The Home Stretch: Here's the election news for Nov. 1

Welcome to November! With four days left until the election, both the Democratic and Republican campaigns are scrambling to get their messages across in an ever-accelerating news cycle. Here’s your guide to catching up.

Where is everyone?

It’s all about the Upper Midwest today.

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris will spend the day in Wisconsin with an event in Appleton and a later-evening rally in Milwaukee. That rally will feature a slate of musical guests, including rappers GloRilla and MC Lyte, musical group the Isley Brothers, and remarks from rapper Cardi B.

VP candidate Gov. Tim Walz will be stationed in Michigan with events throughout the day in Detroit, Flint and Traverse City.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, will be in Warren, Mich., in the afternoon, and then he will also hold a rally in Milwaukee, Wis., this evening. These dueling same-city rallies may become a theme during this last stretch.

His running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will also be in Michigan with a rally in Portage. Then he will travel to Selma, N.C. for a rally.

Polls, polls, polls

Another avalanche of Pennsylvania polling has come out over the past day. Four polls of the most crucial swing state still have the race all over the map.

Two polls, from UMass Lowell and Marist, have Harris leading. UMass puts the race at 48-47 in the Democrat’s favor, and Marist’s results are 50-48. Echelon Insights has Trump with a huge lead compared with other surveys, 52-46. And to cap it all off, Suffolk has the two candidates tied at 49% apiece.

Marist and Suffolk also both polled the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Dave McCormick. Marist found Casey ahead by two points, 50-48, and Suffolk had him up three, 49-46.

FiveThirtyEight currently predicts that Trump wins in 53 out of 100 simulated scenarios, with Harris winning 47 out of 100 times. We’re still essentially in toss-up territory.

What’s going on?

New stories are coming fast! Here are a few things to keep an eye on.

In a Thursday night live event with Tucker Carlson, Trump used violent rhetoric towards “war hawk” former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Cheney has been a fierce critic of Trump and has campaigned with Harris during this election. Trump said, “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.” 

Donald Trump is suing CBS for $10 billion, alleging that an October “60 Minutes” interview with Harris was deceptively edited to disadvantage him in the presidential campaign. CBS News said in a statement that the lawsuit’s claims are “completely without merit.”

Mark Cuban has apologized after a Thursday morning comment on “The View.” He said that Trump does not surround himself with “strong, intelligent women.” Cuban, a Western Pennsylvania native and billionaire businessman, is supporting Harris in the election and has been a media and campaign surrogate for her in recent weeks. He wrote on social media site X, “When I said this during the interview, I didn’t get it out exactly the way I thought I did. So I apologize to anyone who felt slighted or upset by my response. As I said, it wasn’t about Trump voters, supporters or employees. Current or former.”

NBA star LeBron James endorsed Kamala Harris on Thursday, saying “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me.” He also posted a video on Instagram, ending with the message “Hate takes us back.”

Harris and Trump are both set to hold rallies in Pittsburgh on Monday in the final day of the presidential race. Harris will hold her rally and concert event at Point State Park and Trump will appear at an event at PPG Paints Arena.

And Democratic governors dressed up as vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for Halloween.

The #DemGovs @Tim_Walz fan club turned it out for Halloween — to remind you to TURN OUT TO VOTE on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/DJDlcv0tEv

— Democratic Governors (@DemGovs) October 31, 2024

What’s everyone saying?

Published opinions continue to be split, so here’s a glance at a few of the well-stated cases that pundits are making.

• “America’s choice: democracy, decency, and reason. or divisiveness, rumors, and resentment,” writes Scot Lehigh at the Boston Globe. Referencing Harris’s Tuesday night Washington, D.C., speech, he says, “That is, a contest between a vengeful would-be autocrat who views his critics as enemies from within and talks of imprisoning them and who has threatened our democracy’s underpinning in his disgraceful effort to stay in power and an affable, even-tempered candidate who views disagreement as part of democracy and promises she will try to end the fear-mongering and divisiveness and search for consensus if elected. But though Harris revisited Trump’s shameful behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, the day he sent his MAGA mob to the Capitol, she didn’t devote all or even most of her own speech on the Ellipse to that subject. She also offered her own proposals to bolster the middle class, lower child-care costs, boost small businesses, and promote homeownership.”

• At the LA Times, Scott Jennings tells us “Why I’m voting for Donald Trump.” He asserts, “And today, millions of Republicans like me — who nearly upchucked a time or two on this crazy ride — are prepared to vote for him one more time as a bulwark against the cultural and governance excesses of the American left. Simply put, I’m more worried about the country’s future than any problems I’ve had with Trump in the past. I’m worried about the impulse to restrict political speech, which some on the left (including Harris) have embraced. I’m worried about the left’s demonization of America’s origins and the future of Western civilization, as many conservatives feel that the basic tenets of society as we’ve known it are under attack.”

• Michelle Goldberg tells New York Times readers “What I Truly Expect if an Unconstrained Trump Retakes Power.” “My single biggest fear about a Trump restoration is that he keeps his promise to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” As The New York Times has reported, that would mean sending ICE to carry out “workplace raids and other sweeps in public places aimed at arresting scores of unauthorized immigrants at once,” and warehousing them in a network of newly built prison camps. If this happens, there will almost certainly be large protests. And when they break out, it is not far-fetched to think Trump would order the military to violently suppress them; the generals now warning about a second Trump term say he wanted to do just that in the past. This is what I envision when I think of MAGA fascism: people demonized as “vermin” being dragged off to camps, while dissent is violently crushed by the armed forces.”

• Newsweek’s Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell say “In a Dangerous World We Need Donald Trump.” “Former President Donald Trump has consistently placed far more emphasis on rebuilding the military than Vice President Kamala Harris. The Trump administration substantially increased the defense budget. The Biden-Harris administration did not. Trump has aggressively called on our allies to increase their own defense spending. Harris has not. Trump has promoted advanced military technology. He created the Space Force and his campaign platform specifically includes improving America’s ballistic missile defenses. The Biden-Harris administration did little on either front. While Trump questions political correctness in the military, Harris strongly supports it.”

• To end on a downer note for both sides, George Will has criticism for the two major parties in “Voters face the worst presidential choice in U.S. history.” “Whomever wins, both parties should be penitential about what they have put the country through. And both should begin planning 2028 nomination processes that will spare the nation a choice that will be greeted, as this year’s has been, by grimaces from sea to shining sea.”