Harris and Trump zero in on Sun Belt states in final weekend push for votes

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump zeroed in on the Sun Belt on Saturday as they embarked on one last weekend quest to sway every undecided voter in the battleground states.

They pitched rival agendas on the economy, and more, that each insisted is what Americans want.

“We have overcome every attack, every abuse and even two assassination attempts,” Mr Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. “And now it all comes down to this.”

Ms Harris has been urging her supporters to vote early so she can be elected and provide the “new generation of leadership” that she says she represents.

“I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America,” she said at a rally in Atlanta.

She had to pause a few times to allow medics to attend to people who had fainted after spending hours in the heat.

“It’s hot out here, Atlanta,” the vice president said.

It was unclear whether Ms Harris herself had voted early. Campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said on Saturday that Ms Harris plans to vote by post, but he could not say whether she had returned her ballot to her home state of California.

Mr Trump was expected to vote in person on Tuesday in Florida.

“Anybody here already voted?” she asked the Atlanta crowd, which cheered loudly in response. “Oh wow. Oh my goodness. Thank you, thank you.”

It was part of a final, frenzied push by Ms Harris, Mr Trump, their running mates and their high-profile spokesmen to encourage people to vote early or in person on Tuesday, election day.

Ms Harris’ campaign hoped for a “high-impact” moment with a two-minute spot to air on Sunday during American football games.

It shows Harris speaking to people during the campaign and talking directly to viewers.

“Now I’m asking for your vote because as president I will get up every day and fight for the American people,” she says at the end.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, spoke wistfully, as he has at some of his recent rallies, about how after nearly a decade of campaigning, his final race is nearing its end.

“We’re going to meet again many times I hope,” said the former president, who also was stopping in Salem, Virginia – not a battleground state – before returning to North Carolina for a late-night rally.

“This has been the thrill of a lifetime for me and for you.”

Planes carrying Ms Harris and Mr Trump met on the tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the vice president ended her campaign day.

She was joined there by actress Kerry Washington and rocker Jon Bon Jovi, who played a newer song The People’s House that he said he wrote shortly after the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump insurrectionists.

“We still have work to do,” Ms Harris told her Atlanta rally, adding, “Make no mistake, we will win.”

She also called her campaign and supporters “the promise of America”.

President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race this summer when it became clear he could not win, was doing his part for the Democrats by making what could be his final 2024 campaign stop.

Mr Biden, who turns 82 this month, struck a nostalgic tone as he tried to help get out the vote for Ms Harris and her running mate Tim Walz during an event in Pennsylvania.

And, as he has done frequently lately, Mr Biden also went off script to offer some especially blunt statements.

After criticising Mr Trump and his supporters on policy issues, the president added: “I know some of you guys are tempted to think he’s this macho guy but I’m serious, these are the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the ass.”

Mr Walz, meanwhile, joined actress Eva Longoria at a get-out-the-vote event in Las Vegas before events in Arizona.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance appeared in Las Vegas and  Arizona, with Donald Trump Jr.

First lady Jill Biden was campaigning in Georgia and Hillary Clinton was appearing for Ms Harris in Tampa, Florida.