CHICAGO: White House hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Friday embarked on the final 10-week race to Election Day, with the vice president on the rise after an electrifying speech accepting the presidential nomination.
With less than three weeks until the U.S. vice president and the former Republican president meet for a debate — and just a month before in-person early voting begins — polls show the race is very close.
Harris, a former California senator and prosecutor, leaves Chicago with momentum, having overtaken Trump and erased the polling leads she enjoyed before replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket last month.
A new twist in the race could come with the expected announcement by third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he is dropping out and possibly also endorsing Trump.
Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist who has been shunned by much of his famous family, has little support, but even a small group of additional voters siding with Trump could change the course of an election likely to be decided by minuscule margins.
Harris accepted her party's presidential nomination on Thursday in a glitzy final night in Chicago to set the stage for the grueling race to Nov. 5.
In just over a month, Harris, the first Black woman to head a major party ticket, has raised a record $500 million and is enjoying a political honeymoon that shows little sign of ending.
Kennedy's withdrawal
Potential headwinds for Harris include intraparty tensions over U.S. policy toward Israel's tyranny over Palestinians in Gaza and the fallout from Kennedy's withdrawal.
The controversial scion of America's revered Kennedy clan is planning an announcement in Arizona, while Trump is also campaigning in the state and promising to feature a “special guest.”
Kennedy's running mate, Nicole Shanahan, told X that Democrats were “inundating” her with “frantic calls, texts and emails” and were “terrified at the idea of our movement joining forces with Donald Trump.”
But analysts have mixed views on the effect Kennedy's departure would have.
Democratic heavyweights from Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to vice presidential nominee Tim Walz have warned that the party could still lose to Trump's Republicans if complacency sets in.
“If we see a bad poll – and we will – we'll have to get off the phone and do something,” the former first lady told party faithful in Chicago.
