WASHINGTON: Two days before election day, US President Donald Trump launched a sprint of campaigning on Sunday across battleground states crucial to the outcome in an effort to defy the polls and fend off Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, had a frenetic schedule, with stops planned in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Biden was campaigning in Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden’s national lead in opinion polls has stayed relatively steady in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic has persisted. The former vice president was ahead 51 percent to 43 percent in the latest polls.

Trump faces what appears to be a narrow path to re-election. Polls show him close to Biden in enough battleground states that could give him the 270 votes needed to win in the state-by-state electoral college that determines the overall victor.

The race remains a toss-up in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona, while Trump trails by five percentage points in Pennsylvania and nine percentage points in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Anita Dunn, a Biden campaign adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” programme, “We feel confident about where we are.”

There already has been a record-setting number - 92 million - of early votes cast around the country, either in-person or by mail, a phenomenon expected to boost Biden’s chances.

In-person voting

The Trump campaign indicated it is banking on in-person voting on Tuesday to push the president over the top. Campaign adviser Jason Miller said Democrats had spent months stressing the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic and telling people it is not safe to go to the polls in person.

“Well, guess what? President Trump’s supporters are going to show up on Tuesday. Nothing is going to stop them,” Miller told ABC’s This Week programme. “I think Democrats are going to look in the rear-view mirror and say, `This is probably what cost us the election’.”

Dunn dismissed Miller’s argument and said the record early voting numbers reflect enthusiasm, and not fear.

Biden, who has made hammering the president’s response to the pandemic a main theme of his speeches, is scheduled to campaign again in Pennsylvania, one of the most critical of the battleground states and one that Trump won in his 2016 upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump plans to stage 10 rallies - five a day – in the two days left before the election, making it the campaign’s busiest stretch.

On Monday his campaign has events planned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and two in Michigan.

Trump will close out the two-day swing with a late-night rally on Monday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same location where he finished his campaign in 2016. In his unexpected victory four years ago, the wealthy businessman-turned-politician took Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three states that for decades had gone in the Democratic column.

He offered a note of optimism early on Sunday, writing on Twitter: “Our numbers are looking VERY good all over.”

Infections

Weighing down Trump is a rising number of coronavirus infections in many parts of the country. The United States has recorded more than nine million cases, with nearly 230,000 people dying from Covid-19. Trump, who withstood a personal bout with Covid-19, has played down the virus and has said his opponents are using the pandemic against him.

At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump seemed to lament his close race with Biden, who he considers a weak opponent.

“This could only happen to me,” Trump said. “How could we be tied?”

To win again Trump has to chart a narrow path by triumphing in states he won in 2016, like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and Arizona, and holding at least one of the mid-western states that he took four years ago, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin.

Some Republicans are pessimistic about Trump’s chances, believing he has too many states where his back is up against the wall.

Trump and his team believe polls undersell his level of support, and say that, thanks to a strong Republican get-out-the-vote effort, the incumbent will win.

Peaceful participants at a rally on Saturday in a small North Carolina city to turn out the vote ahead of election day were pepper-sprayed by police, according to witnesses and videos posted online. The incident occurred in Graham, a city of about 15,000 65 km from Raleigh-Durham.

Police said officers took action acted after rally participants failed to obey warnings to disperse. The state’s Democratic governor described the incident as “unacceptable.”

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2020