US election: 11 days left – What polls say, what Harris and Trump are up to 

Eleven days before voters head to the polls, Vice President Kamala Harris has appealed to middle-class America at a rally in Georgia, drawing a crowd of about 20,000.

Harris was not the only one the crowd had come for: Iconic musician Bruce Springsteen, former President Barack Obama, movie director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry were there to back her up.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump held rallies in Arizona and Nevada. In Arizona, he said he had watched Kamala Harris’s town hall this week on CNN and described her performance as “pathetic” – only the latest in a series of personal barbs that the candidates have traded in recent days.

As of Thursday evening, more than 30 million voters had already cast their ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida. While this has broken early vote records in some states, the numbers, so far, are far below those from 2020, when – amid the COVID-19 pandemic – more than 100 million voters cast their ballots before Election Day.

A new poll released by the Financial Times (FT) on Thursday showed that Trump has slightly surpassed Harris as the candidate Americans trust most with the economy.

The poll, conducted by the FT and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, found that 44 percent of respondents trust Trump to handle the economy, compared with 43 percent for Harris.

The results suggest that Harris’s economic message has stalled in the final stages of her increasingly close race against Trump.

Meanwhile, in a separate analysis from FiveThirtyEight’s daily election poll tracker, as of Wednesday, Harris is slightly ahead in the national polls, leading Trump by 1.7 percentage points. However, the long-term trend shows that the race is getting closer, with the gap narrowing from 1.8 points earlier in the week.

While national surveys provide valuable insights into voter sentiment, the ultimate winner will be decided by the Electoral College, which reflects the outcomes in individual states.

The seven key swing states that could determine the election are Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Together, these states account for 93 Electoral College votes.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily poll tracker, Harris’s support in Michigan has grown marginally, from less than half a percentage point to 0.7 percent. The vice president is marginally ahead in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Trump has a slight edge over Harris in Pennsylvania and holds a slightly larger lead in North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. In Nevada, Trump and Harris are in a dead heat.

However, the results from each state fall within the margin of error of the polls, indicating that the race remains extremely close, and that these swing states could still shift in favour of either candidate.

What was Kamala Harris up to on Thursday?

Harris campaigned alongside Obama at an event that also saw performances from Springsteen and filmmaker Perry.

The vice president was the final speaker and she opened her speech praising Obama.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” she said. Harris expressed confidence in winning, adding, “As a certain former president would say, ‘Yes we can.’”

Harris highlighted her proposals regarding healthcare and the economy, emphasising the necessity of reducing costs and outlining her plans for small businesses while labelling abortion bans “immoral”.

Bruce Springsteen, after a performance of his ballad, The Promised Land, said, “I’m here today to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

“Trump is running to be an American tyrant,” he added before performing Land of Hope and Dreams and Dancing in the Dark.

Perry walked in to the tune of Aretha Franklin’s Respect and spoke about how he had lived in Georgia for 30 years.

“This is where I found the American Dream for myself,” he said. “I know what it is like to be homeless here in Georgia,” he continued. “And I also know – hear me – how expensive it is to be poor.” He called for people to vote for Harris before introducing Obama.

“Today, I voted for Kamala Harris,” Tyler Perry said. “And Georgia, it was about 11,400 votes that separated Trump and Biden [in 2020]. So every vote counts.

“I’m begging you, imploring you, let’s get out and make Kamala Harris the 47th president,” he added, before introducing Obama.

Director Spike Lee speaks during a campaign rally [EPA]

As Obama started his speech, he mocked Trump saying he resembled an older family member in need of intervention.

“Hey, have you noticed grandpa, he’s acting kind of funny out there?” Obama said. He also said he understood why people were trying to find somebody to “shake things up”.

“What I can’t understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself,” he added.

Obama campaigns with Democratic presidential candidate Harris [EPA]

What was Donald Trump up to on Thursday?

On Thursday, Trump rallied in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Tempe, Arizona.

In his Arizona rally, he promised to launch the largest deportation operation in history. Condemning violent gangs, he said: “We’ve got to get these animals out of here fast.”

In Las Vegas, he arrived at a large rally hosted by the conservative organisation Turning Point Action.

During his speech he mocked Harris and tried to reach out to minority communities. “Under the Trump administration, we’re going to build an economy that lifts up all Americans, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans and also members of our great Asian American and Pacific Islander community, many of whom are here today.”

Trump attends a campaign event sponsored by conservative group Turning Point Action, in Las Vegas, Nevada [Ronda Churchill/Reuters]

Al Jazeera’s John Holman, reporting from the rally in Las Vegas, said people he had spoken to voiced concerns about “the cost of living, the lack of jobs, and inflation”.

“People are saying that they want Donald Trump to fix the economy, to get inflation and prices down. That’s one set of people,” Holman said. The other group was talking about the border, he said.

“We were listening in to a rally Trump gave earlier on in Arizona, itself a border state, where he really zeroed in on the issue of immigration,” Holman said.

“He said the US has become a garbage can that people come to from other countries. He talked about an invasion, about ‘migrant gangs’ that are coming through, an army of them, he said, to the US,” he added.

In the final stretch of the race, Trump has intensified his already inflammatory rhetoric, accusing Harris of committing “a wicked betrayal of America”.

Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada [Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]

What’s next for the Harris and Trump campaigns?

Harris heads to Texas

Harris is scheduled to hold a rally in Houston, Texas, on Friday afternoon.

The Democratic Party website says the rally will feature country music legend Willie Nelson.

Several news outlets have reported that Beyonce will also appear at that event, although it is unclear if she will perform.

Beyonce’s long-awaited endorsement follows those of other superstars who have backed Harris, including Taylor Swift, Eminem and Springsteen. Beyonce’s song Freedom has become an unofficial anthem for the Harris campaign, often played as the vice president arrives at rallies.

Harris is speaking in Houston to highlight Texas’s extreme abortion restrictions.

Trump set to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Trump will appear on Friday in an interview with popular podcaster Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience”.

The interview will take place at Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas. The host has a devoted following of millions of listeners. On Spotify, he has more than 14 million followers, more than 19 million followers on Instagram and 17 million followers on YouTube.

A YouGov poll conducted last year revealed that 81 percent of his listeners are male, with 56 percent being under 35 – a demographic that favours Trump over Harris.

It is still unclear when the interview will be released to the public.

Rogan has previously criticised Trump, labelling him in July 2022 as an “existential threat to democracy”. However, he has more recently expressed admiration for Trump, stating last month that the economy thrived during Trump’s presidency. Trump is also expected to hold a rally in Michigan, a key swing state where is only marginally behind Harris. Trump had won Michigan in 2016 but lost it in 2020.