Detroit for a campaign visit to Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Harris said that “if what he meant is taking responsibility, well then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state.”
She added that “what Trump should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”
“Let’s not be distracted by his choice of words,” Harris said. “The reality is his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America.”
Trump had been promoting the idea that the Republican Party is a “leader” on IVF. That characterization is rejected by Democrats, who have seized on access to the common but expensive fertility treatment as another dimension of reproductive rights threatened by Republicans and a second Trump presidency.
VP Kamala Harris: "Well, about last night. Donald Trump, I found it to be quite bizarre, actually, he called himself the father of IVF...let's not distracted by his choice of words. The reality is his actions have been very harmful to woman and families in America on this issue." pic.twitter.com/vtzqpbdhaw
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 16, 2024
Former president Jimmy Carter votes by mail — 1:13 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Jimmy Carter has cast his ballot in the 2024 Election. The former president voted by mail on Wednesday, according to The Carter Center in Atlanta.
Carter celebrated his 100th birthday on Oct. 1 at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he’s been living in hospice care.
His son Chip Carter said before the family gathering that his father had this election very much in mind.
“He’s plugged in,” Chip Carter told The Associated Press. “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, ‘No, I’m trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris.’”
The Carter Center statement said Jimmy Carter had voted by mail and that the center had no more details to share.
Unions face a moment of truth in pivotal blue wall states — 12:35 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Both Harris and Trump are competing for workers in blue wall states with deep union roots.
Harris is rallying in union halls, standing alongside Michigan’s most powerful labor leader, while Trump fires back from rural steel factories, urging middle-class workers to trust him as their true champion. They’re making their case in starkly different terms. Campaigning for Harris, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain says the American dream now depends on electing Democrats.
But Harris failed to secure two key union endorsements that went to Biden, who calls himself the most labor-friendly president in US history. The International Association of Firefighters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters both declined to endorse anyone. Any break in labor movement unity can have an amplifier effect in a place like Michigan, where most people have a family member or close friend in a union.
Many Midwestern communities once core to the labor movement have shifted to the right as jobs moved overseas. And non-college-educated white voters have been voting more conservatively, concerned about cultural issues involving race and gender.
Trump has seized on these trends while accusing Harris of mandating electric vehicles in the home of America’s Big Three automakers. Trump also labeled Fain a “stupid idiot” and praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk for firing workers who went on strike.
Michelle Obama to lead turnout-minded ‘Party at the Polls’ with celebs in Atlanta — 12:05 p.m.
By The Associated Press
Former first lady Michelle Obama will headline a turnout-minded, celebrity-studded “Party at the Polls” rally in Atlanta aimed at engaging younger and first-time voters as well as voters of color.
The Oct. 29 event will be hosted by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement group that Obama founded in 2018 to “change the culture around voting” and reach out to people who are less likely to engage in politics and elections.
The group’s co-chairs include professional basketball players Stephen Curry and Chris Paul; musical artists Becky G, H.E.R., Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez and Janelle Monáe; beauty influencer Bretman Rock; and actors Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kerry Washington.
The group has hosted more than 500 “Party at the Polls” events, ranging from pop-up block parties in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Philadelphia to voter registration partnerships with professional sports leagues and music festivals. Executive Director Beth Lynk said the group chose Atlanta for Obama’s appearance because of the state’s diversity and the impact that only a handful of voters can make in Georgia.
“A lot of people don’t believe that their votes have power. But they do, plain and simple,” Lynk said. “We know that democracy has to work for all of us and that’s what we will be stressing at this rally.”
Candidate promises to reject corporate contributions drop as campaign finance reform wanes as core issue — 11:51 a.m.
By Sam Brodey, Globe Staff
Not long ago, Democratic candidates for office introduced themselves with one specific promise to voters.
“I’m Theresa Greenfield,” said the 2020 Democratic challenger to Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa in a TV ad. “And I don’t take corporate PAC money, because I don’t think politicians should put corporate interests ahead of you.”
In the previous three election cycles, dozens and dozens of Democrats running for House and Senate took a vow to shun campaign contributions from political action committees funded by corporations — a succinctly effective way to convey independence from outside influence.
But in 2024, fewer candidates are making that pledge, according to a Globe review of databases maintained by End Citizens United, an advocacy group that encourages candidates to take a no-corporate PAC commitment and tracks who commits to them.
Some Republicans support Harris in Pennsylvania as Trump pursues Latino votes — 10:30 a.m.
By The Associated Press
A coalition of Republicans backing Harris will campaign with the Democratic presidential nominee in pivotal Pennsylvania before she sits down with Fox News for an interview airing at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Trump, meanwhile, will appear on TV in two town halls — one with a woman-only audience that Fox News Channel recorded Tuesday, and the other with with Hispanics, hosted by Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language television network.
As the race entered its final three weeks, Harris is expected to talk about upholding the Constitution and defending patriotism in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a vote-rich stretch of suburban Philadelphia where Democrats have held a narrow advantage in recent presidential elections. Flanking her will be former US Representative Adam Kinzinger and other GOP officials who argue that Trump is a threat to American democracy.
Trump’s Univision event afternoon in Miami will air at 10 p.m. Trump is counting on increased Latino support even as he centers his campaign on a darker view of immigration, suggesting migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the nation.
Harris is set for her first Fox News interview. Here’s what to know. — 10:09 a.m.
By the Washington Post
Harris will sit for an interview with Fox News — her first formal appearance on the network - as she continues her media blitz with Election Day fast approaching.
The network’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, will conduct the interview in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Harris is currently leading Donald Trump by two points, according to The Washington Post’s latest analysis.
Following a cautious rollout after moving to the top of Democratic ticket, Harris has in recent days embraced a spate of unscripted interviews in a bid to engage a broader audience. She has appeared on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” and on Tuesday participated in a live interview with Charlamagne tha God, a well-known radio personality.
At town hall on women’s issues, Trump renews ‘enemy within’ talk — 8:14 a.m.
By the New York Times
Trump reiterated his belief that Democrats are “the enemy from within” during a Fox News town hall Tuesday billed as a conversation about women’s issues.
Harris has sought to highlight Trump’s recent inflammatory comments, arguing that he has grown “increasingly unstable and unhinged” in the final weeks of the campaign. During a stump speech Monday in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris played footage of an earlier interview he had conducted with Fox News in which he called the Democratic Party and individual lawmakers an “enemy from within” and said they were more dangerous than foreign adversaries.
But if Trump was fazed by these attacks, he did not show it Tuesday after Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner replayed the footage of his Fox News interview. Faulkner noted Harris’ use of the video in her campaign and her descriptions of his language as authoritarian. Trump in response called her campaign rally video “a nice presentation,” before rebuffing Democrats as “a party of sound bites.”
Still, he did not disavow his comments.
Jill Biden is out campaigning again — but not for her husband anymore. She’s pumping up Harris. — 5:01 a.m.
By The Associated Press
Jill Biden wasted no time after she stepped up to the microphone at a suburban Detroit restaurant.
“Now some have come to (the) Detroit area recently and thrown around some insults, but from what I’ve seen this is a vibrant, thriving city,” she said. It was a swipe at Republican Donald Trump, who aimed a recent dart at the most populous city in a critical Midwestern battleground state.
The first lady was back on the campaign trail for the first time in months, but no longer pushing Democrats to support her husband, President Joe Biden. Instead, she is now putting her energy into boosting Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden endorsed for president after he dropped his reelection bid. On Tuesday, the first lady wrapped up a five-day swing through five battleground states.
Republicans challenge more than 63,000 voters in Georgia, but few removed, AP finds — 4:04 a.m.
By The Associated Press
From Georgia’s mountains to its Atlantic shore, challenges to the qualifications of voters have rolled in this summer and fall, part of a wide-ranging national effort coordinated by Donald Trump’s allies to enlist Republican activists to remove people they view as suspect from the voting rolls.
Thus far, barely 1% of people called into question have been removed from the rolls or placed into challenged status, mostly because counties are disregarding challenges. But those who allege Georgia’s voting rolls are bloated with ineligible voters are trying to change that, filing lawsuits and pushing the Trump-aligned State Election Board to order counties to do more.
The Associated Press finds more than 63,000 Georgians have been challenged since July 1, when a law that could make it easier to uphold challenges partially took effect. The AP’s survey covered Georgia’s 39 most populous counties, as well as six other counties with challenge activity. That’s a big surge from 2023 and the first half of 2024, when the AP found that about 18,000 voters were challenged.
Trump emphasizes hypermasculinity as he and Harris pursue male voters — 3:33 a.m.
By The Associated Press
Attention, American men: Donald Trump and his allies want you to believe your vote says big things about your masculinity.
In the final weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the Republican nominee is amping up his hypermasculine tone and support of traditional gender roles, a reflection of the surgical campaign-within-a-campaign for the votes of men in a showdown with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
But where Harris is deploying “dudes” who use bro-ey language and occasional scolding to boost her support particularly among Black and Hispanic males, Trump’s camp is meeting men in alpha-male terms, often with crude and demeaning language. That means he appears on podcasts, gaming platforms, and alongside surrogates who define American manliness as a vote for the former Republican president.
“If you are a man in this country and you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you’re not a man,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said on his podcast.
Unions face a moment of truth in Michigan in this year’s presidential race — 3:13 a.m.
By The Associated Press
Vice President Kamala Harris rallies in Michigan’s union halls, standing alongside the state’s most powerful labor leader, while former President Donald Trump fires back from rural steel factories, urging middle-class workers to trust him as the true champion of their interests.
As they compete for blue wall states with deep union roots, the presidential candidates are making their case to workers in starkly different terms. And nowhere is that contrast more significant than in Michigan, where both candidates are vying for workers’ support in a race that could mark a pivotal moment for organized labor.
“The American dream was really born here in Michigan,” United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told a crowd of several hundred while campaigning for Harris in Grand Rapids. Fain, who described Michigan as “sacred ground” for his union at the early October rally, warned that the dream was on “life support” and that unions like his were key to protecting it for American workers.
Trump escalates threats to political opponents he deems the ‘enemy’ — 2:30 a.m.
By The New York Times
With three weeks left before Election Day, former President Donald Trump is pushing to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat: that he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with him.
In a Fox News interview Sunday, Trump framed Democrats as a pernicious “enemy from within” that would cause chaos on Election Day that he speculated the National Guard might need to handle.
A day later, he closed his remarks to a crowd at what was billed as a town hall in Pennsylvania with a stark message about his political opponents.
“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections. They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”
And on Tuesday, he once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power when pressed by an interviewer at an economic forum in Chicago.
These 5 Pennsylvania congressional races could determine House control — 1:57 a.m.
By The Associated Press
With the U.S. House narrowly divided, contests for Pennsylvania’s seats will be critical to control of the chamber in this year’s election, even as the state also plays a big role in determining control of the White House and Senate.
The magic number of pickups is four for Democrats to take control of the House, magnifying the stakes of each House race.
In Pennsylvania, the parties began the year viewing five races as competitive, as Democrats defend their 9-8 advantage in the state’s 17-seat delegation.
Biden says Harris will cut her own path as president, and her perspective will be fresh and new — 12:34 a.m.
By The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Biden on Tuesday said Kamala Harris would “cut her own path” once she wins the 2024 election, allowing for more daylight between him and his vice president as she works to win over skeptical voters three weeks before Election Day.
“Kamala will take the country in her own direction, and that’s one of the most important differences in this election,” he said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”
Biden’s comments may give Harris more license to stake out her own political and policy stances in the critical closing phase of the presidential race, and appear to go further to distance the two than Harris has herself. The vice president’s aides have privately expressed some frustration that the 81-year-old president has been too focused on his own legacy — and not the race to succeed him.
But Harris has of late faced increasing pressure to articulate how she’d govern differently from Biden, a question trickier than it seems on the surface.
Trump says states will undo abortion laws that are ‘too tough’ — 12:06 a.m.
By Bloomberg
Donald Trump said some states that are restricting abortion rights are being “too tough” and those measures should be rolled back, as he sought to win over women skeptical about his approach to reproductive health care.
“It’s going to be redone. They’re going to, you’re going to, you end up with a vote of the people,” Trump said at townhall moderated by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner in Cumming, Georgia, on Tuesday. “They’re too tough, too tough. And those are going to be redone because already there’s a movement in those states.”
The Republican nominee didn’t specify which states he was speaking about, but cited Ohio as an example of a GOP-led state that voted to expand abortion rights in a recent ballot measure.
Georgia judge blocks ballot counting rule and says county officials must certify election results — 11:05 p.m.
By The Associated Press
A judge has blocked a new rule that requires Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.
The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close. The county election board in Cobb County, in Atlanta’s suburbs, had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge declare that rule and five others recently passed by the state board invalid, saying they exceed the state board’s authority, weren’t adopted in compliance with the law and are unreasonable.
In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.
In Pennsylvania, Walz blasts Trump and Vance as the outsiders, not immigrants — 10:31 p.m.
By The New York Times
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, wearing a camouflage baseball cap and red-and-black plaid flannel, took the stage on Tuesday as the skies cleared on a muddy farm in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.
He opened with tender talk of his rural roots. Then, he painted the kind of haunting picture frequently evoked by the Republicans opposing him and his running mate atop the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris: of a rural America under attack.
“Been a lot of talk about outsiders coming in, coming into rural communities, stealing our jobs, making life worse for the people who are living there,” he said, alluding to the hostile remarks about immigrants.
But Walz — speaking pointedly before a couple hundred people, with barns, bins and tractors as his backdrop — paused for dramatic effect.
“Those outsiders have names. They’re Donald Trump and JD Vance,” he said, eliciting laughter and a few whistles from the audience.
The event Tuesday was part of a Wisconsin and Pennsylvania swing that Walz used to unveil his ticket’s plans to address the needs of rural voters. And Walz, who has been on a quest in recent days to reclaim male voters and football from the Republican Party, sought to make the most of the moment as a born and bred Nebraskan.
How Americans voted in 2020, and what it could mean for 2024 — 7:30 p.m.
the Associated Press
According to AP VoteCast, Biden won clear majorities of college graduates, women and younger voters in 2020. He won around two-thirds of urban voters and more than half of suburbanites. He got the backing of around three-quarters of non-white voters, including about 9 in 10 Black voters and 6 in 10 Hispanic voters. And in addition to securing these groups, many of which have historically favored Democrats, Biden also won moderate voters and cut into Trump’s support among white women and young white voters.
Unlike Biden, Harris has tapped into the energy around her campaign by holding large rallies. But she’s also acknowledged the diversity of her coalition with various Zoom meetings that have targeted demographic groups such as “Black Women for Harris,” “Black Men for Harris,” “Latinas for Harris,” “Cat Ladies for Kamala” and “Dads for Kamala,” among other groups.
Trump, meanwhile, held onto his base of white voters without a college degree, rural voters and religious conservatives in 2020.
Harris joins Charlamagne tha God for radio town hall — 6:50 p.m.
the Associated Press
During an hourlong radio town hall moderated by Charlamagne tha God, host of “The Breakfast Club” show, Harris also said she would work to decriminalize marijuana, which accounts for arrests that also disproportionately impact Black men, and she acknowledged racial disparities and bias exist in everyday life for Black people — in home ownership, healthcare, economic prosperity and even voting.
Harris told Charlamagne that despite the persistence of racial bias, no one has a pass to sit out the election.
“We should never sit back and say, ‘OK, I’m not gonna vote because everything hasn’t been solved,’” she said. “This is a margin of error race. It’s tight. I’m gonna win. I’m gonna win, but it’s tight.”
Justice Department to monitor voting in Ohio county after sheriff’s comment about Harris supporters — 6:27 p.m.
the Associated Press
The US Justice Department will send election monitors to an Ohio county where a sheriff was recently accused of intimidating voters in a social media post, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The Justice Department said it will monitor Portage County’s compliance with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day. The agency regularly sends staff to counties around the US to monitor compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act and other civil rights statutes related to elections and voting.
“Voters in Portage County have raised concerns about intimidation resulting from the surveillance and the collection of personal information regarding voters, as well as threats concerning the electoral process,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
The agency did not elaborate.
RFK Jr. suggests he’ll have a significant role on agriculture and health policy if Trump is elected — 6:09 p.m.
the Associated Press
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested he will have significant influence on American agriculture policy if Trump is elected president, the latest in a series of roles he has envisioned for himself in a second Trump administration.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist who ran for president as an independent before endorsing Trump, on Monday posted a video on social media that he filmed outside the US Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington.
“Corporate interests have hijacked the USDA dietary guidelines to make natural unprocessed foods merely an afterthought. That’s one reason why 70% of the American diet now consists of ultraprocessed food. We’re going to change that,” Kennedy said, before listing off a series of policy ideas that would seem to run counter to much of what Trump’s Agriculture Department did in his first administration.
Early in-person voting begins in Georgia — 6:07 p.m.
the Associated Press
More than 250,000 Georgians cast ballots on Tuesday, the first day of early in-person voting in the southern swing state. Absentee mail-in ballots began to be mailed on Oct. 7. The in-person turnout blew away the previous record for first-day early voting of 133,000, set in 2020, by early afternoon, said Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Hour-plus lines to vote were reported at a few early voting sites in metro Atlanta’s core counties on Tuesday afternoon, but many reported little or no wait. The total likely means more than 5 percent of all Georgians who will cast ballots before the end of Nov. 5 will vote Tuesday.
Arizona counties won’t be forced to do citizenship checks before the election, a judge rules — 5:44 p.m.
the Associated Press
A judge has rejected a request to require Arizona’s 15 counties to verify the citizenship of some 42,000 voters registered only to vote in federal elections in the presidential battleground state, concluding those who sought the checks made their request too close to the Nov. 5 election and didn’t have legal standing.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of an Arizona voter and the conservative advocacy group Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona sought a court order requiring county recorders to ask federal authorities to verify the citizenship of those voters.
Arizona requires voters to prove their citizenship to participate in local and state races. Voters who don’t provide proof of citizenship yet still swear they are US citizens are allowed to vote only for president, the US House or Senate.
Bill Clinton to join Walz for a North Carolina campaign event — 4:55 p.m.
the Associated Press
Former president Bill Clinton will campaign with Walz in North Carolina on Thursday, a state recovering from Hurricane Helene’s damage.
Clinton will rally with the Minnesota governor just 20 days before Election Day. Former president Barack Obama is also joining Walz on the campaign trail in support of Kamala Harris.
Harris visits Black-owned art gallery in Detroit — 4:45 p.m.
the Associated Press
Harris dropped into a Detroit art gallery accompanied by three Hollywood stars for a conversation with Black men about entrepreneurship as both she and Donald Trump sought to energize key constituencies their allies worry may be slipping away.
Harris was joined by Don Cheadle, Delroy Lindo, and Detroit native Cornelius Smith Jr. at the Norwest Art Gallery. The space, with wood floors and exposed pipes, featured small prints set up on easels. Larger landscape photographs were displayed on the walls.
Harris singled out Lindo, who has starred in films and CBS’ “The Good Fight,” saying to the gathered crowd: “Delroy has been supporting me for years and years and years,” and adding that the two were both on the debate team at her alma mater, Howard University.
Harris reminded the group that early voting starts in Michigan in four days.
How voting before Election Day became so widespread and so political — 4:27 p.m.
the Associated Press
Voters had plenty to argue about in the 1972 election, but they overwhelmingly agreed that when it came time to vote, they would do so in person on Election Day.
The act of voting was largely a communal experience that year, when roughly 95% of voters went to their local polling places and completed and submitted their ballots in person on a single day, according to a census survey at the time.
That number would fall gradually over the next 50 years as states provided Americans with more options on how and when to vote.
By 2022, only about half of the electorate voted at the polls on Election Day. The share of people voting before Election Day spiked to more than 70 percent in 2020, and votes cast by mail surpassed those cast on Election Day for the first time ever. That year, many states enacted emergency measures to temporarily expand vote-by-mail options to protect voters from the spread of COVID-19.
Obama to join Walz for Wisconsin campaign event — 3:55 p.m.
the Associated Press
Walz and Obama have scheduled a rally in Wisconsin’s liberal capital city of Madison on Oct. 22. That is the first day that Wisconsin voters can cast ballots in person at designated polling locations ahead of Election Day. Absentee ballots started being sent to voters in late September and, as of Monday, about 240,000 had been returned.
Wisconsin is a “blue wall” state, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, and is key to Harris’s victory strategy.
Obama is the only presidential candidate in the past six elections who has won Wisconsin by more than a percentage point.
On the day before the 2012 election, Obama held a rally in Madison that attracted about 18,000 people. Another Obama rally in October of that year drew about 30,000 people.
Walz to return to Boston Sunday for fundraising event — 3:23 p.m.
the Associated Press
Walz will be making another appearance in Boston this weekend at a fund-raising event held at the start of early voting in Massachusetts, organizers said.
With the election three weeks away, the Minnesota governor will headline an afternoon reception on Sunday, hosted by Alan Solomont, the former US ambassador to Spain, celebrity event planner Bryan Rafanelli, and others. The time and location of the event are revealed with an RSVP, organizers said in an invitation.
“This event will be an incredible opportunity to support the campaign as we get into the home stretch and to hear directly from Governor Walz about the Harris/Walz plan for a new way forward for our country,” organizers said.
Tickets start at $500 and extend as high as $100,000 for a “chair,” according to the invitation. Other prices include $5,000 for an “advocate,” $10,000 for a “sponsor,” and $50,000 for a “co-chair.”
Trump stands by claims of a peaceful transition of power after 2020 elections, despite the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol building — 2:52 p.m.
the Associated Press
Trump is once again claiming that there there was a peaceful transition of power after the 2020 election, despite the fact that his supporters violently stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6 after he refused to accept his loss.
And he is claiming that there was “love and peace” in the crowd, even as those who descended on the Capitol smashed windows, rammed through doors and clashed violently with police, leaving more than 100 injured.
“It was a peaceful transition of power,” Trump said at a Chicago Economic Club event.
The friendly audience responded with boos when his interviewer tried to dispute him.
Trump also repeated several other falsehoods in his response.
He claimed that “not one of those people had a gun” and that “Nobody was killed,” except Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who was shot and killed by police.
In fact, five people died in the riot and its immediate aftermath, including Brian Sicknick, a police officer. Four additional officers who responded to the riot killed themselves in the following weeks and months.
A slew of rioters were carrying weapons, including firearms, knives, brass knuckle gloves, a pitchfork, a hatchet, a sledgehammer and a bow. They also used makeshift weapons, including flagpoles, a table leg, hockey stick and crutch, to attack officers. One rioter has been charged with climbing scaffolding and firing a gun in the air during the melee.
Trump also claimed that “a lot of strange things happened” and that rioters were waved into the building.
US Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a memo that the allegation that “our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides’” is “outrageous and false.” Manger said police were completely overwhelmed and outnumbered, and in many cases resorted to de-escalation tactics to try to persuade rioters to leave the building.
While there were cases where police retreated or stepped aside, there is no evidence that any rioter was “ushered” into the building.
Former President Trump on January 6th: "The primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands...it was love and peace and some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there..." pic.twitter.com/oKtIoJeRZt
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 15, 2024
Trump says speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin would be good for the country — 1:31 p.m.
the Associated Press
Trump won’t say whether he’s spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he left office.
But he says doing so would be good for the country.
“I don’t comment on that,” he said at an event before the Chicago Economic Club. “But I will tell you that if I did it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”
Journalist Bob Woodward reported in his new book, “War,” that Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic.”
Trump spokesperson Steve Cheung called the reporting false. Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that Woodward is “a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles.”
Q: "Can you say yes or no whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 15, 2024
Former President Trump: "Well, I don't comment on that. But I will tell you that if I did, it's a smart thing." pic.twitter.com/wFuvDb2DnZ
Catching up on the presidential race? Here’s what you missed in recent days. — 1:02 p.m.
By Alyssa Vega, Globe Staff
- On Monday night in Philadelphia, Donald Trump stopped an onstage interview as a doctor attended to medical emergencies in the crowd. As music played, he bopped and shimmied onstage. “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music,” Trump said. “Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”
- Vice President Kamala Harris took a swipe at Trump during her campaign rally in Erie, Penn., on Sunday after Trump suggested the US military could be used to deal with “the enemy from within.” “He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Harris said after showing several clips of Trump’s comments on a screen during her rally.
- On Saturday, Trump, during a campaign rally in Coachella, Calif., told a protester to “go back home to mommy” and suggested that the heckler should “get the hell knocked out of her.”
Trump defends his support for high tariffs — 12:40 p.m.
the Associated Press
Trump is defending his support for high tariffs as an economic cure-all as he speaks before members of the Economic Club of Chicago.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’” Trump tells Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, who is interviewing him at the event. Micklethwait has repeatedly pressed Trump on warnings from economists that the costs of high tariffs will be passed along to American consumers, raising prices.
But Trump isn’t budging.
“It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong,” he says, to laughs.
The Economic Club of Chicago describes its membership as “a curated composition of business and civic leaders.”
Watch live: Trump sits down for an interview with the Economic Club of Chicago — 12:50 p.m.
By Globe Staff
North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson sues CNN over report about posts on porn site — 12:26 p.m.
the Associated Press
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has sued CNN over its recent report that he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board. He made the announcement Tuesday and calls the reporting reckless and defamatory.
The lawsuit comes less than four weeks after a report that led many of his fellow GOP elected officials and candidates to distance themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign. That includes GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
CNN declined to comment on the lawsuit. Robinson is also suing a man who alleges Robinson frequented a porn shop decades ago.
What to watch as Elizabeth Warren and John Deaton face off in first US Senate debate — 11:41 a.m.
By Emma Platoff, Globe Staff
Senator Elizabeth Warren and GOP challenger John Deaton will meet Tuesday night for the first of two general election debates, as the Republican looks to claw back support from Warren in a state she has represented for 12 years.
The hourlong debate is co-sponsored by WBZ-TV and the Boston Globe and will air at 8:30 p.m. on WSBK-TV38 and be livestreamed on BostonGlobe.com.
Warren, a nationally known progressive, is seeking her third term in the Senate. Deaton, a personal injury attorney and advocate for the fledgling cryptocurrency industry, is a newcomer to Massachusetts and GOP politics. Polling shows Warren has a commanding lead, and campaign finance records show a significant cash advantage for the incumbent. Warren raised $1.8 million to end the third quarter with $5.4 million cash on hand, while Deaton raised $294,000 and had $834,000 on hand.
Harris zeros in on Black men, Trump focuses on women as both seek to fire up key voting blocs — 11:38 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Harris and Trump both pushed to energize key constituencies that their allies worry might be slipping away, with the vice president looking to reach Black men and the former president focusing on women.
Harris will appear at a town hall-style event in Detroit hosted by the morning radio program “The Breakfast Club,” featuring Charlamagne Tha God, who is especially popular with Black males. Trump, meanwhile, will tape a Fox News Channel town hall featuring an all-female audience and moderated by host Harris Faulkner.
The vice president was also scheduled to stop by a Black-owned business in Detroit. A day earlier, she visited LegendErie, a coffee shop and record store in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she met with the husband-and-wife owners, a local pastor and other community leaders.
Harris slams Trump as ‘unhinged’ as they trade attacks in Pennsylvania — 11:04 a.m.
By Washington Post
Harris portrayed Trump as dangerous and “unhinged” at a rally Monday night, arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision granting presidents broad immunity for their official acts has significantly raised the stakes for a second Trump presidency.
Trying out a new tactic here in Western Pennsylvania, Harris ordered her aides to roll the tape on giant jumbotron screens inside the Erie rally hall to show clips of Trump making inflammatory statements and threats at his rallies and in a recent interview. Watching the former president speak, many in the crowd booed, and some shouted, “He’s a criminal!” Harris argued that Americans should be alarmed that Trump has threatened to jail his opponents and that he has described some fellow Americans as “the enemy from within.”
When the crowd chanted “Lock him up!” Harris pumped her hands toward the floor to hush those jeers. “The courts will handle that,” she said. “Let’s handle November, shall we? We’ll handle November.”
Her speech marked one side of a day of dueling campaign events in Pennsylvania, a state both parties regard as a crucial battleground and potential tipping-point contest with just over three weeks of campaigning left. Trump was on the other side of the state holding a town hall where he went after Harris and delivered meandering remarks on a range of topics. The event was interrupted twice when members of the crowd appeared to need medical attention, and it ended with Trump standing onstage swaying to music for some 39 minutes.
Walz to unveil Harris’ plan for rural voters as campaign looks to cut into Trump’s edge — 10:53 a.m
By the Associated Press
Walz will unveil his ticket’s plans to improve the lives of rural voters, as Harris looks to cut into Trump’s support.
The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities. The plan was detailed to The Associated Press by a senior campaign official on the condition of anonymity ahead of its official release on Tuesday.
It marks a concerted effort by the Democratic campaign to make a dent in the historically Trump-leaning voting bloc in the closing three weeks before Election Day. Trump carried rural voters by a nearly two-to-one margin in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. In the closely contested race, both Democrats and Republicans are reaching out beyond their historic bases in hopes of winning over a sliver of voters that could ultimately prove decisive.
Walz is set to announce the plan during a stop in rural Lawrence County in western Pennsylvania, one of the marquee battlegrounds of the 2024 contest. He is also starring in a new radio ad for the campaign highlighting his roots in a small town of 400 people and his time coaching football, while attacking Trump and Vance.
Georgia judge rules county election officials must certify election results — 10:32 a.m.
By the Associated Press
A Georgia judge has ruled county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law and cannot exclude any group of votes from certification even if they suspect error or fraud.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they have the right to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”
Georgia law says county election superintendents, which are multimember boards in most counties, “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election — or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.
The ruling comes as early voting began Tuesday in Georgia.
With her own race at home in Mass., Elizabeth Warren stumps in swing states for Kamala Harris — 10:14 a.m.
By Emma Platoff, Globe Staff
It had all the makings of a classic campaign stop: the brewery with dim lights and loud music, the pump-up speech culminating in a spirited call to action, the cheering fans queuing up for photos afterward.
Only Elizabeth Warren, who is up for reelection this year, was in the wrong commonwealth, and she was promoting Harris, not herself.
In a late September visit that evoked, at times, her own presidential campaign, Warren was greeted as a returning hero by party faithful here in the collar counties outside Philadelphia, largely blue-leaning areas where Democrats are hoping to run up the score to help them clinch this essential swing state.
Her traipse through the Philadelphia suburbs was just the latest out-of-state stop the senator has made as a surrogate for the Democratic ticket this year. Altogether, she’s made eight visits, including one other trip in Pennsylvania and three to Wisconsin, another crucial swing state.
The visits are a testament to Warren’s continued star power on the national stage; fellow Democrats look to her as a powerful speaker and fundraiser, and the party’s base still reveres her, as evidenced by the lengthy standing ovation she earned at the Democratic National Convention this summer.
Two men shot during Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump say Secret Service failed them — 9:54 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Two men who were shot during the first assassination attempt on Trump this summer say the US Secret Service was “negligent” in protecting the former president and other bystanders at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
David Dutch, 57, an ex-Marine, and James Copenhaver, 74, a retired liquor store manager, told NBC News in an exclusive interview Monday they were excited to be sitting in the bleachers behind the Republican nominee at the fairgrounds in Butler on July 13 when gunshots rang out and they were hit.
Another man, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed in the shooting while shielding his family. Trump was wounded in the ear.
The interview with the two Pennsylvania men who were critically injured marked their first public statements since 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire in July from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.