Harris, Trump enter post-debate 'homestretch' with dueling rallies in key battleground states

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With the first and potentially only debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump now in the rearview mirror, both major party nominees are resuming their barnstorming through the key general election battleground states. 

“Ours is going to be a tight race until the end,” Harris told supporters on Thursday at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We are the underdog… we’ve got some hard work ahead of us…but hard work is good work.”

Harris arrived in North Carolina’s largest city on Thursday afternoon for the first of back-to-back rallies in the key southeastern swing state ahead of a nighttime event in Greensboro.

On Friday, the vice president holds two campaign events in Pennsylvania, site of Tuesday’s debate and the battleground state with the most electoral votes up for grabs.

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With less than eight weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5 and early voting getting underway in a number of key states, the Harris campaign says it’s entering a new and more aggressive phase as it aims to build on what many political pundits considered a strong debate performance by the vice president.

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“This is the homestretch. The pace of the campaign is going to get a lot more hectic,” veteran Democrat strategist and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile told Fox News.

Brazile, who managed then-Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and who’s close to Harris, said that “I wouldn’t take my foot off the gas.”

Vice President Harris and former President Trump shake hands at their debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

While Harris takes the stage in Charlotte, Trump will be in Arizona, a crucial southwestern battleground. On Friday, Trump heads to another swing state, Nevada. 

North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, along with Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, were the seven states with razor-thin margins that decided the outcome of President Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump and will likely determine whether Harris or the former president will win the White House this year.

The latest national polls and surveys in the swing states indicate the battle between Harris and Trump remains a margin-of-error race. 

Harris arrived in North Carolina as the latest Fox News Power Rankings, released on Thursday, indicate that Trump has lost his edge in the Tar Heel State as well as in neighboring Georgia, with the battlegrounds now considered toss-ups in the White House race.

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An hour before Harris arrived in Charlotte, Trump in a social media post ruled out doing another debate with the vice president.

Harris, near the top of her rally, responded, telling supporters “I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate. Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important.”

For the second straight day, the Harris campaign launched a new digital ad using clips from her debate performance against Trump to spotlight key policy differences with the former president.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign fired up a new ad in Pennsylvania that takes aim at Harris over the issue of fracking.

Harris has been pilloried by the Trump campaign and allied Republicans for only giving one major interview since taking over as the Democrats’ standard-bearer and for holding no news conferences. And Trump’s campaign announced this week that the former president would hold another news conference on Friday in Los Angeles. (But it should be noted that Trump took no questions at his previous event that was billed as a news conference.)

Republican presidential nominee former President Trump is shown at a campaign event in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Sept. 7, 2024. A recent poll has Trump trailing Democrat nominee Vice President Harris in the battleground state. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Sources in the Harris political orbit say the vice president is expected to sit for more media engagements in the coming days and weeks. Harris is expected to take part in a discussion with journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists this month. Harris was criticized by Trump for not attending a prior engagement with the group, which the former president attended in person.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, continues a weeklong campaign swing across the battlegrounds. Walz is in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday and Friday.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, was heading a pair of top-dollar fundraisers in New York City on Thursday, but he is expected back on the campaign trail in the next few days.

Brazile, pointing to the calendar, said that “it’s time to get busy where it matters by engaging with people where they are.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.