October 17, 2024, presidential campaign news

The executive director of North Carolina’s election board said early voting began in Thursday with “terrific turnout statewide,” and possibly the highest turnout for an opening day of early voting, though that won’t be confirmed until the end of the day.

Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell became teary-eyed and overcome with emotion as she discussed the start of early voting at a news conference in western North Carolina, where some have feared turnout could drop this election due to damage from Hurricane Helene.

Bell said early voting is now underway in all 100 of North Carolina’s counties, which includes 76 early voting sites – down from 80 that were originally planned – in the 25 counties in a designated disaster area. She said the voting sites are not temporary structures but rather brick-and-motor buildings with power, though not necessarily running water.

She said the Postal Service has reduced the number of undeliverable addresses “considerably,” though acknowledged that some people in affected communities may still have to walk to get their ballots or travel to their polling places.

She commended workers who have helped restore power, cell service and infrastructure in time for early voting.

“This is an incredible accomplishment,” Bell said.

Corinne Duncan, director of elections in Buncombe County, home to Asheville, which sustained heavy damage, said her county is caught up on absentee-ballot processing and has a “strong” plan for early voting. She said about two-thirds of poll workers who had been trained before the storm to serve during early voting are still able to work.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ “blue wall” swing in Wisconsin and Michigan will focus on her plans for entrepreneurship, manufacturing, and protecting workers, according to a campaign adviser.

With Harris gaining some ground in public polling on handling economic issues, her campaign believes it has an opening to further argue a Harris administration would be stronger than former President Donald Trump on the key issue.

Harris and billionaire surrogate Mark Cuban will visit a business class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s entrepreneurship center to speak to a group of young leaders. The center hosts a “Shark Tank”-style competition for college students to secure funding for business ideas. During the stop, she’ll push her plan to expand the small business tax deduction from $5,000 to $50,000.

At an evening rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Harris is expected to underscore her support for unions with an introduction from Jim Ridderbush, the vice president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1473.

And in Michigan on Friday, the vice president will continue to message on the economy and manufacturing, specifically in Lansing.

Former President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky sit down for a meeting on September 27 in New York City.

Former President Donald Trump in a podcast aired Thursday tried to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and said he thought Zelensky “should never have let that war start.”

“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion,” Trump said on the PBD Podcast. “Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser.” 10:26:37

More on Trump’s relationship with Putin and Zelenksy: Trump said earlier this week he wouldn’t comment on reporting by journalist Bob Woodward that he has spoken to Putin multiple times since leaving office but added, “If I did, it’s a smart thing.”

Trump has a long history of praising the Russian leader and when he was president, Trump went as far as to side with Putin over the US intelligence community over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump met with Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York last month when the Ukrainian president was in the US for the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting came days after Trump criticized Zelensky’s handling of the war and claimed he “refuses to make a deal” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. As he stood next to Zelensky, Trump said, “We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin.”

Former President Donald Trump will hold a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday and a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday.

The former president and Vice President Kamala Harris have been criss-crossing key battleground states as Election Day quickly approaches

“Kamala Harris has abandoned North Carolina families, leaving them to struggle under the crushing weight of inflation and skyrocketing costs. President Trump will put an end to this madness when he returns to the White House, ” the Trump campaign said in a statement announcing the North Carolina rally.

This post has been updated with more reporting on Trump’s upcoming campaign events.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was grilled on the latest online trends in a TikTok interview released on Thursday with Betches, a digital media company that caters to young women, as part of the campaign’s effort to engage young female voters ahead of November’s election.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate described what he has learned by being a “girl dad” to his daughter Hope, and he also stressed the need to protect access to reproductive health care and advocate for wage equality.

Walz was then asked if he was familiar with a few viral trends, starting with a uniquely large baby penguin at the Melbourne Aquarium named Pesto, whom he correctly identified. He was then asked to identify Moo Deng, the famous baby hippopotamus living in Thailand.

“It’s the baby hippo. What is the baby hippo’s name?,” he said, before being told the hippo’s name. “Moo Deng! That’s right.”

He was then asked if he knew what the slang term “rizzler” means.

“Kind of. I am not one. Do I have the context right?” he asked, while laughing. “Yeah I think I know what it is. Casanova-type thing or whatever.”

At the end of the video, Walz said his favorite viral moment of the year was him meeting with schoolchildren after signing into law a program that would provide free breakfast and lunch to public school students.

“We did the Meals for Kids, and a bunch of elementary kids kind of swarming me. We didn’t plan on that happening, but it kind of warms my heart still,” he said.

The Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns are up with several new ads this week as the presidential race enters its final sprint.

Here’s a recap of the new spots hitting the airwaves, and some data on how the overall tone of each side’s messaging compares:

Positive versus negative messaging

Ads from the campaigns and their allies cover a wide range of competing issues, and they also reflect divergent strategies when it comes to their overall tone.

The ad tracking firm AdImpact categorizes the tone of campaign ads airing on broadcast TV as either “positive,” “negative,” or “contrast.” Comparing the share of both side’s spending going to ads of each tone illustrates how advertisers are splitting their messaging budget.

And the data shows that the Trump campaign and its allies are waging an overwhelmingly negative advertising effort. By comparison, data for the Harris campaign and its allies reflects a more balanced approach.

New Trump campaign ads

Trump’s presidential campaign has launched five new TV ads so far this week, leveling a wide range of critiques against Harris.

Nearly all of the ads reference immigration and border security, slamming Harris’ record and seeking to link illegal immigration to other issues, including crime, entitlements, and transgender health care policies – a major point of emphasis in GOP campaign ads so far in October.

One of the notable new spots seizes on comments from Harris on ‘The View’ last week, when she was asked how should would govern differently from President Joe Biden, and answered that “not a thing comes to mind.”

New Harris campaign ads

On the other side, the Harris campaign produced a huge wave of 13 unique new TV ads so far this week, putting its prohibitive financial advantage to work in the race’s closing sprint.

The ads reflect a varied approach, mixing spots that promote Harris’ policies and draw contrasts with Trump’s in addition to a steady diet of sharp-edged attacks – and they also display a highly customized strategy, with several spots targeting key swing states, featuring local voters and issues.

Vice President Kamala Harris has not submitted to many interviews with journalists during her short presidential campaign, and certainly none with conservative media.

When she sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier for nearly a half-hour on Wednesday, it was her first interview with the network.

Here are some key lines from the interview:

Immigration: It got off to a hot start with a lengthy exchange on immigration, a top issue for many voters, particularly Republican and Republican-leaning ones.

At one point, Baier asked when Harris, who at the outset of President Joe Biden’s administration would say the US southern border was secure, began to realize there was a problem.

Gender: From immigration, Baier pivoted to the wedge topic of gender. He noted that Trump’s supporters have invested heavily in commercials that show Harris, during that 2019 Democratic primary and in comments unearthed by CNN’s KFile, expressing a willingness to enable prisoners who need gender-reassignment surgery to obtain it.

Baier asked if she was still in favor of it, and Harris responded by pointing at federal law in place during the Trump administration:

Comparison with Biden: Baier played clips of Harris saying she would not change anything in Biden’s presidency and asked how hers would be different.

Read more notable lines from the interview.

A Michigan judge pushed back Thursday against the efforts by the Republican National Committee to throw out some overseas ballots cast in the critical battleground state.

At a hearing in Detroit, Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel appeared skeptical toward the GOP argument that the state constitution bars spouses and children of overseas voters from voting in Michigan if they never resided in the state themselves.

Remember: This is one of a several GOP lawsuits – in swing states that could decide the 2024 election – that hopes to throw out some ballots cast by overseas and military voters. They are a tiny slice of the overall electorate, but former President Donald Trump and his allies have recently ramped up false claims that overseas voting is rife with fraud.

“If you have not, and have never been, a resident of Michigan, you may not vote here,” Michigan GOP lawyer Brandon Debus said during the hearing.

“Isn’t that contrary to what the statute actually says?” Patel asked.

The judge later asked an RNC lawyer, “Doesn’t your interpretation penalize the children of overseas servicepeople?” She also suggested the case could “disenfranchise” voters.

Lawyers for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, have previously called the case “frivolous” and urged the judge on Thursday to dismiss the lawsuit.

“Such an extraordinary claim should be accompanied by extraordinary legal support, but in this case, there is none,” said Erik Grill, a lawyer from the Michigan attorney general’s office, who is representing Benson. “This election is underway… it is simply too late.”

“Ultimately what this leaves us with is chaos, confusion, disruption – and none of this would be necessary if these claims had been raised earlier in the year,” Grill added.

The hearing ended without a ruling from the judge.

Award-winning rapper and actor Common will campaign alongside Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Thursday, a campaign official told CNN.

Common will campaign on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris with the Minnesota governor, where the two will urge North Carolinians to get to the polls ahead of the November 5 election, the official said.

Walz will also be joined by former President Bill Clinton at a rally in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday.

The Trump campaign launched a new TV ad this week seizing on Vice President Kamala Harris’ comment on ‘The View’ last week, when she said that “not a thing comes to mind” about something she would have done differently than President Biden over the last four years.

The new ad opens with a focus on illegal immigration, containing stark images of crowds near a border wall. “A flood of illegals, skyrocketing prices, global chaos – and Kamala wouldn’t change a thing,” the ad’s narrator opens.

The ad then replays the clip from ‘The View,’ with host Sunny Hostin asking Harris, “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” Harris responds, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

The ad’s narrator resumes, “Nothing will change with Kamala, more weakness, more war, more welfare for illegals and even more taxes. Only President Trump cut middle class taxes and only President Trump will do it again.”

Harris’ answer on “The View” was immediately seized on by GOP critics, eager to cement the link between the vice president to the outgoing incumbent, with President Biden’s approval rating stuck underwater.

The ad that began airing Wednesday is the first from the Trump campaign on TV looking to exploit the moment – and in just a day and a half since its first airing, the campaign has already put more than $4 million behind it, according to AdImpact data, with runs in key swing states between $500,000 and $1 million (highest in Georgia, more than $900,000 so far).

An updated CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling, released Wednesday evening, continues to find no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 50% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 49% backing former President Donald Trump.

Of the five surveys included in the average, two give Harris a slight edge over Trump, while three find an effectively deadlocked race.

The latest average includes a poll released Wednesday evening by Fox News which finds no clear leader in the presidential race nationally, with 50% of likely voters supporting Trump in a head-to-head matchup between the candidates, and 48% supporting Harris.

In the Fox poll, 8 in 10 registered voters backing Trump say their support is mostly for him, rather than against Harris, while a smaller 66% majority of registered voters backing Harris say they’re mostly voting for her rather than against Trump.

When voters were asked to describe in their own words the top issue or factor motivating their vote, the most common reasons among Harris supporters were dislike of the other candidate, protecting democracy and abortion; among Trump supporters, it was the economy, immigration, and the candidates’ characteristics.

Kamala Harris didn’t get her second debate with Donald Trump — so she went on Fox News instead.

The vice president clashed heatedly with the pro-Trump network’s top anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday night in the kind of adversarial, unscripted scrum that Republicans have long accused her of avoiding.

Harris and Baier squabbled and interrupted one another, as he exposed her policy flip flops and reversals and she rammed home her talking points. The contentious clash, conducted in swing state Pennsylvania, had more in common with the vice president’s sole debate showdown with the former president than forensic, formal interviews where she’s often stumbled.

“May I please finish, you have to let me finish,” Harris said early in the interview, using a technique she has employed against male rivals in congressional hearings and debates in the past.

The vice president’s trip to Fox News showed how she’s trying to conjure new turning points in a contest with no clear leader and with most swing states regarded as toss-ups. Trump’s decision to decline a second debate with his rival has meant that the final weeks of the campaign lack big scheduled moments that could change the race.

In the end, on Wednesday, both Harris and Fox News probably got what they wanted.

Read the full analysis.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are continuing their push to reach voters with less than three weeks to go until Election Day.

Here’s what’s on their schedules today:

Donald Trump: On Thursday, Trump will attend and deliver remarks at the 79th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City.

Kamala Harris: Harris will campaign across the battleground state of Wisconsin on Thursday. She will first campaign in Milwaukee before traveling to La Crosse and Green Bay to speak at rallies. The vice president will then travel to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Tim Walz: Gov. Walz will continue his political swing. Former President Bill Clinton is expected to join the Democratic vice presidential candidate at an event in Durham, North Carolina, today, according to the campaign.

Next week, former President Barack Obama will appear with Walz in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, the Harris campaign previously said.

JD Vance: The Republican vice presidential candidate will deliver remarks in Pittsburgh on Thursday, according to the campaign website. Other Trump allies will also be on the road for events in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and Raleigh, North Carolina, the website said.

Poll workers set up ballot-marking machines at an early in-person voting site at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College on October 16, 2024.

Early voting is underway on Thursday in pivotal swing state of North Carolina. Here’s what to know if you plan to go to the polls before Election Day:

Impact of Hurricane Helene damage: The North Carolina State Board of Elections website has updates about relocated polling places, how constituents can vote if they lost their identification in the storm and how displaced voters can request new absentee ballots.

No more grace period for mail ballots: Voters considering casting a ballot by mail should note that their ballots need to be received by 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day.

New voter ID rules: Residents of the Tar Heel State will be required to present identification when they show up to vote.

Read the full story and visit CNN’s voter handbook to see how to vote in your area.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally at Wilmington International Airport in North Carolina on October 16.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said Vice President Kamala Harris “couldn’t answer a direct question” and failed to acknowledge or explain her role in contributing to what he sees as failures of the Biden-Harris administration, including on the border, in her interview with Fox News Wednesday night.

Vance said Harris is trying to do a “bait and switch” by blaming former President Donald Trump for tanking a bipartisan border deal, which the Ohio senator claimed “wouldn’t have secured the border.”

“They came in saying they were going to undo Donald Trump’s border policy. They did that. The predictable consequences ensued. Admit that. Admit it. Admit that you guys screwed up and change course. Don’t blame it on Congress because you guys refused to do your job,” Vance said.

Vance also criticized Harris for pivoting to Trump when answering what she is “turning the page” from in her own campaign.

“She pretends that Donald Trump bears the responsibility for problems that happened while she was the sitting vice president,” Vance said.

Nikki Haley walks on stage at her caucus night event on January 15, 2024 in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is lending her voice to support Donald Trump in the closing weeks of the campaign in a robocall that acknowledges her past disagreements with the former president but emphasizes the stakes of the upcoming election.

Haley, who was a GOP primary rival of Trump, goes on to praise the former president’s record on the economy, immigration, and foreign policy, drawing a stark contrast between his administration and that of Vice President Kamala Harris.

She accuses the Biden-Harris administration of presiding over “record inflation,” an “open border,” and weakening America’s global standing.

“I’m voting for Trump, for my family and for yours,” Haley urges, asking voters to support Trump on November 5.

The robocall was confirmed to CNN by Betsy Ankney, Haley’s former campaign manager, and two Trump campaign advisers. The Trump campaign declined to provide further details on the call.

The call comes after the former US ambassador to the United Nations endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention after clashing with him during the primary campaign in which she sought to present herself as a more moderate alternative within the GOP.

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed reporting to this post.

An overseas ballot process that has long been seen as sacrosanct by both parties, due to its connection to US military members serving in foreign countries, is the target of multiple GOP-backed lawsuits filed in recent days.

The new legal assault comes as ballots cast by Americans abroad have become very favorable for Democrats and could be crucial in getting Vice President Kamala Harris over the finish line.

In addition to the new lawsuits filed by Republicans in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan, former President Donald Trump has suggested without evidence that the overseas vote is a source of fraud, even as he has made entreaties to Americans abroad with a campaign promise of lowering their taxes.

Why this matters: There are about 6.5 million eligible American voters living, serving and studying overseas, with about 1.6 million of them in battleground states, and more in tight House districts. Those votes could be decisive: The 2020 election was decided by 44,000 votes over four states.

More than 1.2 million ballots were sent abroad in 2020 and nearly 890,000 were eventually counted, according to a report by the US Election Assistance Commission.

Read the full story.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at Washington Crossing Historic Park with supportive Republicans in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, on October 16.

Vice President Kamala Harris will make campaign stops in Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin on Thursday as she continues to campaign across Blue Wall states, according to a campaign official.

Harris will first stop by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she will drop by a business class while on campus and outline her economic agenda as she meets with students.

The vice president will then travel to La Crosse where she will hold a rally at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in an effort to engage young voters. Harris will wrap up her day with a rally in Green Bay, alongside Wisconsin leaders.

Harris’ team is touting their ground game in the Badger State, with over 250 coordinated staffers and more than 50 offices across the state, according to the campaign.

Why this state is key: Wisconsin, Michigan, and above all Pennsylvania have been a top priority for both Harris and former President Donald Trump – just as they have in seemingly every recent presidential election.

Trump won the presidency in 2016 by stunning Democrat Hillary Clinton to win all three states by a combined margin of about 80,000 votes. President Joe Biden won back the White House in 2020 by recapturing all three states by a combined margin of around 260,000 votes.

Read more about the importance of these three states in presidential elections.

CNN’s Ronald Brownstein contributed reporting to this post.

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign launched a new ad Thursday featuring Hadley Duvall, a reproductive rights advocate and rape survivor who has appeared in several high-profile campaign ads.

In the new ad, Duvall shares her story and criticizes abortion restrictions, blaming former President Donald Trump directly, and saying, “Trump did this.”

“When I was five, I began getting sexually abused by my stepfather, and he got me pregnant when I was 12. 64,000 pregnancies from rape have occurred in states with total abortion bans, and Trump did this,” Duvall says in the new spot. “Women and girls need to have choices. With Kamala Harris, we do.”

Some background: Duvall rose to prominence during the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial race, appearing in a striking ad for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection campaign that went viral, and she has since become an influential voice as Democrats have centered abortion rights in their campaigns.

In September, Harris’ campaign launched its first ad featuring Duvall, which it’s since spent more than $660,000 airing across all the key swing states. The new ad first began airing this morning in Wisconsin, and already has about $30,000 behind it, but additional targeting details are not yet available.

More than a dozen Republicans who were “fake electors” in 2020, including several facing criminal charges, are serving as former President Donald Trump’s official electors in battleground states this year, according to a CNN survey.

Another 16 GOP electors from these states are election deniers who say President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was fraudulent. Combined, these election deniers and 2020 fake electors represent more than a third of the 82 electors picked this year to support Trump in the seven states where he attempted to overturn the results in 2020.

The involvement of these Republican activists in the Electoral College process this year, especially in critical battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Michigan, could lead to post-election chaos if Trump is defeated and they try again to subvert the will of the voters.

Their participation also highlights how a huge part of the Republican Party continues to fully embrace Trump’s election denialism

“Those who participate in election fraud should be held accountable, not given another bite at the apple,” said Lindsey Miller, research director at Informing Democracy, a nonprofit that works to safeguard the vote-counting and election certification process.

Read more about the return of fake electors ahead of Election Day.

Recognizing that daters are increasingly prioritizing politics in their search for “the one,” many dating apps have introduced features that make it easier for users to match with potential partners based on their politics in the run-up to the election.

Tinder last month launched its “Take Action Center,” which introduced profile stickers that allow users to share whether they will be voting and the issues important to them. The most popular stickers among the new ones rolled out are “Hot people vote (I’m voting)” and “Voting for reproductive rights.”

Abortion rights are on the ballot in 10 states next month as the issue continues to be a major political flashpoint.

“We are really committed to protecting reproductive freedom because we believe this really impacts dating and relationships,” said Stephanie Danzi, senior vice president of global marketing for Tinder.

The “Take Action Center” also features a partnership with Vote.org, a nonpartisan voter registration organization, to provide users with election-related information such as polling locations and voter registration deadlines.

OkCupid has added a dozen new matching questions that focus on voter behavior and help show users more compatible profiles. The questions, added in January, include “Are you voting in the 2024 presidential election?”; “What’s the most important issue to you in the 2024 presidential election?” and “Is it a deal breaker if your date is voting for a different candidate than you in the 2024 presidential election?”

Read the full story.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump took opportunities to try to reach voters through interviews and town halls this week.

It comes with less than three weeks to go until Election Day and there is still no clear leader in the presidential race, according to a new CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling.

Here’s a recap of what happened on the campaign trail on Wednesday: