Trump outpaces Harris and Walz in marketing campaign occasions in run as much as remaining stretch of 2024 election cycle

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spend the run as much as the final stretch of the 2024 election barnstorming by means of battleground states, a distinction has emerged: Trump has single-handedly outpaced each Harris and her operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in marketing campaign occasions for the month of September as he exhibits no indicators of slowing down — a method his marketing campaign is using to give attention to counties weak to flipping.

In September, Trump held 21 public marketing campaign occasions together with remarks, rallies, press conferences and city halls. That is in comparison with Harris’ 13 marketing campaign occasions; Walz had seven marketing campaign occasions, in accordance with marketing campaign schedules ABC Information has reviewed. On prime of Trump’s jam-packed marketing campaign schedule, his operating mate, Sen. JD Vance, alone held 14 occasions within the month of September.

These tallies don’t embody transient marketing campaign retail stops and appearances with out remarks.

The depth in Trump’s marketing campaign schedule has continued into the primary week of October. From Oct. 1 by means of Oct. 6, Trump has already held eight marketing campaign occasions in comparison with Harris, who has held two, in accordance with an ABC Information overview of their schedules.

Just lately Harris has spent her days targeted on her official duties as vp receiving Federal Emergency Administration Company briefings and surveying Hurricane Helene’s harm in Georgia and North Carolina. Trump equally visited Georgia to survey the storm harm and obtained his personal briefings from native officers.

Harris marketing campaign advisers have dismissed arguments that Harris is not campaigning laborious sufficient, pointing to the eight occasions she had finished all through the month in her official capability as vp together with a visit all the way down to the southern border together with coping with the devastation from Hurricane Helene.

Harris marketing campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika mentioned in a press release that Trump is “cocooned in a conservative media bubble” and “limiting his time in battleground states,” whereas Harris and Walz are “taking powerful questions and assembly voters the place they’re.”

“Within the residence stretch, Donald Trump is campaigning in California, Chicago, and New York Metropolis, after tenting out at Mar-A-Lago avoiding voters,” Chitika wrote within the assertion.

Nonetheless, in latest weeks, Trump has been campaigning throughout a number of battleground states, which have included a number of appearances in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina, as he enters an important section of his marketing campaign and vies to make a remaining pitch to voters forward of Election Day.

“I’m going to numerous locations, we’re undoubtedly outworking the opposition. She’ll go to 1 place in three days. I say, ‘Why cannot I do this?'” Trump quipped at a marketing campaign cease in Savannah, Georgia, late final month.

Earlier this election cycle, Trump was falling behind within the variety of marketing campaign occasions in comparison with his nonstop rallying throughout the 2016 election. Trump, who had early victories in main races, had fewer occasions amid his authorized battles, which saved him confined in a courtroom most days of the week.

However he has picked up the tempo within the remaining months forward of the election.

The previous president has spent most of his time prior to now month within the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, holding 4 occasions in September there as polling exhibits it is the closest state on the map between the 2 candidates. Harris solely has a 0.4% lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, in accordance with 538’s polling common.

Trump’s occasions have been concentrated in urban-suburban areas in battleground states that flipped between his two presidential runs as his marketing campaign hopes to eat away at Democratic margins.

For instance, final month, Trump gave remarks at a producing plant in Walker, Michigan, in Kent County — a county that President Joe Biden flipped from Trump in 2020. Later within the day, Trump hosted a city corridor in Warren, Michigan, which sits simply outdoors of Detroit and was the one county in 2020 within the tri-county area that flipped to Trump prior to now two cycles after former President Barack Obama gained the county in 2008 and 2012.

Two weeks in the past, Trump visited Prairie Du Chien in Crawford County, Wisconsin — a southwest county within the state that’s amongst a number of within the area that flipped from Obama to Trump. Now, Trump is attempting to win again voters in these pivotal counties after he narrowly misplaced the state to Biden by 21,000 votes in 2020.

Final week, Trump marked his fourth go to to Wisconsin in eight days with occasions in Milwaukee and Dane counties — two Democratic strongholds. He went on to marketing campaign on Sunday in Juneau, Wisconsin, in Dodge County — a county that has more and more been turning right into a Republican stronghold over the previous couple of presidential elections.

Harris has equally targeted on Pennsylvania, holding 5 occasions within the commonwealth. She has spent a lot of her time in Western and central Pennsylvania, drawing crowds from each the Democratic-leaning Pittsburgh space in addition to rural counties which have been wavering between sturdy and slight Republican leanings.

The schedule distinction comes because the Harris marketing campaign, and beforehand Biden’s, have been essential of Trump’s sluggish tempo on the highway earlier within the cycle, arguing he was campaigning from “his nation membership basement.”

Within the early weeks of August, on the heels of Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, Trump solely had a smattering of occasions in Republican-safe states, spending most of his time at personal fundraisers and taking part in on-line interviews together with with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and streamer Adin Ross.

Harris started introducing herself to the nation by holding a number of occasions to start with weeks of her marketing campaign and drawing huge crowds from that momentum — particularly within the second week of August when the Harris-Walz ticket held 5 joint rallies throughout the nation — however has since did not sustain with that tempo. At instances, Harris has targeted on her official duties as vp as an alternative or just had no public marketing campaign or vice presidential schedules introduced.

Moreover, Harris and Walz have each obtained public scrutiny for his or her cautious campaigning strategies, each largely avoiding media availability on the highway and sit-down interviews, one thing the Trump and his operating mate, Sen. JD Vance each routinely do.

Just lately, nevertheless, the Harris-Walz marketing campaign has introduced a sequence of media interviews together with appearances on the “Name Her Daddy” podcast, ABC’s “The View,” CBS Information’ “60 Minutes,” and the “Howard Stern Present” for Harris. Walz is about to do interviews on the “Smartless” podcast and “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell” this week.

The newest polling common from 538 exhibits Harris is gaining momentum nationally, main Trump by 2.6%, however a latest New York Instances/Siena Faculty ballot exhibits a tighter race with the 2 candidates neck-and-neck amongst registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin. One other New York Instances/Siena Faculty ballot every week prior confirmed Trump main within the battleground states of Arizona and North Carolina.

As he enters the ultimate levels of the marketing campaign, Trump has publicly acknowledged the significance of the final weeks of his marketing campaign, typically telling his supporters that he is not taking something without any consideration. Trump’s marketing campaign has mentioned the previous president is conscious of the stakes of the election as he enters the ultimate levels and hopes his message on immigration and financial system — two key points for voters this election — resonate.

Trump has mentioned he plans to depart every thing on the sphere as Election Day attracts close to.

“We will depart nothing to probability and every thing on the sphere … and we’ll defeat Kamala Harris, and we’ll make America nice once more,” Trump mentioned at a marketing campaign cease in Waunakee, Wisconsin, final week.

Harris, going into the ultimate stretch of the election, has pressured that she’s operating as an “underdog” in what’s shaping as much as be a detailed race.

“It is a margin-of-error race. We’re the underdog. And I’m operating just like the underdog as a result of I’m the underdog on this race. The baton is now in our arms,” Harris mentioned at a fundraiser in San Francisco in late September.

Whereas falling behind Trump in formal marketing campaign remarks, the Harris marketing campaign has crammed their schedule for each candidates with retail marketing campaign stops, seeing worth in fostering environments the place their candidates can have extra face time with voters, in addition to fundraisers that has allowed them to wipe out Trump’s marketing campaign cash edge from earlier this yr.