Americans head to polls
\nMore than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either via mail or in person
\n washington
\nThe dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris hurtled toward an uncertain finish on Tuesday as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two sharply different visions for the country.
\nA race churned by unprecedented events \u2013 two assassination attempts against Trump, President Joe Biden\u2019s surprise withdrawal and Harris\u2019 rapid rise \u2013 remained neck and neck as Election Day dawned, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.
\nThe first ballots cast on Tuesday mirrored the nationwide divide. Overnight, the six registered voters in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between Harris and Trump in voting just past midnight.
\nAcross the East Coast and Midwest, Americans began arriving at polls Tuesday morning to cast their votes.
\nIn Raleigh, North Carolina, Johnny Graves had set up a DJ booth outside the polling station at Lincoln A.M.E. Church, pepping up morning voters with the Miley Cyrus track \u201cParty in the USA.\u201d
\nTaylor Grabow, a 27-year-old nurse, said she voted for Harris after previously voting for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, favoring Harris\u2019s opposition to criminalizing abortions.
\n\u201cI woke up in such a good mood and feeling excited,\u201d she said.
\nIn Asheville, North Carolina, Ginny Buddenberg, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom brought her two twin daughters with her to vote in Haw Creek. She voted for Trump.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of politics in the classroom, and I feel like there\u2019s too much of a push about politics and introducing different kinds of sexual education at a younger and younger age,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s go to school and learn how to read.\u201d
\nTrump\u2019s campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only stem from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020. The winner may not be known for days if the margins in battleground states are as slim as expected.
\nNo matter who wins, history will be made.
\nHarris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.
\nOpinion polls show the candidates running neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
\nReuters\/Ipsos polling shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump winning among men by seven percentage points.
\nThe contest reflects a deeply polarized nation whose divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race. Trump has employed increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric on the campaign trail. Harris has urged Americans to come together, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.
\nMore than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either via mail or in person, and lines at several polling stations on Tuesday morning were short and orderly.
\nControl of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs. Republicans have an easier path in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are defending several seats in Republican-leaning states, while the House of Representatives looks like a toss-up.
\nDark Rhetoric
\nDuring the campaign, Trump hammered first Biden and then Harris for their handling of the economy, which polls show is at the top of voters\u2019 concerns despite low unemployment and cooling inflation. But he showed a characteristic inability to stay on message, at one point questioning Harris\u2019 Black identity and vowing to protect women \u201cwhether they like it or not.\u201d
\nHis unbridled approach seemed designed to fire up his supporters, rather than expand his appeal. Even more than in 2016 and 2020, Trump has demonized immigrants who crossed the border illegally, falsely accusing them of fomenting a violent crime wave, and he has vowed to use the government to prosecute his political rivals.
\nPolls show he has made some gains among Black and Latino voters. Trump has often warned that migrants are taking jobs away from those constituencies.
\nBy contrast, Harris has tried to piece together a broader coalition of liberal Democrats, independents and disaffected moderate Republicans, describing Trump as too dangerous to elect.
\nShe campaigned on protecting reproductive rights, an issue that has galvanized women since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 eliminated a nationwide right to abortion.
\nHarris has faced anger from many pro-Palestinian voters over the Biden administration\u2019s military and financial support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. While she has not previewed a shift in U.S. policy, she has said she will do everything possible to end the conflict.
\nAfter Biden, 81, withdrew amid concerns about his age, Harris sought to turn the tables on Trump, pointing to his rambling rallies as evidence he is unfit, and has tried to court young voters, seen as a critical voting bloc.
\nTrump countered the likes of Harris supporters Taylor Swift and Beyonc\u00e9 with Elon Musk, the world\u2019s richest man, who played an increasingly visible role as a surrogate and a top donor to Trump\u2019s cause.
\nTuesday\u2019s vote follows one of the most turbulent half-years in modern American politics.
\nIn May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star. Four weeks later, Trump and Biden met for their only debate, where the incumbent president delivered a disastrous performance that supercharged voters\u2019 existing concerns about his mental acuity.
\nIn July, Trump narrowly escaped a would-be assassin\u2019s bullet at a Pennsylvania rally, just before the Republican National Convention. Barely a week later, Biden exited the race, bowing to pressure from Democratic leaders.
\nHarris\u2019 entry into the race re-energized her party, and she raised more than $1 billion in less than three months while erasing Trump\u2019s lead over Biden in public polls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Americans head to polls More than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either via mail or in person washington The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris hurtled toward an uncertain finish on Tuesday as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two sharply different visions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-441857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n