October 31, 2024, presidential campaign news

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance speaks at a campaign Town Hall in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 12.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said he doesn’t like the prospect of women potentially being prosecuted for getting an out-of-state abortion if the procedure is not legal in their home state.

Vance said he’s heard about the idea as a “threat” but has not seen it in practice.

As CNN previously reported, Vance was “sympathetic” in 2022 to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across state lines to obtain an abortion.

“The concept in the zeitgeist is that abortion had always been, you know, Roe v Wade always been the law of the land, and then all of a sudden that was taken away and you have these religious men who are trying to dictate what women can and can’t do with their bodies,” Rogan said.

“Yeah. No, look, I mean, again, I, I understand that. I understand the, the, the pushback against that, but I, I think you can go, like, with so many other issues, you can go way too far about it, and it becomes trying to celebrate something that at, at the very best, if you grant, I think every argument of the pro-choice side, it is a neutral thing, not something to be celebrated,” Vance said.

“I think there’s very few people that are celebrating, though,” Rogan added.

Vance told Rogan he understands the “autonomy value” of the pro-abortion rights argument, that men shouldn’t be telling women what they should do with their body, but emphasized that “life matters too.”

“That’s the balance that people are trying to strike,” Vance said.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance confirmed that Chinese government-linked hackers targeted his and former President Donald Trump’s phone communications by accessing major US telecommunications networks.

The Ohio senator, who said Trump’s phone was also apparently hacked, told Rogan that “the way that they hacked our phones is they used the backdoor telecom infrastructure that had been developed in the wake of the Patriot Act.”

He continued: “What I’ve been told is that that infrastructure was used by this Chinese hacker organization … and that’s how they got into the Verizon network and that’s how they got into the AT&T network.”

US law enforcement’s ability to conduct court-authorized surveillance of telecom infrastructure predates the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 national laws. But those laws strengthened those capabilities and the relationship between US law enforcement agencies and telecom firms.

The Chinese government has denied allegations that it hacked into US telecom infrastructure.

The cybersecurity industry dubs the Chinese hacking group in question Salt Typhoon and considers it a top-tier threat that is very difficult to detect. Investigation of the hacks is ongoing.

“It’s a pretty badass name,” Vance said. “If they have anything on me, I can’t be too pissed off at them. At least they named themselves Salt Typhoon.”

Some context: CNN previously reported that Chinese hackers targeted people affiliated with the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns as part of a much broader cyber-espionage effort aimed at high-level US targets. Phone communications of current and former senior US officials are coveted by foreign spies.

The alleged Chinese hacking campaign has worried US officials and shaken the national security establishment in Washington just days before the election. Eric Trump and Jared Kushner, the former president’s son and son-in-law, respectively, were also among the hackers’ targets. Among prominent Democrats targeted were the staff of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a source briefed on the matter told CNN.

At a Puerto Rican restaurant in Erie, Pennsylvania, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sought to capitalize on a comment made at former President Donald Trump’s rally in New York City on Sunday, referring to Puerto Rico as a “island of garbage.”

Walz told the handful of people gathered at Vilma’s Kitchen that the speaker’s joke was “unnecessary” and “dangerous,” and contrasted the comment with Vice President Kamala Harris’ message of “optimism.”

Walz touted Harris’ plan to invest in Puerto Rico to rebuild the island after damage inflicted in 2017 during Hurricane Maria and also to support and spotlight Puerto Rican contributions to the US across a wide variety of industries.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is seen on the court during a game against the Denver Nuggets in Denver on April 22.

Basketball superstar LeBron James threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid Thursday evening, writing in a post on X that “the choice is clear.”

Sharing a video with clips of offensive remarks from former President Donald Trump and his allies, the Los Angeles Lakers player wrote, “What are we even talking about here?? When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!”

James has voiced support for Democratic nominees in previous presidential elections, and has publicly criticized Trump, famously calling the then-president a “bum” for uninviting Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House.

And in 2020, when Trump criticized athletes who took a knee during the national anthem ahead of games following the killing of George Floyd, James laughed it off and encouraged voters to “see what leadership that we have at the top of our country” and head to the polls.

An Arizona judge has ordered state election officials to turn over to a conservative group the list of tens of thousands of voters who were caught in a glitch casting doubt on whether they fulfilled Arizona’s proof of citizenship requirement.

The voters in question are allowed to vote a full ballot this election, despite there being some uncertainty about whether they provided citizenship documents that would ordinarily be required to vote in state and local races.

The ruling is a victory for America First Legal, which is led by several former members of Trump administration, and the organization that it was representing in the case, as they have argued that those voters should be subjected to additional vetting in order to stay on the rolls.

Voter advocates in the state, meanwhile, are raising concerns that release of the list could lead to intimidation.

The Arizona nonprofit EZAZ.org filed the lawsuit after Arizona officials announced that, because of technical error in the state’s databases, they could not confirm that 98,000 people who were registered to vote a “full ballot” in the state had provided the required proof of citizenship. That number has since expanded to around 218,000.

Under Supreme Court precedent and Arizona laws, voters who have not provided documents proving their citizenship are allowed to vote in federal elections but are not eligible to cast ballots in state and local races. However, the state supreme court said last month that those caught up in the glitch could vote the full ballot, even with the lack of certainty around whether they had provided documentary proof of citizenship.

CNN’s Bob Ortega contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Phoenix on October 31.

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to former President Donald Trump’s latest comments about women during her rally in Phoenix tonight, as she makes the final push to convince voters why she should be the next president of the United States.

Harris also framed Trump’s case in the final days of the election as one of “hate” and “division.”

“My opponent is also making his closing argument to America, and you’ve probably seen a bit of it. It is an argument that is full of hate and division. He insults Latinos, scapegoats immigrants, and it’s not just what he says — it’s what he will do,” she said.

Some background: At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, Trump said he would not refrain from vowing to be a “protector” to women, despite what he said was the advice of his campaign strategists.

“I’m gonna do it, whether the women like it or not. I’ve got to protect them. I’m gonna protect them from migrants coming in. I’m gonna protect them from foreign countries with missiles and lots of other things,” he said.

Harris and her campaign surrogates have repeatedly slammed Trump over the remark throughout the day.

Activists hold a rally in support of two Missouri ballot amendments including Amendment 3, a measure that would establish a constitutional right to abortion, in Kansas City, Missouri, onOctober 12.

Missouri voters this election will decide whether to effectively undo their state’s near-total abortion ban – one of the nation’s strictest – with a ballot measure that aims to write reproductive freedoms into the state’s constitution.

It is one of 10 states voting on constitutional amendments to protect reproductive rights this election – and one of five that could see its vote overturn an abortion ban or restrictive abortion policy.

If passed, the Missouri ballot measure would establish the right to make reproductive care decisions – including about abortion – without interference up to fetal viability, around 22 to 24 weeks into pregnancy.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the national right to an abortion, Missouri was the first state in the nation to implement an abortion ban. With no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, it is one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.

Missouri’s law outlines an exception for medical emergencies, but not fetal anomalies or other pregnancy complications. It also places abortion providers at risk of legal liability.

“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a mom. I’m lucky to have my son, but I wasn’t lucky with my second pregnancy,” a woman referred to only as “Erika,” from Kansas City, Missouri, says in a campaign ad in favor of the measure.

“There was a fetal anomaly and to protect myself I needed an abortion, but with Missouri’s total abortion ban, I wasn’t able to get the care I needed in Missouri. Instead, I faced cruel and inhumane barriers.”

Read the full story on the final push to get out the vote on the abortion ballot measure

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are campaigning in Sun Belt states today with Election Day just five days away.

Harris spoke in Phoenix, Arizona, and will hold a rally later today in Nevada. Trump was in New Mexico and will speak tonight in both Nevada and Arizona.

Here’s what’s happened on so far:

Harris: The vice president told a crowd of supporters in Arizona that this is one of the most “consequential elections of our lifetime.” She repeated her pitch that she would fight for voters and pointed to her record as a prosecutor, taking on for-profit colleges and big banks. In an interview with NBC News before the Phoenix rally, Harris said her first priority if elected president would be to announce a package of legislation aimed at reducing costs for Americans.

Trump: The former president, speaking in Albuquerque, said he would create a new Cabinet position in his administration that would work to reduce the cost of living if he’s reelected, but did not offer specifics. He also falsely suggested he won New Mexico in the 2016 and 2020 elections despite losing the state by wide margins to President Joe Biden and then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Finally, at the rally, Trump said he was holding a campaign event in New Mexico because it is “good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community,” as he urged Hispanic Americans to turn out to vote for him in the state.

Voting: With just days until Election Day, investigators in Oregon have shared new details about a man they say is responsible for three recent fires at ballot drop boxes that damaged hundreds of ballots — warning he may continue his attacks. Police have now stepped up security at the approximately 30 ballot boxes in Portland. Meanwhile, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that he expects the majority of ballots cast in his state will be tabulated by the end of Tuesday night.

Latest state polling: Neither candidate has established a clear advantage in the race for the White House in two key Southern battleground states, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. Likely voters in Georgia divide 48% for Trump to 47% for Harris, and in North Carolina, Harris stands at 48% to Trump’s 47%. Results are within the margin of error in both states, suggesting no clear leader in either contest.

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden debate at CNN's Atlanta studios on June 27, 2024. 

The 2024 presidential race was guaranteed to be a rematch of the 2020 race – until it wasn’t. The CNN presidential debate on June 27 in Atlanta turned the race upside down, and 24 days later, an entirely new race was thrust upon the American people.

Here are some of the days that changed the 2024 presidential election: 

Elon Musk speaks at a town hall at the Roxain Theater in Pittsburgh on October 20.

Philadelphia’s district attorney asked a federal judge to immediately hold an emergency hearing to address how to move forward with the legal dispute over Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway to voters.

The judge ordered Musk to respond to that request by Friday at 10 a.m. ET, indicating that the matter won’t be resolved tonight, which prosecutors requested.

The district attorney, Larry Krasner, a progressive Democrat, also blasted Musk for trying to move the civil lawsuit from Pennsylvania state court into federal court. That request, late on Wednesday night, derailed a hearing that was slated for Thursday morning in state court on whether the sweepstakes should be shut down.

Musk’s legal maneuvering was a “stunt to obtain a procedural advantage to avoid a ruling on the Preliminary Injunction and run the clock until election day,” prosecutors wrote.

Krasner requested an “immediate” hearing in federal court to determine who has jurisdiction over the matter. Krasner said he hopes the case will be sent back quickly to state court so the state judge can then have a hearing perhaps as soon as Friday.

Now that both sides have filed legal briefs with the federal court, the federal judge could theoretically rule at any time on whether to keep the case or move it back to state court. He could also hold a hearing on the matter.

The federal judge assigned to the matter is Jerry Pappert, a Republican and former Pennsylvania attorney general who was appointed to the federal bench by Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support in 2014.

Republican officials in a Pennsylvania county have tapped an indicted, 2020 election-denying attorney to serve as special counsel to represent them in legal matters related to the 2024 presidential race, according to court filings.

Stefanie Lambert — who faces criminal charges in Michigan over her role in unlawfully accessing voting systems in the state and has been linked to similar efforts in other key battleground states — is representing Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

A voting rights group called on Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and Secretary of State to remove Lambert from her position in a letter on Thursday.

“We urge you to take all available and appropriate steps to compel Fulton County to remove immediately Stefanie Lambert as special counsel,” she added.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Lambert played a key role in attempts to overturn the election results across different states and repeatedly pushed dangerous and debunked election fraud allegations. She was even directly involved in providing unlawful access to Dominion voting systems in Fulton County two years ago. She has not been charged with any crime in connection to that.

Separately, in Michigan, Lambert faces felony charges for undue possession of a Dominion Voting System voting machine, willfully damaging a voting machine and permitting an authorized computer examiner access to voter data. She has pleaded not guilty and the trial in that case have been delayed until after November’s presidential election.

Lambert told CNN in an email she would not answer questions about Fulton County, citing attorney-client privilege. One of the Fulton County commissioners who was recently ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to pay $1 million in fees for their involvement in allowing third-party access to voting machines after the 2020 election, is currently the chair of the Fulton County board of commissioners.

Commissioner Randy Bunch, who signed Lambert’s retainer agreement back in 2022, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

A top Georgia election official said Thursday that more than 50% of active voters in the state have already cast their ballots.

Gabriel Sterling, chief operations officer at the Georgia secretary of state office, said the state has a “very secure system” and that the 2024 election has gone smoothly so far. It comes as election officials are working to fight misinformation in real-time with less than a week until Election Day.

“They’re just excited to get out and vote. Now it may also be fatigue — they just want to get it over with. Who knows what the drivers are, but we’re happy to see it,” Sterling told CNN.

Across the country, more than 60 million people have already voted, according to data gathered by CNN, Edison Research and Catalist.

When it comes to misinformation, Sterling said, “We have to get back to normalizing conceding elections again.”

In 2020, Trump had made a series of unfounded claims of election fraud in Georgia, for which there is no evidence. Republican officials rebuffed Trump’s calls to overturn the state’s election results more than a week after they had certified Joe Biden as the winner. Biden ultimately won the state with more than 12,000 votes.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, is endorsing Kamala Harris for president, while criticizing Donald Trump in an Op-Ed posted on Thursday.

“As I’ve thought about the candidates in this presidential election, I’ve been guided by two main considerations: policy positions and personal integrity. When it comes to policy, the contrast could not be clearer,” Bloomberg said touting several campaign policies.

Bloomberg slammed Trump’s personal integrity, writing, “The despicable way he speaks about immigrants — echoing phrases that Nazis used — is as disgraceful as it is dangerous. The shameful way he has coddled White supremacists — remember his defense of them after they marched by torchlight in Charlottesville, Virginia — is contemptible.”

He continued: “And the preposterous lie he tells about America – that our country will end unless we elect him — reveals his ignorance about the true source of our strength as a nation, which lies in our values and principles and the Constitution’s protection of our rights.”

“I don’t know Harris well — we have only talked a couple of times — but I’ve been impressed by the way she has run her campaign: reaching out to independents and Republicans and rallying voters of all parties by offering a positive vision of the country” he said.

CNN previously reported that Bloomberg donated $50 million to entities supporting Harris, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg ran an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for the White House in 2020.

Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd of supporters in a key battleground state on Thursday that this is one of the most “consequential elections of our lifetime.” With just five days until Election Day, Harris said at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, that there is still work to do.

Harris repeated her pitch that she would fight for voters and pointed to her record as a prosecutor, taking on for-profit colleges and big banks.

At one point in the rally, at least one protester appeared to be escorted out of the venue. As the crowd cheered over them, Harris appeared to address the interruption.

“That’s alright. Democracy can be complicated, but we believe in democracy and the right of everyone to have their voices heard,” Harris said.

Why Arizona is so important: The state, with its 11 electoral votes, is considered a tossup. Both presidential campaigns have been spending more time campaigning in other states.

Two voting groups will be key to deciding who wins in Arizona — Latino voters, which make up a third of the state’s population, and the right-leaning independent voters in Maricopa County — where Phoenix is located — that used to consistently vote Republican.

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign event at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre on October 31 in Phoenix.

Vice President Kamala Harris is now speaking at an event in Phoenix, Arizona.

While Arizona and its 11 electoral votes is considered a tossup, the presidential campaigns have been spending more time campaigning in other states.

Two voting groups will be key to deciding who wins in Arizona — Latino voters, which make up a third of the state’s population, and the right-leaning independent voters in Maricopa County that used to consistently vote Republican.

Political landscape: Before President Joe Biden left the race in July, he was behind according to the polls. When he dropped out and Harris was named the Democratic nominee, polling in the state got more favorable for Democrats but still pointed to a Trump advantage.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly English and Matt Holt contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said her first priority if elected president would be to announce a package of legislation aimed at reducing costs for Americans.

Harris said she is kept up at night by the thought of the long to-do list she will have to immediately confront if elected.

“What keeps me up at night are the challenges that face the American family and my role and responsibility, and my to-do list to address those issues,” the vice president said.

“Those are the things that keep me up, which is doing the work that will directly impact the people of America,” Harris told NBC, adding, “This, again, is a big contrast between me and Donald Trump.”

On Trump’s comments about women: Asked about the former president’s controversial comments about women during his rally the previous day, Harris said: “The majority of Americans believe that women are intelligent enough and should be respected for their agency to make decisions for themselves about what is in their best interest, and not have their government, and certainly not Donald Trump, telling them what to do.”

Trump on Wednesday said in Wisconsin that he was going to “protect the women of our country,” whether they “like it or not.”

This post has been updated with additional comments from Harris’ interview.

Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are trying to convince voters that they have the best strategy for the economy.

Darius Diggs, 22, says he thinks the country needs to try something different. The Phoenix native, who works for a conservative nonprofit, told CNN he disagrees with the Biden administration’s approach of demand-side economics — the idea that creating a high demand for goods is the way to grow the economy and stimulate spending and jobs.

Darius Dupri Diggs

Instead, Diggs said the US should focus on creating more high-paying job opportunities by incentivizing companies to not outsource jobs, with steps such as lowering the corporate tax rate and removing some regulations.

It’s a viewpoint that Diggs said some would call “trickle-down economics,” but he said he believes a boost in these high-paying positions — combined with more fiscal responsibility, less government spending and lower interest rates — is what would help the economy.

Diggs told CNN that, like many other Americans, the economy is his top issue in this election, calling it a “rolling issue for everyone across demographics.”

“It has become increasingly harder, especially for our generation, to even try to create that generational wealth, especially trying to navigate through a tumultuous economy,” Diggs said, pointing to things like owning a house or buying a car.

What Trump has proposed: The former president wants to extend all the individual income and estate tax cuts that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided. This includes, among other things, an increase to the standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates for most income brackets and an increase to the estate tax exemption.

Trump has also called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for certain companies. The TCJA permanently lowered the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

Contrast both Trump and Harris’ economic proposals here.

CNN’s Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco contributed reporting to this post.

Colorado officials announced on Thursday the state is sending more resources to voting sites to ensure election security after partial passwords to some voting machines were leaked, according to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

The Colorado Department of State said Tuesday a spreadsheet on its website “improperly included a hidden tab including partial passwords to certain components of Colorado voting systems,” emphasizing the incident did not pose an immediate security threat.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is providing additional state resources to ensure all the passwords are changed and no tampering with ballots occurred, according to a news release.

“The Secretary of State will deputize certain state employees, who have cybersecurity and technology expertise and have undergone appropriate background checks and training,” the release said. The agency said the goal is to change all passwords by Thursday evening and verify the “security of the voting components.”

Earlier Thursday, former President Donald Trump’s campaign sent a letter to Griswold asking her to halt the processing of some mail ballots and potentially re-scan ballots.

In the release, Griswold said the state has “countless layers of security,” and said today’s move should “quickly resolve this unfortunate mistake.”

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance suggested in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan that aired Thursday that White upper- and middle-class children are incentivized to identify as transgender to gain admission to elite colleges.

Studies have found that because of the discrimination, harassment and lack of support they generally experience in earlier grades, students who identify as transgender would be a lot less likely to have access to higher education in general, let alone an Ivy League school that is difficult to get into, compared with those people who identify with the gender that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

Describing a friend as a “gay Reagan Democrat” who rejects the ideology of progressive politicians, Vance said he believes that the Trump-Vance ticket may earn what he described as the “normal gay guy vote.”

“Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote, because, again, they just wanted to be left the hell alone,” Vance said.

Vance also said he believes most Americans are open-minded about what he described as “lifestyle choices,” but transgender athletes who compete in women’s sports cross a line.

Election Day is right around the corner, and there are many polls trying to gauge where the results may lean — however not all polls are worth your time.

In this video, CNN’s polling director walks you through some tips to help you navigate which polls you should — and should not — be paying attention to.

Former President Donald Trump arrives to a campaign rally at Albuquerque International Sunport on October 31 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a new Cabinet position in his administration that would work to reduce the cost of living if he’s reelected.

“I will create a new Cabinet position for a senior member of my administration who will be tasked exclusively with doing everything in the federal government’s power to reduce the cost of living,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Trump said he would sign an executive order directing federal agencies to roll back regulations that he says are “driving up the cost of goods,” but did not provide specifics about which agencies or regulations he would target.

“I’m announcing today a new step that I’ll take to get emergency price relief to all Americans. On day one, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods,” Trump said.

“We have so many regulations, more regulations times four than any president in the history of our country,” Trump added.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is holding a campaign rally in New Mexico because it is “good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community,” as he urged Hispanic Americans to turn out to vote for him in the state.

Trump also said he treated the community “much better than the Democrats.”

“So, I’m here for one simple reason. I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community,” Trump said.

Earlier in his speech, Trump falsely suggested he won the state both times. President Joe Biden beat Trump in New Mexico in 2020 by more than 10 points and then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won in 2016 by more than eight points.

Every four years, millions of people tune into news networks for real-time election results, but there is much more happening behind the scenes before the final call is aired.

CNN Vice President and Political Director David Chalian leads the team responsible for making high-stakes calls under intense pressure — all while ensuring accuracy, especially in today’s politically charged era.

Chalian talks to podcast host Audie Cornish about what goes into making the calls, and when we can expect a presidential election result.

Check it out:

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is projecting confidence about their standing with women following former President Donald Trump’s latest controversial comments with just five days to go until the election, according to senior campaign officials.

Harris this morning called Trump’s comments about women “very offensive” after he told attendees of a rally that he would protect women “whether the women like it or not.”

“This is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency,” Harris said.

Overall, the officials on a call with reporters expressed cautious optimism about the state of the race even as they made sure to highlight the work they still need to do.

“We believe we continue to be on track to win a very close race, and we know that we still have a lot of work to do, and that work is doing what we’re doing every day in every single one of our battleground states,” the official added.

CNN’s Nikki Carvajal contributed to this post.

Efforts to sow doubt about the forthcoming election amid a slew of misinformation “won’t work,” according to Harris campaign officials, who pushed back against attempts by former President Donald Trump to cast doubt about election results through court challenges.

The comments come as the former president pursues an aggressive strategy to use the courts to preemptively cast doubt on the 2024 results.

Campaign officials reiterated that they have lawyers across the country and that they are prepared for any potential challenges from the GOP. They noted that misinformation, while a challenge, is not a new problem and one that the Democrats faced in 2020.

This person added that they will also “flood the zone” with “truthful information” and noted that there are “new protections on the books to fight misinformation.”

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Albuquerque International Sunport on October 31 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday falsely suggested he won New Mexico in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections despite losing the state by wide margins to President Joe Biden and then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Biden beat Trump in New Mexico in 2020 by more than 10 points and Clinton won in 2016 by more than eight points. Trump has not conceded the 2020 election he lost and regularly pushes election lies.

Pedestrians look at a statue of Donald Trump behind Gerhard Marcks' sculpture Maja, in Maja Park in Philadelphia.

It started with a bronze replica of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk on the National Mall in Washington, DC — topped with a basketball-sized poop. Now, anti-Trump statues are popping up in more US cities.

The latest appeared in Philadelphia’s Maja Park Wednesday morning, where someone positioned a roughly 8-foot statue of Donald Trump directly behind a sculpture of a nude woman. A plaque below — titled, “In honor of a lifetime of sexual assault” — quotes the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked in 2016, when Trump could be heard explicitly discussing sexually assaulting women.

That sculpture didn’t last long. Philadelphia city crews removed it around noon Wednesday after they were notified of its appearance, because the artists did not have a permit, according to Laura Griffith, deputy director of the Association for Public Art.

A seemingly identical Trump statue popped up in downtown Portland, Oregon, last weekend. That one was quickly beheaded and vandalized, with a Portland City Council candidate and Trump supporter filming video of himself chiseling away at the plaque. The destroyed statue vanished Monday morning.

CNN received a call Thursday morning from a man who claims he’s spearheading this political art project. The man, insisting he remain anonymous to keep the focus on the art, tells CNN he’s working with a small group. “It’s not huge. Just a few people,” he said. And their message is all about “resistance fatigue.”

Read the full story of the man who claims responsibility for the anti-Trump art.

Republicans asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in an emergency appeal on Thursday to instruct counties to reject mail-in ballots that aren’t correctly dated by voters.

The issue is one of several mail ballot rules in the battleground state that are currently being litigated. The Republican National Committee is appealing a lower court’s ruling on Wednesday that Philadelphia County violated the state Constitution’s Free and Fair elections clause by rejecting 69 ballots in a previous election because they were undated or incorrectly dated.

Voters are instructed to write the date on which they filled out the ballot. However, the requirement has led to the rejection of thousands of ballots in past elections, as voters sometimes put their birthdate or other incorrect dates, or forget to date the ballot envelope altogether.

While voting rights groups said Wednesday’s ruling was a victory in their multi-pronged efforts to strike down the requirement, they acknowledged that it would likely take additional proceedings to determine if and how such a ruling would apply to the November 5 election.

The RNC, in its new filing with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, said that because of the lack of clarity, the high court should either pause the ruling or issue an “order to make clear that all county boards of elections remain bound to enforce” the requirement while an appeal plays out. They’re asking for a ruling by Monday.

It’s not entirely clear how many ballots could be affected, as many counties offer voters opportunities to remedy mail ballot defects.

Republicans are also asking the US Supreme Court for an order barring the counting of provisional voters cast by those who had submitted mail ballots that were disqualified for technical defects.

Four years ago, Georgia was at the center of attempts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss.

Officials from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, down to individual poll workers faced an onslaught of attacks, including harassment, physical threats and legal action.

This year, fears of a repeat assault on the state’s election workers for doing their jobs have driven the creation of a new legal defense fund.

The group has been set up by Raffensperger allies to provide legal aid to election officials who are “harassed, targeted, or sued” for carrying out their duties in the critical battleground state.

The Election Defense Fund also plans to support lawsuits against election officials who might attempt to deny or decline certification of this year’s results altogether.

The group has so far raised nearly $2 million for their efforts, with the overall goal being upwards of $5 million, said Ryan Germany, who served as general counsel in Raffensperger’s office and is now one of the leaders of Election Defense Fund.

Trump and his supporters have already started laying the groundwork to support claims of a rigged election if he loses — an effort that is expected to play out both in and out of court and feature prominently in places where the final margins might be close. Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 12,000 votes.

Elon Musk’s super PAC has spent more than $140 million on its effort to return Donald Trump to the White House, according to its latest disclosures with federal regulators, shedding light on its unprecedented on-the-ground effort in battleground states as the Tesla CEO tests the limits of campaign finance law.

America PAC, the super PAC that Musk — the world’s richest person — helped form over the summer, reported in its latest round of FEC disclosures that it has spent $140.4 million on the 2024 presidential race, including more than $80 million the group categorized as spending on canvassing and field operations.

The money has gone to door-knockers, phone bankers, and other canvassers, and it includes daily $1 million giveaways to registered voters in battleground states that prompted the Philadelphia district attorney to sue Musk. Musk’s super PAC has also reported spending more than $20 million on printing and postage, directly targeting battleground voters’ mailboxes, and has additionally spent over $18 million producing and running digital advertising.

The group’s digital efforts sparked backlash earlier this week when America PAC posted a video casting Vice President Kamala Harris as the “c-word America simply can’t afford,” alluding to the vulgar and derogatory term used to refer to a woman even as the video’s narrator later reveals the “c-word” that is being referenced is “communist.”

In the seven states most likely to decide the presidency, there is a clear gender gap in pre-election voting so far, but it’s slightly narrower than it was at this point four years ago.

That 10-percentage point gap equates to nearly 1.4 million ballots cast.

However, this gap was 11 percentage points at this point four years and, because fewer people are voting ahead of election day then they were during this point four years ago, the raw vote gap is more than 400,000 votes narrower than it was for years ago at this time.

Former President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The campaign stop in the Land of Enchantment is the latest event Trump has held in a state the GOP nominee is not expected to win next week, but it does provide the former president with a border state backdrop as he makes immigration a centerpiece of his closing argument to voters.

Trump is expected to travel to Nevada and Arizona later today to hold a rally in Henderson. As CNN polls showed earlier this week, Arizona and Nevada remain exceedingly close, with no clear leader in either state — and where the support of Latino voters is crucial.

CNN’s Terence Burlij contributed reporting to this post.

The US economy is undeniably on fire, the envy of the rest of the world. But Americans still say it’s crap, and a significant number of voters blame President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to make enough improvements to Americans’ financial situations over the past four years. Here’s why that might be:

The strength of the US economy

Why it doesn’t feel so stellar

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at a post-debate campaign rally on June 28, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper appeared in a new TV ad for Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, touting her values and saying that she’ll help the state rebuild from the devastation left by Hurricane Helene if elected president.

In the ad, Cooper says he has known Harris for 15 years as a fellow attorney general.

The ad hits several key messaging priorities for Harris’ campaign, emphasizing her law enforcement background — a response to blistering GOP attacks focused on crime and immigration — and acknowledging the disruption caused by Hurricane Helene, a major concern for North Carolinians still picking up the pieces.

The ad began airing Thursday in the key Raleigh-Durham media market, in a state that has been the focus of a major push from Harris and her allies throughout October. Since the beginning of the month, and including ad bookings through Election Day, Democrats have outspent Republicans on advertising in North Carolina by about $19 million.

North Carolina will play a pivotal role in this election as a battleground state that stands squarely in the middle of the path to the White House for both Harris and former President Donald Trump. Cooper, who is term-limited, won the state by just over four points in 2020, but Trump just barely clinched a victory that year by 1.3% points, his narrowest victory margin in any state.

Some of the nation’s Democratic governors dressed up as one of their own for Halloween on Thursday: Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer all posted photos of their costumes.

Sen. JD Vance speaks to supporters during a campaign event at Memorial Hall on October 28 in Racine, Wisconsin.

Speaking to young voters at High Point University, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for “real change,” lower housing costs and to prevent World War III.

“I think that we are sleepwalking ourselves into World War III,” Vance said at a town hall moderated by Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk in High Point, North Carolina. “If you go back to all of the really terrible world conflicts, they almost always come from incompetent leadership, rather than evil leadership, right? It’s people who just aren’t smart.”

Vance continued that he thinks preventing another world war is “maybe the most important reason to get out there and vote.”

While Vance said that Trump thinks about the second and third order consequences of foreign policy decisions, he claimed Vice President Kamala Harris does not. Vance also claimed that US resources are being sent to Ukraine at the expense of Taiwan, arguing for the increased likelihood of China moving to invade it.

Vance also addressed the “garbage” comment from President Joe Biden and claimed it’s an effort to silence people who disagree with Harris’ policies: “It’s about telling the American people you’re not good enough to voice concern over the policies of Kamala Harris’ leadership.”

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said he is confident that the GOP will defend its majority in the House in this election.

North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson acknowledged that the races rated as toss-ups across the country are a “very small battlefield of seats” and “all these races are very, very close.”

Right now, Republicans have control of the chamber by a slim margin, which they won in 2022 largely on the back of gains in blue states such as New York and California. Contests in those states are again expected to be key to determining which party controls the chamber next year.

“Our incumbents in New York are battle-tested. They’ve worked their districts very hard. They have very strong brands. There are excellent members of Congress so they’re very hard to beat,” Hudson said. “I know the Democrats are counting on winning their majority just in New York alone. I think they’re going to be disappointed.”

He said the NRCC has “made investments in election integrity” so that voters feel confident their ballot is being counted. However, the big focus on the GOP right now is getting voters to the polls, Hudson said.

Where things stand: To control the US House of Representatives, a party must hold at least 218 seats out of 435 when all seats are filled. Based on race ratings by nonpartisan analysis site Inside Elections, Republicans are favored to win 212 Seats this November, while Democrats are favored to win 208 Seats. That means 15 Seats are rated as toss-ups.

See where the most competitive House races are across the map here.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz criticized Donald Trump’s pledge that he will protect women whether they “like it or not,” turning the phrase back on the former president in comments Thursday.

Walz told supporters at a boilermakers’ union hall in Levittown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday that Trump’s comment reflects “what he thinks about” women. The Minnesota governor tied Trump’s remark, which he made at a rally in Wisconsin yesterday, to his past misogynistic language and allegations of sexual assault.

Walz then reiterated the consequences of Trump’s role in appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade and allowed states to set stricter abortion laws, and flipped Trump’s remark to predict that women will help carry Vice Presisent Kamala Harris to the White House.

“They are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump on November 5,” he said. “They’re going to send that message, whether he likes it or not.”

Some context: Trump said at the Wisconsin rally Wednesday that he will “protect the women of our country,” despite saying advisers have told him it’s “inappropriate” to say that.

“I’m gonna do it, whether the women like it or not. I’ve got to protect them,” Trump said.

A set of newly released UMass Lowell/YouGov polls conducted in mid-October finds close presidential races with no clear leader between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the key states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In North Carolina, the poll finds Trump taking 47% to Harris’ 45% among likely voters. The CNN poll of North Carolina released today also finds no clear leader in the state, with 48% of likely voters in the state backing Harris, and 47% backing Trump.

In the Pennsylvania poll from UMass Lowell/YouGov, it’s also deadlocked, with Harris at 48% and Trump at 47%. In Michigan, Harris takes 49% to Trump’s 45% among likely voters, within the survey’s margin of error.

The UMass Lowell/YouGov poll finds Harris holding the edge over Trump in the state of New Hampshire, with a modest advantage for the vice president of 50% to 43%.

Meanwhile, a new CNN Poll of Polls average of surveys in North Carolina continues to find no clear leader in the race, with an average 48% of likely voters backing Trump and 47% Harris.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Phoenix on August 23.

The co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team on Wednesday night endorsed vaccine conspiracy theories pushed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and suggested the activist and Trump ally would be given federal data in order to check vaccines’ safety if former President Donald Trump is elected.

Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” Howard Lutnick, the transition team co-chair, said that Kennedy is “not getting a job for (the Department of Health and Human Services).” This is contrary to a claim Kennedy made earlier this week in which he said Trump promised to give him “control” of several public health agencies, HHS among them.

Vaccines that are currently approved and authorized for use in the US have been proven safe and effective and are continually monitored for risks and side effects.

Following backlash over his remarks, Lutnick sought to clarify his position on vaccines by posting on X: “To be clear, my wife and I trust our doctors and following their advice have vaccinated our children and ourselves. However, not everybody trusts such advice or the FDA. We would be doing everyone a service if the government respected Bobby Kennedy’s request to make the full data available.”

Big picture: As one of the leads on Trump’s transition team, Lutnick is spearheading the personnel search and lining up potential candidates should Trump win a second term. He speaks to the former president on a near-daily basis and has already interviewed dozens of candidates. Lutnick could hold serious sway over which prospective candidates get in front of Trump as they vie for key positions in the federal government.

Jake Paul speaks onstage during the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Boxing match Arlington press conference at Texas Live! on May 16 in Arlington, Texas.

YouTube personality Jake Paul endorsed former President Donald Trump in a new video Thursday.

Paul has often been a controversial figure and previously endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy during the Republican primaries.

Paul said in the video that though he rescinded his right to vote when he moved to Puerto Rico to pursue his boxing career, he still wanted to talk to his audience about who he is supporting. Paul has more than 20 million subscribers on YouTube.

“And most of all, encouraging y’all to actually vote. Encouraging y’all to actually do your own research and to base that research in the truth,” he said.

In the video, which is more than 18 minutes long, Paul talks about his views on topics including the economy and inflation, abortion and transgender rights.

“To be frank, I’m not concerned with Donald Trump’s character flaws or what he’s done in the past. What I’m concerned with is how good of a president is he,” Paul said. “Because that is his job and that is what’s going to affect the people of this nation.”

People arrive to cast their votes on the first day of early voting at East Point First Mallalieu United Methodist Church on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta.

Neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor former President Donald Trump has established a clear advantage in the race for the White House in two key Southern battleground states, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS.

Likely voters in Georgia divide 48% for Trump to 47% for Harris, and in North Carolina, Harris stands at 48% to Trump’s 47%. Results are within the margin of error in both states, suggesting no clear leader in either contest.

Both states are hotly contested in this year’s presidential election. North Carolina, which narrowly supported Barack Obama in 2008, has voted Republican in the past three presidential elections. In 2020, however, it was the state where Trump earned his slimmest margin of victory. Joe Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 1 percentage point four years ago, becoming the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

The results suggest little movement since CNN’s late-August poll of Georgia and late-September poll of North Carolina, both of which also found no clear leader in the race.

An overwhelming 95% of likely voters in each state now say they’ve made up their minds about their vote, leaving a dwindling pool of potentially movable voters, although one that’s still large enough to swing the race either way. More than half of the likely electorate in both Georgia (59%) and North Carolina (52%) say they’ve already cast their ballots, with those voters splitting narrowly toward Harris by a 7-point margin in Georgia and by 6 points in North Carolina.

Read a full breakdown of the new polls here.

More than 60 million ballots have been cast across 47 states and the District of Columbia with less than a week to go until Election Day, according to data gathered by CNN, Edison Research and Catalist.

That’s around 38% of the roughly 158 million ballots cast for president in 2020.

Ten states have already crossed 50% of their total votes from 2020, led by Georgia, which has crossed two-thirds of its 2020 vote.

Catalist is a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit advocacy groups, including insights into who is voting before November.

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments vowing to overhaul health care if Republicans succeed in the coming election, saying Thursday that “access to health care should be a right.”

As CNN had previously reported, Johnson told supporters this week that if Trump is elected, Republicans will seek “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act. The speaker’s remarks are particularly notable after his party’s high-profile failure to repeal key parts of the health care law during Trump’s first term in office.

“What that would mean for the American people is that, that insurance companies could go back to a time when they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on preexisting conditions. Preexisting conditions, such as you being a survivor of breast cancer, asthma, diabetes,” Harris said Thursday. “Access to health care should be a right, and not just a privilege to those who can afford it.”

Harris has repeatedly warned that Trump would seek to dismantle the Affordable Care Act if he regains the White House, while the former president has said he would improve the law.

With less than a week to go in the presidential race, both candidates and their allies are continuing to launch new campaign ads delivering their closing pitches to voters and leveling sharp attacks at their opponents.

Here are some of the latest that voters in battleground states are seeing during the final sprint.

The Harris campaign on Thursday went up with a new TV spot referencing the controversial moment at Trump’s Madison Square Garden last weekend, when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.”

The ad — in Spanish, first airing in North Carolina and since in Pennsylvania and Georgia —features a narrator hammering Trump’s record of disparaging rhetoric toward Latino Americans and Puerto Rico in particular, and includes the message, “This November 5th, Trump will understand that some people’s trash is others’ treasure.”

Also Thursday, the Harris campaign launched an attack ad focused on abortion, highlighting comments Trump made in a 2016 MSNBC town hall during his first presidential bid, when he answered that “there has to be some form of punishment for the woman” while being pressed on abortion policies.

Trump and his allies have also kept up the attack in the campaigns’ final sprint. Wednesday evening, the Trump campaign launched its latest ad yoking Harris to outgoing President Joe Biden, as his approval rating remains stuck underwater, a consistent point of emphasis in GOP advertising.

“Kamala backed Biden on everything. She supported his disastrous economic agenda, higher taxes on the middle class. Kamala backed his open border policies. And their weakness invited wars,” the ad says, replete with images of Biden and Harris together. “President Trump fights for you.” The campaign is also up with a Spanish-language version of the ad airing in Pennsylvania and Nevada.

And a leading pro-Trump super PAC, Right For America, went up with a new ad Thursday promoting some of Trump’s tax proposals, including eliminating taxes on tips and overtime. The ad also features images of the first assassination attempt against Trump, as a narrator intones, “one man will refuse to fall.”

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for the NATO 75th Anniversary Celebratory Event at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC, on July 9.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted on X Thursday morning that he spoke with former President Donald Trump and “wished him best of luck for next Tuesday.”

Orbán noted there are “only five days to go” until the election and that he has his “fingers crossed,” reaffirming his desire for Trump to emerge victorious in the presidential election.

Orbán has endorsed Trump, and the former president has touted the prime minister’s backing on the campaign trail repeatedly — even noting it during September’s presidential debate. The former president also hosted Orbán at Mar-a-Lago in March.

Trump has a history of embracing global strongmen such as Orbán and their authoritarian governments — at times at the expense of more traditional US allies.

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Vice President Kamala Harris attends a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 30.

Vice President Kamala Harris says former President Donald Trump’s remark Wednesday that he would protect women whether they “like it or not” is “offensive to everybody.”

Harris seized on the comment, which Trump made at a rally in Wisconsin yesterday, when she spoke to reporters in the battleground state on Thursday.

“I think it’s offensive to everybody, by the way,” the vice president added, when answering a later question from a reporter on the topic.

Harris tied the comments back to abortion, alluding to states that have passed legal restrictions on reproductive rights since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

What Trump said: The former president told rallygoers Wednesday that he has been told by advisers not to say he wants to protect women.

“I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women serving. ‘Please don’t say that.’ Why? They said, ‘We think it’s — we think it’s very inappropriate,’” Trump said.

“I’m gonna do it, whether the women like it or not. I’ve got to protect them. I’m gonna protect them from migrants coming in. I’m gonna protect them from foreign countries with missiles and lots of other things,” he added.

A person drops off their 2024 election ballot at a newly installed drop box outside the Multnomah County Elections Division office on October 28 in Portland.

With just days until Election Day, investigators in Oregon have shared new details about a man they say is responsible for three recent fires at ballot drop boxes that damaged hundreds of ballots — warning he may continue his attacks.

Investigators have not identified the suspect, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said Wednesday, but police have released a physical description and other information. Police did not reveal the source of the description.

Day told reporters they have to “anticipate” the suspect will attack again, and security has been stepped up at the approximately 30 ballot boxes in Portland.

More background: Fires were set at three ballot boxes in the area in the past three weeks. An “incendiary device” found attached to the side of a ballot drop box in Portland early Monday damaged ballots, but most were unaffected because of fire suppressant installed in the ballot box. Another fire was set at a ballot box in Vancouver, Washington, on the same day.

Officials have identified 488 damaged ballots that were retrieved from the burned ballot box in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland, and 345 of those voters already requested new ballots, according to election officials.

Elections staff will mail another 143 replacement ballots to voters Thursday, officials said on X. Workers were unable to identify six of the damaged ballots. Other ballots may have been completely burned to ash, and therefore, unidentifiable, Clark County officials said in a news release Wednesday.

Elon Musk speaks at a town hall at the Roxain Theater on October 20, in Pittsburgh. Musk also awarded an attendee $1 million dollars during the event.

Tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk is trying to move a lawsuit over his $1 million giveaway to voters into federal court, short-circuiting a required appearance Thursday at a Pennsylvania court.

Lawyers for the Tesla CEO filed a “motion of removal” in federal court late Wednesday night.

Judge Angelo Foglietta said Thursday he no longer has jurisdiction over the case because Musk filed papers to move the matter into federal court.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who filed the original lawsuit against Musk, will have an opportunity to argue that the case should be sent back to Pennsylvania court. But this legal maneuver by Musk very likely staves off the hearing that was scheduled for Thursday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, at least for now.

During the hearing Thursday, the judge challenged the Philadelphia prosecutors on their theory that Musk’s giveaway is an illegal lottery in violation of state law.

Foglietta pressed them on the fact that they mentioned the integrity of the 2024 election in their lawsuit, even though they are only arguing that the sweepstakes violates state gaming laws and doesn’t violate any election laws.

He also noted that the lottery is “open to all registered voters” — not just Republicans or supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Keep reading.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday night for a campaign rally featuring several musicians — including Cardi B.

GloRilla, Flo Milli, MC Lyte, The Isley Brothers, DJ GEMINI GILLY will perform while Cardi B is expected to deliver remarks, the campaign said.

Remember: Wisconsin is a key battleground state, which both Harris and former President Donald Trump have visited multiple times this election cycle. President Joe Biden won Wisconsin — one of the blue wall states — in 2020, while Trump won the state in 2016.

Last week, US intelligence assessed that Russian operatives were behind a fake video purporting to show someone destroying mail-in ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that circulated on social media.

With just days until the election, it’s important to be able to tell the difference between real vs. fake information online.

In this video, CNN’s Sara Murray talks through how to discern fact from fiction when it comes to ballot and voting information.

A new poll from The Washington Post finds likely voters in Michigan split 47% for Vice President Kamala Harris to 46% for former President Donald Trump, suggesting no clear leader in the presidential race in the state.

A CNN Poll of Polls average of four polls of the state conducted in mid-October or later puts the race at 48% for Harris to 45% for Trump.

The Post poll did not test support for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the independent candidate who remains on the ballot in Michigan despite suspending his campaign and throwing his support behind Trump.

It also finds significantly lower support for Harris among Black likely voters than other recent polling, pegging Harris at 63% support among Black voters in the state — compared with 83% in CNN’s latest poll, 81% in a Fox News survey out Wednesday night, and 82% in Quinnipiac University’s most recent survey of the state.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that he expects the majority of ballots cast in his state will be tabulated by the end of Tuesday night.

In 2020, Georgia was called 10 days after Election Day. Raffensperger said he does not think that delay will happen this year.

Raffensperger told CNN ballots from early voting and absentee ballots received by this weekend will be calculated no later than 8 p.m. ET on Election Night.

“The voting that happens on Tuesday, you’re going to get all of that by the end of the night,” he added.

He said that ballots that will be counted after Election Day will be overseas military ballots and absentee ballots received on Monday and Tuesday.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

With five days until Election Day and nearly 60 million ballots already cast, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump square off in the Southwest as both candidates try to press their advantage amid controversies stirred by campaign allies.

Sun Belt Showdown

The showdown between Harris and Trump swings to the American Southwest on Thursday — with Harris eyeing the battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada while Trump also visits the Silver State and the Grand Canyon State but first makes a detour to Democratic-leaning New Mexico, which has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents in the country.

The campaign stop in the Land of Enchantment is the latest event Trump has held in a state the GOP nominee is not expected to win next week, but it does provide the former president with a border state backdrop as he makes immigration a centerpiece of his closing argument to voters.

As CNN polls showed earlier this week, Arizona and Nevada remain exceedingly close, with no clear leader in either state — and where the support of Latino voters is crucial. The vice president holds a clear advantage among likely Latino voters in Arizona but in Nevada, she and Trump are running roughly even.

Pressing the advantage

The dueling Sun Belt stops come as both candidates seek to press their advantage amid the fallout from controversies stirred this week by allies of their campaigns — the disparaging joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico delivered at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and President Joe Biden seeming to denigrate Trump’s supporters in response.

While the president quickly sought to clarify his comments — saying they were directed at Hinchcliffe — and Harris distanced herself from the remark on Wednesday, Trump leaned into his showman background to hammer his former rival, donning an orange and yellow safety vest and deploying a garbage truck to maximize the mileage out of the attack during a campaign stop in Wisconsin.

Harris will be joined Thursday in Nevada by actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, who has been a leading voice in denouncing the Trump rally rhetoric aimed at Puerto Rico. The Harris campaign is also leveraging the “island of garbage” remarks with a new Spanish-language advertisement in battleground states.

At his Green Bay rally, Trump also continued his less-than-subtle appeal to women by saying he would not refrain from vowing to be their “protector” despite what he said was the advice of his campaign strategists. “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not,” Trump told the crowd, which came a day after ally Nikki Haley cautioned the former president’s campaign against leaning into “bromance and masculinity stuff” as polls show a wide gender gap between the GOP nominee and his Democratic rival.

The Harris campaign is releasing a new Spanish-language ad Thursday focused on Puerto Rico in the wake of an offensive joke told by a comedian at former President Donald Trump’s New York City rally on Sunday.

The ad, entirely in Spanish, riffs off the comment made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” during the rally at Madison Square Garden.

“Puerto Rico is an island of scientists, poets, educators, stars and heroes,” the narrator of the ad says in Spanish. “We’re not trash, we’re more.”

The ad begins with images of Hinchcliffe, Trump and Sen. JD Vance before showing video of people waving the Puerto Rican flag. It also includes a short clip of Trump throwing paper towels to residents in Puerto Rico after thousands of people died as a result of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The Harris campaign says the ad will air on “Spanish language TV, including Univision, Telemundo, WAPA America and during high viewership telenovelas, and on digital platforms including El Nuevo Día, YouTube, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat to reach Puerto Rican and Latino voters.”

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon on October 1.

American officials remain doubtful a final diplomatic push in the Middle East this week will result in a pause in fighting before Tuesday’s election, according to people familiar with the thinking.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Cairo on Thursday for discussions on Gaza and Lebanon, including a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. But there is little expectation the final drive toward concluding the wars in Gaza and Lebanon will result in immediate success.

Harris pushes for ceasefire That makes it likely the war in Gaza will continue shadowing the US contest in its final days. On Wednesday evening, a few minutes into Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech in Madison, a few disruptions broke out inside the arena, which was filled with many students from the nearby University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Ceasefire now!” one protestor shouted.

“We all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out,” Harris said, adding that she would do “everything in my power” to bring the Middle East conflict to a close.

The scene, which has been repeated at Harris rallies throughout her abbreviated campaign, demonstrates the political liability the Middle East has become for the Democratic candidate.

Harris almost always points back to the necessity of a ceasefire, even as the talks to secure one stalled.

Trump appeals to Arab and Muslim voters Former President Donald Trump has also tried court Arab American and Muslim voters disillusioned or angry over US policy on Israel and Gaza in the critical battleground state, inviting several Muslim leaders onstage with him at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday.

Trump said in his speech that he had held a meeting earlier in the day with Muslim leaders. He was joined onstage by what his campaign described as “prominent leaders of Michigan’s Muslim community,” including Imam Belal Alzuhairi, who described Trump as the “peace” candidate.

Remember: Under the Trump administration, the US shuttered its Consulate General in Jerusalem – which provided diplomatic representation to the Palestinians – with the US Embassy in Jerusalem, creating “a single diplomatic mission.” In May 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem. However, there has been no movement toward that reopening in the three years since.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Gregory Krieg contributed reporting.

California voters will decide this election whether to increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour, which would be the highest in the US.

The ballot measure, known as Proposition 32, calls for raising the threshold to $17 for the rest of 2024 and then to $18 in January for employers with more than 25 workers. Smaller employers would have to pay a minimum of $17 next year and $18 in 2026. It will be adjusted for inflation thereafter, though increases would be no greater than 3.5% a year.

Raising the minimum wage to $18 would put roughly $3,000 more a year in the pockets of workers who are paid at that threshold. An estimated 2 million workers would be affected.

Currently, the Golden State’s minimum wage is $16 and is set to rise to $16.50 next year.
Some 40 localities have minimum wages that are higher than the state threshold, including six that are greater than $18.

California has been among the more aggressive states when it comes to hiking the minimum wage. It was the first state to pass legislation raising the threshold to $15, which took effect in 2022 for larger employers and the following year for smaller ones.

Read more about the arguments for and against raising the minimum wage.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Both Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump will make swings out West, as they deliver their final arguments to voters in the critical battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.

Earlier today in Madison, Wisconsin, Harris addressed Trump’s comments about being a “protector” of women and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s remarks on the Affordable Care Act.

“It has been a part of Donald Trump’s agenda for a very long time,” she said. “He has made dozens of attempts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, and now we have further validation of that agenda from his supporter, the Speaker of the House, and what that would mean for the American people is that, that insurance companies could go back to a time when they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on preexisting conditions.”

As CNN had previously reported, Johnson told supporters that if the former president is elected, Republicans will seek “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act.

Later, Harris will attend a campaign event in Phoenix before heading to a get-out-the-vote event in Reno, Nevada. She’ll finish the day attending a rally in Las Vegas with J.Lo and Maná.

The rally is part of her campaign’s push to get people to vote ahead of the last day of early voting in Nevada, which is November 1.

Trump will be at a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico from the mid afternoon before moving to another rally in Henderson, Nevada. He will speak at an event with media personality Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona in the evening.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. Mike Lee will also appear at Carlson’s event, which is aimed at raising funds for victims of Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Before Election Day has even arrived, the “Stop the Steal” movement has reemerged in force, with some of the same activists who tried to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss outlining a step-by-step guide to undermine the results if he falls short again.

For months, those activists – who have been priming Trump supporters to believe the only way the former president can lose in 2024 is through fraud – have laid out proposals to thwart a potential Kamala Harris victory. Their plans include challenging results in court, pressuring lawmakers to block election certification, and encouraging protests – culminating on January 6, 2025, the day Congress will once again certify the results.

“I have a plan and strategy,” Ivan Raiklin, a former Green Beret and political operative who has close ties to associates of Trump, told a group of Pennsylvania activists earlier this month. “And then January 6th is going to be pretty fun.”

Trump’s allies – and the former president himself – are increasingly pushing debunked claims of voter fraud, spreading their rhetoric through podcasts with massive audiences, megachurch sermons and political rallies in key states. Some Trump backers, including pastors associated with Christian nationalist ideas, have described the election as a fight between good and evil, describing Harris as the antichrist or suggesting that God has anointed Trump as the victor.

Read more about what MAGA activists have been planning to undermine a potential Harris victory well in advance of the election.

Former President Donald Trump’s last campaign stop before Election Day is expected to be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday evening, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN.

Trump is expected to hold multiple events on Monday in different battleground states before ending up in Grand Rapids, where he held his last campaign stops in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Trump is then expected to vote in person on Election Day and participate in tele-rallies from his home in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, the source said.

When asked about the decision to end the campaign in Grand Rapids, one senior adviser said “superstition.”

Keep reading here for why Harris and Trump are focusing on seven states in their final campaign sprint ahead of Election Day.

Elon Musk speaks at a rally for former President Donald Trump in New York on October 27.

Tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk is trying to move a lawsuit over his $1 million giveaway to voters into federal court, potentially averting a hearing Thursday in Philadelphia state court that he was required to attend.

Lawyers for the Tesla CEO filed a “motion of removal” in federal court late Wednesday night. This typically pauses the state case and puts the matter in the hands of a federal judge – unless and until that judge decides to send the case back to state courts.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who filed the original lawsuit against Musk, will have an opportunity to argue that the case should be sent back to Pennsylvania court. But this legal maneuver by Musk very likely staves off the hearing that was scheduled for Thursday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, at least for now.

At the center of the legal battle is a daily $1 million sweepstakes that Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC, called America PAC, is offering to registered voters in battleground states.

Further, Musk’s lawyers claim the issues in Krasner’s lawsuit “raise significant questions of federal law that are within the exclusive province” of the federal court system.

A spokesperson for Krasner’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning about the status of the scheduled court hearing in Philadelphia.

Read more about Musk’s sweepstakes case here.

Former President Donald Trump attends an event in Zebulon, Georgia on October 23.

The last three years have upended everything about the way we expect the economy to work. That’s at least partly why many rich people don’t seem to be sweating economists’ warnings that Donald Trump’s policies would cause inflation — which has finally come down to a normal level — to spike again.

Inflation dings all wallets, whether you’re a Wall Street banker or a public school teacher. But it hurts in different ways.

Higher prices for rent and food, areas where blue-collar workers tend to spend a bigger chunk of their income, hurt the middle- and low-income groups hardest. And, historically, high inflation has also hurt wealthy people because it eats into corporate profits and creates a drag on the stock market.

But the pandemic-era inflationary period played out unlike any other in history, and wealthy people made out like bandits.

Many rich Americans who might have once had an icky feeling about the prospect of surging inflation in the past suddenly don’t seem too worried about it. And that may be because the only real inflation we’ve seen in decades was a multi-year profit bonanza for them.

And that has provided a permission structure for some wealthy Trump supporters to shrug their shoulders at his inflationary economic agenda.

Read more about why wealthy people are less concerned about Trump’s policies.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at a town hall with Republican candidate for Senate Dave McCormick at the Roxain Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 2024.

Elon Musk’s misinformation megaphone has created a “huge problem” for election officials in key battleground states who told CNN they’re struggling to combat the wave of falsehoods coming from the tech billionaire and spreading wildly on his X platform.

Election officials in pivotal battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona have all tried, and largely failed, to fact-check Musk in real time. At least one has tried passing along personal notes asking he stop spreading baseless claims likely to mislead voters.

“I’ve had my friends hand-deliver stuff to him,” said Stephen Richer, a top election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, a Republican who has faced violent threats for saying the 2020 election was secure.

Ever since former President Donald Trump and his allies trumpeted bogus claims of election fraud to try to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, debunking election misinformation has become akin to a second full-time job for election officials. But Musk — with his ownership of the X platform, prominent backing of Trump and penchant for spreading false claims — has presented a unique challenge.

Musk’s hearing: A Philadelphia court will hold an emergency hearing on Thursday morning, after the city’s district attorney asked a state judge to shut down Musk’s controversial $1 million giveaway to registered voters, calling it an “illegal lottery scheme.”

The US Justice Department has also warned Musk’s super PAC that his giveaway might violate federal laws that criminalize offering cash for voter registration.

Read the full story.

An exterior view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2024.

Only a third of Senate seats are up for grabs every two years — and Democrats are on defense as they try to maintain their slim majority.

Of the 34 seats for which there is an election this year, Democrats are defending 20 and Republicans are defending 13. Two of those Democratic seats, in West Virginia and Montana, are likely to be won by Republicans, according to the Senate race ratings. Another one, in Ohio, is rated as a toss-up.

Democrats hope they can pick up an unexpected win in either Texas or Florida, but Republicans are on pace to have a slim majority in the Senate next year. Assuming Republicans hold all of the seats they currently hold, they can control the chamber if they flip one Democratic seat and win the White House (the vice president breaks ties in the Senate) or win two seats regardless of the outcome of the presidential race.

No matter who has control of the Senate, neither party is expected to have a supermajority. That’s important because senators generally abide by a custom of respecting the filibuster. It usually requires 60 votes to enact major pieces of legislation, although both Republicans and Democrats have found ways around that in recent years.

Republicans found a way to enact tax cuts under former President Donald Trump without 60 votes. Democrats did the same thing with their Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, aims to transition the US to a greener economy.

Read more about how the US election works.

Bad Bunny performs in Las Vegas on February 23.

In September, Latin music superstar Nicky Jam appeared onstage with Donald Trump. Donning a red MAGA hat, the reggaeton singer told a Las Vegas rally that he was supporting the former president.

On Tuesday, he withdrew his support — joining a chorus of famous Puerto Ricans who have condemned a joke made by a comedian at Trump’s New York City rally earlier this week assailing the US island territory.

While Jam didn’t endorse Kamala Harris in his post, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, reggaeton star Don Omar, “Despacito” singer Luis Fonsi and global superstar Bad Bunny are among the celebrities of Puerto Rican descent who have shown support for the vice president or her platform since Sunday. Lopez is also participating in a rally alongside Harris in Las Vegas today.

Harris campaign officials had always planned for star-studded events in the homestretch of the presidential election. But the influx of Latino artists denouncing Trump and showing up for Harris with voting already underway is the October surprise that the campaign didn’t see coming.

Together, those stars have a combined 390 million global followers on Instagram alone — more than the US population.

In a razor-thin race, celebrity support can move the needle, experts say, especially among a demographic with which polls have shown Trump closing the gap with Harris — Latino men — and at a time when both campaigns are vying for the Puerto Rican vote in battleground Pennsylvania, where there’s a sizable portion of Latino voters.

Read the full story.

A sign directs people to a public library turned early voting station in Black Mountain, North Carolina, on October 29, 2024.

There are seven states that could conceivably be won by either candidate. The campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have focused their energy in these areas. They can be broken up into two general categories:

3 Midwestern battlegrounds, aka “the blue wall” — These are the manufacturing and union-heavy states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They used to be more reliably Democratic but have shifted as their populations changed and as Trump has appealed to White voters without a college degree.

When Trump won the White House in 2016, he won all three. When Joe Biden won in 2020, he won all three. If Harris wins all three this year, she will likely have the electoral votes to be president. But polls suggest close races in all three. Turnout will be key, which for Harris means appealing to suburban women and Black voters.

The blue wall states usually vote the same way. The last time they did not all go to the same candidate was in 1988 — notably also a year when California was red and West Virginia was blue. In those eight elections since 1988, the only time the blue wall states went to a Republican was in 2016, when they were won by Trump.

4 Sun Belt battlegrounds — These states with growing populations include Arizona and Nevada in the West and North Carolina and Georgia in the East. Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina used to be more reliably Republican. Trump won North Carolina twice, but the margins were close in 2020. The last Democrat to win there was Barack Obama in 2008. Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.

1 vote in Nebraska is a battleground — 48 states award all their electoral votes to the victor. Nebraska and Maine do it differently, awarding votes by congressional district. The state of Nebraska is safe Trump territory, but the congressional district around Omaha is a battleground. That one vote could end up being crucial in the event of a close race in the Electoral College.

Note: It’s the reverse situation in Maine, the only other state that does not award all of its electors to the statewide winner. Trump could pick up a single electoral vote in Maine.

Read more about how the US election works.

Abortion and reproductive rights are a key issue in the presidential race. Here’s a look at where each candidate stands:

Harris’ record: Vice President Kamala Harris has been championing reproductive rights for the Biden administration. She has made the case that abortion bans hurt women by highlighting cases where women have been unable to get abortions after being victims of rape, or struggled to get miscarriage care.

She has aimed to convince people who view themselves as pro-life that it’s OK to acknowledge the post-Roe v. Wade environment is flawed. Citing GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney, Harris said at a CNN town hall:

Also at the CNN town hall, she said that despite the obstacles to passing a new law, there can be a way to engage people across the aisle. “I know it is possible, because when you look at the midterms in so-called red states and so-called blue states, when this issue of freedom was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom.”

Trump’s record: Former President Donald Trump has often shifted his position on abortion over the last 25 years, at times seemingly to match the politics of the voters he is trying to win over. In 1999, he called himself “pro-choice,” and during his 2016 presidential campaign, he said women should face “some form of punishment” for getting an abortion if it were made illegal nationally.

Then in 2022, Trump claimed victory after the Supreme Court, led by his three nominees, handed down a 6-3 decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health that ended the federal right to an abortion. He has argued that he did the country a favor by appointing Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the abortion issue to state legislatures.

Most recently, Trump said he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected president, reversing a promise he made as a candidate in 2016 and one that he had stood by during his first term in the White House. At his only debate with Harris, he falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions after babies are born — which is murder, and illegal everywhere.

Trump said in May that he did not support restricting birth control. He previously said that he was “looking at” contraceptives when asked if he supported restrictions. In August, Trump announced plans to make either the government or insurance companies pay for in-vitro fertilization treatments. He did not specify how the treatments would be paid for.

Read more about Harris’ and Trump’s campaign promises.

It’s been called the “red mirage” or the “blue shift,” and it refers to the recent phenomenon by which an apparent Republican lead early after polls close on election night is erased by the counting of mail-in ballots later in the evening or in the days after Election Day.

Former President Donald Trump has pointed to the red mirage to back up his baseless allegations of election fraud, when in fact it has been a function of the rise of mail-in voting and the often-peculiar rules about when those ballots can be counted.

In 2020, the phenomenon played out in slow-counting places like California, which are heavily Democratic and where every registered voter is sent a mail-in ballot. That means a blue shift in the popular vote could still occur even if it does not delay figuring out the presidential election results.

Also in 2020, the vote count didn’t reflect a Biden lead in Georgia until early in the morning of November 6, when, as CNN’s Phil Mattingly showed viewers on the Magic Wall, small batches of votes were being counted and affecting the very close election.

There was also a blue shift in 2016, but it was not decisive. As CNN’s Marshall Cohen wrote, when Hillary Clinton offered her concession and admitted her loss to Americans the day after Election Day, she was still behind in the popular vote. While the trickle-in of ballots was not enough to get her the White House, it was more than enough to give her an edge of millions of ballots in the popular vote.

Remember: While news networks like CNN might project a winner when it is clear who will win, the races are not officially certified until later. Certification deadlines vary from state to state, but they all have until December 11, 2024, to complete recounts, if needed, and settle disputes around presidential results.

Read more here.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump sits inside garbage truck as he wears a high-vis vest, on tarmac at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on October 30, 2024.

Donald Trump broke out the props Wednesday in the final days of this chaotic campaign as the former president seized on a garbled remark by President Joe Biden that seemed to insult Trump voters as “garbage.”

Trump emerged from his plane ahead of a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, wearing a bright orange and yellow safety vest before climbing into a garbage truck — with a big “TRUMP” sign emblazoned on the side — to take questions from reporters.

Biden has personally denied calling Trump supporters “garbage,” saying his comment on a video call Tuesday night been misinterpreted. The White House, on clean-up duty, insisted the president was only talking about one person, the little-known comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” this weekend as he warmed up the Madison Square Garden crowd for Trump.

No matter Biden’s intention, Republicans eager to move on from the backlash to the New York City rally pounced on the remark, with Trump leading the way on the campaign trail.

From the passenger seat of the garbage truck, Trump suggested Biden’s comment should be attributed to Kamala Harris herself, saying the episode was “worse, really” than when Hillary Clinton described half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables” during the 2016 campaign.

Read the full story here.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harrisin Madison, Wisconsin, on October 30, 2024.

Vice President Kamala Harris is closing out her campaign with a visit to every battleground state, the campaign announced Wednesday night, with a one-day visit to the western battlegrounds of Nevada and Arizona before returning for a second visit to Wisconsin on Friday.

The return visit to Wisconsin on Friday, with get-out-the-vote rallies scheduled for the Green Bay area and Milwaukee, is designed to make a final push of early voting before the Sunday deadline.

Harris is set to visit Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday, before traveling to Michigan on Sunday for a daylong series of events. She is set to close her campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, after spending the day barnstorming Pennsylvania — the state with the biggest battleground prize.

An adviser said additional side trips could be added over the weekend and on the final day of the race.

Meanwhile, her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be campaigning in Pennsylvania Thursday to encourage more early voting, according to the campaign.

In a presidential race that polls show is neck and neck — and could be decided by small numbers of voters in a single battleground state — every detail matters.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both have viable paths to the White House, with five days until Election Day.

Critical decisions both campaigns made, in key moments as the race progressed, could determine the election’s outcome.

Here’s a look at some of those potentially pivotal choices, the wisdom of which won’t be known until after the contest is settled:

Read about other pivotal choices in the presidential race.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are making their final push in battleground states with less than a week to Election Day.

Trump was in Wisconsin on Wednesday, where he again slammed Joe Biden over the president’s “garbage” comment. “On a call for her campaign last night, crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala [Harris] really think of our supporters. He called them garbage,” he said at a rally in Green Bay.

Harris said Wednesday that she “strongly” disagrees with “any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

Here’s what else to know:

Exclusive: Larry Hogan, Maryland GOP Senate candidate, touted an endorsement from Trump in a private donor call and suggested it helps him with the former president’s “hard core” supporters — after repeatedly stating that he did not want Trump’s endorsement.

Endorsement loss for Trump: Latin superstar Nicky Jam announced to his 43.5 million followers on Instagram that he has withdrawn his Trump endorsement because of the comments made by a comedian at the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally about Puerto Rico. This comes one month after the reggaeton artist appeared onstage with Trump donning a MAGA hat.

Trump’s opinion on non-endorsements: Trump said the decision by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and USA Today to not endorse a presidential candidate this election means they think that Harris is “no good.”

Harris in Pennsylvania: In Harrisburg, Harris said there is “nothing that will stand in my way of working for you” if she’s elected president next week. She was interrupted by protesters shouting something unintelligible. The crowd chanted “Kamala!” over the protesters. “Look, everybody has a right to be heard, but right now, I am speaking,” she said.

Harris in Wisconsin: In an appeal to young voters, Harris told a crowd at a university in Madison that she understood they were impatient for change. Both campaigns look to win over young voters, a demographic that could be decisive in battleground states like Wisconsin.

New polling: Harris maintains a narrow advantage in two of the three “blue wall” states — Wisconsin and Michigan — that collectively represent her clearest path to an Electoral College victory, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. But the race is tied in Pennsylvania, the largest electoral prize of the three states.

Voting across America:

In Pennsylvania:

In Oregon: Investigators in Oregon searching for the person responsible for three fires at ballot drop boxes in the past few weeks believe “it is very possible the suspect intends to continue the attacks,” police said.

In Michigan: Confusion over voting tallies was sparked because of a formatting error that has been corrected, with no extra votes counted, according to the Michigan secretary of state’s office.