US elections: 10 days left – What the polls say, what Harris and Trump plan

With 10 days until Election Day, the race for the White House between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump remains very close in all battleground states.

Candidates Harris, Trump and their surrogates hit the campaign trail in full force.

Singer Beyonce Knowles, her former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland and country singer Willie Nelson tried to use their star power to woo voters for Harris in Texas.

Meanwhile, Trump sat down for a three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. He then traveled to Michigan, where he belatedly addressed a thinning crowd due to the delay.

What is the latest information from surveys?

The latest national poll conducted by the New York Times and Siena College from October 20-23, 2024, puts Harris and Trump at 48% nationwide. The remaining 4 percent they are undecided.

Among likely female voters, Harris leads Trump 54 to 42 percent. But the former president makes up for it among male voters, with 55 percent compared to 41 percent supporting Harris.

Harris received the highest support from voters aged 18 to 29, 55 percent compared to Trump’s 43 percent, while Trump leads 51 percent to 44 percent among voters aged 45 to 64.

What’s troubling for Harris is that 61 percent of respondents said the country was headed on the wrong track, while 27 percent said it was on the right track.

Meanwhile, poll tracker FiveThirtyEight, which averages several national polls, shows Harris maintaining a slim 48% lead over Trump’s 46.6%. However, her lead of 1.4 percentage points is down from 1.8 percent at the beginning of the week.

While national polls provide valuable information about voter sentiment, the ultimate winner will be decided by the Electoral College, which reflects state-by-state results.

The seven key swing states that could decide the outcome of the election are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Together, these states make up 93 – or one-third – of the 270 Electoral College needed to win the election.

Trump has a 1% lead in North Carolina and a 2% lead in Arizona and Georgia, according to the average of the latest FiveThirtyEight poll. Harris and Trump are separated by less than half a percentage point in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with Trump having a slim lead in Pennsylvania and Nevada and Harris having a razor-thin lead in Michigan and Wisconsin.

All results are within the margin of error and voting results may swing either way.

What was Kamala Harris doing on Friday?

Harris campaigned with musicians Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Willie Nelson in Houston, Texas.

During her arrest, Harris emphasized her support for abortion rights in an attempt to contrast with Trump and gain an advantage with voters.

Texas hasn’t supported a Democratic president since 1976, and Republican Trump is almost certain to win the state’s 40 Electoral College votes.

Democrats, however, assume that Harris will be a strong backdrop for him to talk about abortion rights in the last days before the elections scheduled for November 5. The state, under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, has passed some of the nation’s toughest anti-abortion laws.

What was Donald Trump doing on Friday?

Trump also campaigned in Texas on Friday, stopping in Austin to tape an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Rogan is arguably the most popular podcaster in the United States, with tens of millions of followers on social media, most of them men. Rogan’s podcast has 17.5 million subscribers on YouTube alone and 14 million on Spotify. According to Media Monitors, the average age of his listeners is 24.

In his interview with Rogan, Trump again suggested that he favors eliminating the income tax and replacing the lost revenue with tariffs.

Trump then went to a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he discussed Harris’ struggles with the state’s large Arab-American population, which could determine the outcome of a very close race.

Trump leads Harris 45 to 43 percent among Arab Americans two weeks before voters choose the next U.S. president, according to an Arab News/YouGov poll released Monday. Much of the community is furious with the Biden administration, Harris said, for its unwavering support for Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon.

“Kamala is also in complete free fall along with the Arab and Muslim population in Michigan. It’s in free fall,” Trump said. “She sent their jobs abroad, brought crime to their cities, and tonight in the Middle East it is like a box of powder about to explode. People are being killed on a scale we have never seen before.”

He also addressed Harris’ unlikely alliance with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who is running for vice president. Cheney, who has a long-standing feud with Trump, is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, a central figure in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “And why should Muslims support Kamala when she embraces Muslim-hating Liz Cheney?” Trump asked, speaking to the crowd.

What’s next for Harris and Trump’s campaigns?

On Saturday, Harris will campaign in Kalamazoo, Michigan, alongside former first lady Michelle Obama.

The voter incentive night will be Michelle Obama’s first event on the Harris campaign trail.

Saturday is the first day of early voting across Michigan.

Meanwhile, Trump is scheduled to hold several events in Pennsylvania on Saturday, but will start the day with a rally in Michigan.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, will make a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia, before traveling to Erie and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.