Harris, Trump’s final push before Election Day takes them to the same stretch of Pa.

By Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow, Associated Press

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters in the same part of Pennsylvania at about the same time on Monday, spending the final full day of the presidential campaign in a state that could make or break their chances.

Focusing on the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage in Reading, about 30 miles from Allentown, where Harris held her own event about a half hour later.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” Trump said. “It’s over.”

A Trump victory in Pennsylvania, flipping the 19 Electoral College votes, would break the Democrats’ “blue wall” and make it harder for Harris to win the necessary 270 votes.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, spent all of Monday in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize among the states expected to decide the Electoral College outcome, and delivered an equally blunt assessment.

“We need everyone in Pennsylvania to vote,” she said. “You are going to make a difference in these elections.”

In addition to Allentown, Harris visited Scranton — President Joe Biden’s hometown — and Reading and had a stop planned in Pittsburgh before ending with an overnight rally in Philadelphia, which included Lady Gaga And Oprah Winfrey.

“Are you ready to do this?” Harris shouted Monday in Scranton, with a large handmade “VOTE FOR FREEDOM” sign behind her and a similar “VOTE” banner at her side.

Trump first went to North Carolina before visiting Reading. He then headed to Pittsburgh, on the other side of the state, before finishing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he will hold his final campaign rally in the same place where he concluded his 2016 and 2020 runs.

Southeastern Pennsylvania is home to thousands of Latinos, including a sizable Puerto Rican population. Harris and her allies have repeatedly attacked Trump for a comedian in Puerto Rico during the former president’s major Madison Square Garden event. The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.”

“It was absurd,” said German Vega, a Dominican American who lives in Reading and became a U.S. citizen in 2015. “It bothered so many people – even a lot of Republicans. It was wrong, and I think Trump should have apologized to Latinos.”

But Emilio Feliciano, 43, waited outside Reading’s Santander Arena for a chance to take a photo of Trump’s motorcade. He rejected the comments about Puerto Rico, despite his family being Puerto Rican, saying he cares about the economy and will therefore vote for Trump.

‘Will the border be safe? Will you reduce crime? That’s what I care about,” he said.

Harris told the crowd, “I stand here proud of my longstanding commitment to Puerto Rico and its people.”

“And I will be a president for all Americans,” she said, adding that “the momentum is on our side.” Can you feel it?

Trump, meanwhile, continued to talk about his proposed crackdown on immigration. He called to the stage Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was found dead a day after going missing while hiking. Officials say the suspect in her death, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, entered the U.S. illegally after allegedly killing a woman in his home country of El Salvador.

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About 77 million Americans have done so voted early. A victory for either side would be unprecedented.

If Trump wins, he would be the first new president after him to be charged and convicted of a crime hush money lawsuit in New York. He will have the power to end other federal investigations against him. Trump would also become only the second president in history to win non-consecutive terms in the White House, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.

Harris is vying to become the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office — four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.

The vice president rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden’s disastrous performance in a June debate launched his political career. withdrawal from the race – one of a series of convulsions to hit this year’s campaign.

Trump survived an assassination attempt by millimeters meeting in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Secret Service detail foiled a second attempt in Septemberwhen a gunman set up a gun while Trump played golf at one of his courses in Florida.

Harris, 60, has presented herself as a generational change from the 81-year-old Biden and Trump, who is 78. She has and has emphasized her support for abortion rights following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion services. regularly noted the former president’s role January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Putting together a coalition ranging from progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to the Republican former vice president Dick CheneyHarris has called Trump a threat to democracy and late in the campaign even embraced criticism that Trump is accurately described as a “ fascist.”

Heading into Monday, Harris has largely stopped calling Trump by name, instead calling him “the other guy.” She promises to solve problems and seek consensus.

Harris campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters that not saying Trump’s name was intentional because voters “want to see in their leader an optimistic, hopeful, patriotic vision for the future.”

Harris also offered some insights into her personal formation as a politician that she doesn’t often reveal. In Scranton, she talked about how she was once a longshot when she ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2002 and how she “campaigned with my ironing board.”

“I walked to the front of the grocery store, outside, and put my ironing board up because, you know, an ironing board is a really great standing desk,” the vice president said, recalling how she would record her shots. posters on the outside of the sign, fill the top with flyers and “require people to talk to me as they walk in and out.”

In Allentown, Harris gathered with rapper Fat Joe. She then made her own visit to Reading after Trump’s rally ended, visiting Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant, with Ocasio-Cortez. Both Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, and Ocasio-Cortez are of Puerto Rican descent.

Supporters chanted “Sí se puede” and “Kamala” as the vice president’s motorcade stopped. Once inside, Harris chatted with a few guests, even mixing together “Gracias” and a few Spanish words. The vice president later ordered cassava, yellow rice and pork, saying, “I’m very hungry,” noting that she was too busy campaigning to find time for many meals.

Then Harris did some of her own research and stopped at two homes in Reading, flanked by campaign volunteers.

“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to stop by and say I hope to earn your vote,” she said outside a house.

The woman replied, “You already have my vote” and said her husband would cast his vote the next day.

While standing in line for the Allentown rally in Harris, 54-year-old Ron Kessler, an Air Force veteran and Republican-turned-Democrat, said he planned to vote for the second time in his life . Kessler said he didn’t vote for a long time because he thought the country would “vote for the right candidate.”

But “now that I am older and much wiser, I think it is important, it is my civic duty. And it is important that I vote for myself and for democracy and the country.”

Last Sunday, Trump renewed his position his false claims that US elections were rigged against himmused about violence against journalists and said he “ should not have left the White House in 2021 – dark twists that have overshadowed another anchor of his closing argument: “Kamala broke it. I will fix it.”

Superville reported from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Barrow reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.