Harris courts Black voters as Trump makes inroads

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, on October 14, 2024. Agence France-Presse

ERIE, United States — Kamala Harris stepped up efforts to win back Black male voters who are drifting to Donald Trump, as the presidential rivals headed to dueling campaign events Monday in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania.

The White House race is on a knife-edge with just over three weeks to go, but the Democratic vice president’s marginal advantage over the Republican former president in the polls has eroded in recent days.

In a rare move, Harris will also sit down for an interview with Trump-friendly Fox News on Wednesday — to reach out to undecided right-leaning voters put off by the former president and counter Republican claims that she is avoiding media scrutiny.

READ: Trump rules out second US presidential debate with Harris

Harris has recently lost ground in particular among Black men, a key demographic that helped Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020, and on Monday she launched a new economic plan to court them.

Her “opportunity agenda” is designed to give them “tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights,” her campaign said.

“I intend to earn the vote of everyone, including Black men,” Harris said in an interview with The Shade Room, one of two Black media outlets she spoke to.

‘Enemy from within’

Trump and Harris are also locked in a bitter, neck-and-neck battle for seven key US swing states, of which blue-collar Pennsylvania is the biggest prize.

Harris is holding a rally in Erie — the northernmost county in the state and a bellwether in US presidential elections since 2008 — while Trump held a town hall in Oaks on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

READ: With medical report, Harris plays health card against Trump

Harris is expected to ramp up her warnings about a second Trump term, seizing on his threats on Sunday that he could use the US military against “the enemy from within,” including left-wingers.

Her campaign will also launch a new television ad featuring his former White House aides warning of the danger the twice-impeached convicted felon would pose if he returns to the Oval Office.

Trump meanwhile attacked Harris over her previous comments saying she would ban fracking, a controversial method of unlocking underground gas and oil deposits that has brought economic benefits to Pennsylvania.

Asked about how he would tackle inflation, Trump said “we’re going to do a lot of things” before pivoting to border security and media criticism of him repeatedly bringing up fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter at his campaign events.

He was asked what he would do to help small businesses, and repeated his promise to slash energy bills in half within a year in office and criticized hydrogen-fueled cars, arguing that “once in a while, one will blow up.”

Turning to his prospects in November’s election, he added: “Our poll numbers have gone through the roof with Black and Hispanic, have gone through the roof. And I like that.”

Monday marks the start of a week-long blitz of the three so-called Blue Wall battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin this week by Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.

They are known as the Blue Wall because they once reliably voted for Democrats, whose signature color is blue. But Trump broke through to win the three states in 2016 before Biden took them back in 2020.

‘A fine president’

Democratic nerves are fraying as Harris’s honeymoon after replacing Biden as the party’s nominee in July wears off, with the polls stuck and support among Latino voters also ebbing.

Former president Barack Obama will campaign in Arizona and Nevada this week in a bid to shore up support from Latino voters. Obama caused a stir last week when he chided Black men for being reluctant to support Harris.

Another former president, Bill Clinton, meanwhile stumped for Harris in Georgia, another swing state where Biden won by a tiny margin in 2020.

“Kamala Harris will be a fine president,” Clinton told supporters. “It is literally possible that the whole election could be decided here.”

Harris, 59, meanwhile went on the offensive at the weekend, releasing her medical records and challenging Trump — who is at 78 the oldest presidential nominee in US history — to do the same.

Trump responded on X on Monday, saying it was “very important that Kamala Harris pass a test on Cognitive Stamina and Agility” calling her “slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions.”