In an election as close as the one unfolding these days and concluding today in the US, even the smallest details matter.
In this light, the Trump and Harris campaigns are carefully selecting the audiences they are targeting, hoping to derive maximum benefit.
A prime such example, as is being hotly debated these days and in the US media, which is on a daily campaign trail, is the women’s vote. Vice President Harris is betting heavily on women to beat Trump even on points and remain in the White House from an elevated position. Women, after all, are overrepresented in the electoral college, and Harris is combining, in addition to her positions, the prospect of being the first woman president in the highest state office in the U.S.
But it’s not just Harris’s profile that “electrifies” female voters, but Trump’s profile as well. A series of reports that many call misogynistic, his chronically promiscuous lifestyle, and his convictions by the judiciary for issues related to women, prompt many of them to dislike him.
But the Supreme Court’s decision, whose makeup has changed to a more conservative one under Trump, to overturn Roe v. Wade and stricter state laws to prevent abortion, has infuriated many women. Indeed, in states where additional bans were recently put in place, such as Iowa, pollsters see a distancing of women voters from Mr Trump.
Women have already turned out en masse in both the early vote and the early vote in previous weeks, and based on Marist research for PBS, Harris has an 11-point lead over Trump among women, 55% to 44%. Of course, Ms. Harris needs to improve her performance among male voters, where she is trailing Mr. Trump, but she hopes that this will be achieved and, combined with her good performance among women, she will win even if only by a thread.
On the other hand, Trump, seeing a debate that is unpleasant for him being recycled, is calling in his weapons. Nikki Healy who was opposite him at the start of the race wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal supporting his candidacy, and at his appearance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania yesterday the former US president made a surprise appearance on stage with conservative commentator Megyn Kelly. The former Fox star, who has previously clashed fiercely with Mr Trump, claimed he would be a protector of women, urging them to listen to him.