Kamala Harris courting the minority vote

Fresh polling shows she has received a post-debate bump over Donald Trump in two of the swing states likely to decide the US presidency.

Kamala Harris after speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington on Wedneday. Picture: AFP

Kamala Harris spent a second straight day on Wednesday courting minority voters, especially Latinos, as fresh polling showed the Democrat receiving a post-debate bump over Donald Trump in two of the swing states likely to decide the US presidency.

With the candidates effectively tied less than seven weeks before election day, the US Federal Reserve made news that may well affect the race, cutting its key lending rate by half a percentage point in its first reduction since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The move, which sharply lowers borrowing costs for Americans, was well-received by the Vice-President, who has looked to highlight her and President Joe Biden’s economic record in her race against Mr Trump.

She called it “welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices”. Mr Biden’s White House said the rate cut marked a “moment of progress” for the US economy.

In a potential setback for the Harris camp ahead of November’s election, the Teamsters union announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024.

“Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien said.

The group had endorsed Democrats for president in every election since 2000. The union’s decision came minutes after Ms Harris told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute of her commitment to working Americans.

“We have to put the middle class first. We have to put the working class first, understanding their dreams and their desires and their ambitions,” she told the group in Washington.

Ms Harris had already benefitted from the endorsement this year of other major unions, including United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO.

The Democrat nominee said the US must “reform our broken immigration system and protect our Dreamers,” referring to the roughly half million undocumented immigrant youth currently protected by law. “Understand we can do both, create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure,” she said.

In New York, Mr Trump hammered Ms Harris, saying she failed to curb undocumented migration.

“Kamala will be known as your invasion president,” he said.

Mr Trump also warned he was formulating a plan, if he wins, to impose reciprocal tariffs on ­nations that tax US-made ­products.

“It will be called the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act,” he said. “And if China or any other country charges us a 200 or 100 or 300 per cent tax then we will charge (the same) tax in return.

“You charge us, we charge you.”

With the election nearing, a new poll showed Ms Harris with significant leads over Mr Trump in swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan

The surveys, conducted after the candidates’ September 10 debate, suggest a post-showdown boost for Ms Harris, who outperformed Mr Trump on stage.

In the latest poll of likely voters by Quinnipiac University, Ms Harris leads the former president 51 per cent to 45 per cent in Pennsylvania, and tops him 50-45 per cent in Michigan. A third Rust Belt state, Wisconsin, has Ms Harris one point ahead.

“Three crucial swing states wave a red flag at the Trump campaign,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.

Mr Trump leads narrowly in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, according to an amalgam of polls on survey tracker RealClearPolitics.com. It shows Ms Harris barely ahead in Nevada.

She became the Democrat nominee only in July, after Mr Biden ended his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance against Mr Trump.

The candidates were campaigning three days after a gunman tried to assassinate the former president in Florida. Mr Trump held a town hall event on Tuesday before fervent supporters in the beleaguered industrial city of Flint, Michigan, where he boasted that “only consequential presidents get shot at”.

He also praised Ms Harris for calling to check on him after Sunday’s shooting scare.

Mr Trump has said the would-be shooter was a follower of what he called Mr Biden’s and Ms Harris’s rhetoric that he is a threat to US democracy.

Ms Harris, who is half black and half Indian-American, was interviewed for an hour on Tuesday by the National Association of Black Journalists in battleground Pennsylvania, where she said she was “working to earn the vote” of African American men, and not just assuming they would cast ballots for her because she is black.

AFP