Donald Trump has beaten Kamala Harris at one pivotal point in this election: the number of campaign rallies he has held.
Between when Harris officially became the Democratic nominee on August 1 and November 2, Trump held a total of 46 rallies and other large-scale events in 15 states across the country. Harris held 39 rallies and other large-scale events in 11 states.
Tim Walz, however, has campaigned slightly more than his rival, JD Vance. Walz has been involved in 25 rallies and other large-scale events in 12 states. Vance was involved in 23 rallies in only 6 key states.
The state focused on the most by both candidates in Pennsylvania. With its 20 electoral college votes, Pennsylvania is seen as the most straightforward path to the White House.
Trump and Vance campaigned there a combined 14 times, and Harris and Walz campaigned there a combined 10 times.
Nevada was targeted more times by Harris than Trump, with her visiting the state 7 times to his 4 times, and Trump campaigned in Arizona 4 times compared to Harris three times.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s Campaign communications director spoke to Newsweek about Trump’s schedule saying: “President Trump and his campaign are solely focused on victory. That is why he has out-worked Kamala Harris every single day for months, and will end the campaign with over a dozen stops in four days.”
The Harris campaign has been contacted for comment via email.
Professor Lisa Bryant, Deputy Chair of the Department of Political Science at California State University, Fresno, spoke to Newsweek about the effect of rallies on election results and voter turnout.
Bryant said: “People who attend rallies are politically interested and likely to vote anyway, so I would suspect that [the number of rallies held] does not have a sizable impact [on a race].”
She added: “Rallies are really appeals to the base. People who attend rallies generally already support the candidate they are going to see. It is unlikely that many undecided voters are attending rallies for either candidate, so ‘get out the vote’ efforts, especially door knocking and phone banking are much more important.”
Bryant told Newsweek that rallies do make a difference in the key areas of enthusiasm and media attention. She said: “Rallies create short-lived increases in support for a candidate, including increasing attendees’ intention to vote and an increase in fundraising for the candidate.”
Despite holding fewer rallies, Harris’ campaign may be leaning more into Bryant’s philosophy that rallies themselves only appeal to the base, as her campaign, per Newsweek reporting, has held more university visits, Town Hall appearances, and grassroots events than Trump.
Harris held a total of 23 rallies, and her other 16 large-scale events were ‘campaign events,’ town halls, grassroots events and school visits.
Trump, on the other hand, held 40 rallies, three town halls, one roundtable, one speech, and one press conference.
Additionally, despite holding fewer events in total, potentially due to still being required to work as the vice president, on a few occasions Kamala Harris held two events in one day.
For example, on October 17 Harris spoke at the University of Wisconsin and then held a rally in Green Bay later that evening.
Maps of the last month of the campaign show Trump’s plane ‘Trump Force One’ flying across the U.S. for his packed rally schedule. Maps also show him using Florida as a base, as he flies back there frequently, but has not been actively campaigning there.
Kamala Harris herself cannot be tracked by a flight tracking site because she uses Air Force 2 to travel. However, the Harris-Walz campaign also chartered a Mitsubishi CRJ-200ER charter jet plane for her and Walz to campaign, which can be tracked and mapped.
Can Kamala Harris win?
Kamala Harris just received a major polling win out of Iowa, a state that reliably votes Republican. According to the poll conducted by Iowan pollster Ann Selzer, Harris is leading in the state by 3 points.
This poll shocked political pundits, as it threw a reliable Republican state with a red-voting population into question for the Trump campaign.
However, this poll and all other major swing state polls are within the margin of error, meaning that Harris stands a chance at winning them, but could also easily lose the election.
Can Donald Trump win?
Donald Trump has been polling steadily within the margin of error of winning since the beginning of the race.
Per Newsweek reporting, Polymarket, a site where users can place “yes” or “no” bets on the outcome of world events, currently gives Harris a 41.4 percent chance of victory, and favors Donald Trump at 58.5 percent as of this morning.
Similarly to Harris, given that polls in the major swing states are within the margin of error, it is highly likely that Trump could sweep this election.
Trump Talks 2020 Election, Harris Addresses Puerto Rican Voters in Final Appeal to Voters
At a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday Donald Trump told his supporters that he should never have left the White House in 2020. He told the crowd: “I shouldn’t have left. Honestly, we did so well,” while repeating claims of voter fraud during the last election.
Kamala Harris is making a last-minute appeal to Puerto Rican voters, and went to the critical swing state of Pennsylvania today to speak to voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant with Congresswoman AOC.
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