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What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Former President Donald Trump rallied in three East Coast battleground states today, speaking in Lititz, Pennsylvania; Kinston, North Carolina; and Macon, Georgia.
- Vice President Kamala Harris has made stops throughout Michigan today in Detroit, Livernois, Pontiac and East Lansing.
- Their surrogates also hit the campaign trail today, with Sen. JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump Jr. holding events on behalf of the Trump campaign as former President Barack Obama, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and first lady Jill Biden stump for the Harris campaign.
How small shifts in who turns out to vote could make the difference in the election
It’s clearer than ever after months of close polling and years of intense polarization: Who wins the presidential election could come down to tiny differences in who votes and who stays home.
The final NBC News poll of the election found Harris and Trump tied at 49%, using demographic benchmarks agreed upon by the bipartisan team of pollsters trying to best estimate what the electorate will look like this week.
Got whole milk? Pennsylvania farmer says dairy issues motivate his vote
William Thiele is a sixth-generation dairy farmer in Pennsylvania. His small family farm, Theile Dairy Farm, just outside Pittsburgh, has about 85 cows and produces 400 gallons of milk per day.
A top issue for Thiele this election cycle, he told NBC News: getting whole milk back in schools. Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick has made that issue a focal point of his campaign.
Thiele, who plans to cast his ballot for McCormick and Trump, attended a McCormick town hall last month and asked him about bringing whole milk back into schools.
McCormick said: “Kids need whole milk in their diets. But when kids don’t consume whole milk in schools, they also don’t have an appetite and a taste for whole milk later, so it was a huge blow to the dairy farmers here in Pennsylvania.”
It was not the first time McCormick has spoken about whole milk on the campaign trail. In fact, he has made the issue a focal point.
Back in August after he visited Penn State’s AG Progress Days, Pennsylvania’s largest outdoor agricultural exposition, McCormick told reporters that getting whole milk back in schools is “one of the most critical priorities for Pennsylvania,” adding the issue is “so obvious” and “the science is indisputable.”
Whole milk has not been served in schools since 2012 as the result of a 2010 law banning whole milk from the National School Lunch Program, which provides low-cost or free lunches in nearly 100,000 schools. Former first lady Michelle Obama advocated for the law as her Let’s Move! campaign aimed to fight childhood obesity.
The 2010 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans encouraged people to increase their consumption of milk products but recommended replacing whole milk and full-fat milk products with fat-free or low-fat options to reduce solid fat intake.
But newer research suggests whole milk might be healthier than low-fat milk.
Thiele said bringing whole milk back to school would be good for kids’ nutrition and keep dairy farmers “vibrant and thriving.”
He said he believes the current policy has had a slow-moving impact on dairy farmers who are at risk of losing a generation or more of whole milk drinkers. From an economic standpoint, whole milk is also better for Thiele. Dairy farmers like him are paid on the butter fat content and protein content of their milk.
Sen. Bob Casey, who's running against McCormick, signed on to be a co-sponsor of the Whole Milk for Heathy Kids Act of 2023 in September. Pennsylvania’s junior senator, Democrat John Fetterman, was one of the first co-sponsors, having signed on to the bill in June 2023.
In August, Casey told NBC News that he was wary of “the dietary guidelines for children” and that he wanted to make sure any decision he made about whole milk was “based upon the science that will be in the best interest of children.”
He changed his mind on the bill after he met with farmers across Pennsylvania. According to the Center for Dairy Excellence, there are about 5,000 dairy farmers in Pennsylvania.
Thiele said he is “glad” Casey has “finally” signed on to the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023, as he says it is important for the bill to have bipartisan support.
Eleven Republican senators, five Democrats and one independent have signed on as co-sponsors.
Both Harris and Trump are blitzing battleground states today with the clock winding down to lock in final votes before Election Day. NBC News’ Garrett Haake has the latest from the trail.
Trump delivers subdued speech in final scheduled Georgia rally
After a meandering and at times hostile speech this morning in Pennsylvania, Trump delivered a more subdued and on-prompter speech to a Georgia crowd at his third and final rally today.
As he depicted a second-term Trump administration, he said: “We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. … It’ll be nasty a little bit at times, and maybe at the beginning in particular."
He didn’t elaborate on what would be “nasty.”
Trump made a couple of mentions of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this evening, saying the onetime Democratic presidential candidate could “enjoy himself” working on women’s health and pesticides in his administration. Trump earlier told NBC News’ Dasha Burns that Kennedy would have a “big role” if he’s elected.
After he said former Rep. Liz Cheney wouldn’t be such a war hawk if “guns are trained on her face” last week, Trump brought her up again this evening, saying Harris is doing poorly among Arab and Muslim voters because of her proximity to Cheney.
“And then they wonder why Kamala is doing so deadly with the Arab Muslim population in Michigan. You see that? They’re doing bad,” Trump said, adding later: “Who the hell is going to vote for her? Her father unleashed a spree of death in all of their countries.”
Speaking before Trump this evening was Herschel Walker, a failed Georgia GOP Senate candidate plagued by controversy. Trump shouted Walker out during his speech, calling him a “good man” who wasn’t treated fairly. In his usual riff about building a missile defense shield to defend the U.S., one he often calls an American version of Israel’s Iron Dome, Trump mused about putting Walker in charge.
“We will build a missile defense shield, all made in the USA, wrapped around our country to defend ourselves and our country,” Trump continued. “We’ll put Herschel Walker in charge of that little sucker. OK?”
Again tonight, Trump suggested that 100% of net job creation in the U.S. has gone toward undocumented immigrants, playing on fears that domestic workers are losing jobs to migrants.
Both campaigns are locking in their plans for Election Day and election night, with final rallies now set in these critical final hours. NBC News’ Aaron Gilchrist has the latest.
‘The fear is gone’: Democrats think they can make inroads in rural Pennsylvania
Mercer County has been solid Trump country for the past two elections
Trump won this area in rural northwest Pennsylvania by 25 percentage points in 2016 and by 26 points in 2020.
Vance campaigns in New Hampshire — and notes his presence there may be unexpected
Vance acknowledged at his rally in New Hampshire that the decision to make a campaign stop in the presumed blue state so close to Election Day was unorthodox.
"I got to be honest. A couple months ago, I wasn't necessarily sure that the day before the last full day of the campaign, we'd be in the great state of New Hampshire," Vance said.
But Vance said he thinks "it suggests what we're doing is expanding the map."
Biden won the state in 2020 with 52.7% of the vote, compared with Trump's 45.4%. But in 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the state by just a fraction of a percentage point, 46.83% to Trump's 46.46%.
Georgia’s lieutenant governor blames the media for the assassination attempts on Trump
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones blamed the national media for the two assassination attempts on Trump.
“This media crowd that we have back here, the national media crowd we have, they’re the absolute worst. They’re the absolute worst. They — they have villainized this man for the last 10 years, and they have been the reason that there’s been two assassination attempts on him,” Jones told audience at a Trump rally in Macon.
Trump has also frequently villainized the media. Behind bulletproof glass yesterday, he told supporters at a Pennsylvania rally that he does not mind the notion that for a bullet to reach him in an attempted assassination, a shooter would have to “shoot through the fake news.”
Harris for the first time doesn't name-check Trump at her rally
For the first time at one of her rallies, Harris did not mention Trump by name.
She instead touched on forward-looking themes in her remarks, telling the East Lansing crowd, "Today, I see the promise of America in everyone who is here."
A senior Harris campaign official told NBC News it was the first rally since Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate at which she did not mention Trump by name, saying the strategy is “closing fully positive.”
The Harris campaign has attempted to argue she represents the "politics of joy" and draw a contrast with what it argues is Trump's darker vision for the country.
Harris opens campaign speech by talking about Israel-Hamas war
Harris began her rally in East Lansing, Michigan, by giving a shoutout to Arab American community leaders and addressing the Israel-Hamas war and its toll in Gaza, where over 40,000 Palestinians have died since the war began, and Lebanon.
"We are joined today by leaders of the Arab American community, which has deep and proud roots here in Michigan," Harris said. "And I want to say this year has been difficult given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating."
She said that if she is elected, she would do "everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, security and self-determination."
Michigan has a large Arab American population.
