Presidential campaigns begin the sprint to Election Day

For Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the path to the presidency is becoming clearer as their campaigns begin a two-month final sprint to Election Day.

The Democratic vice president and Republican ex-president will devote almost all of their remaining time and resources to just seven states. They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to appeal to voters who, in many cases, have only just begun to pay attention to the election. And their campaigns will try to focus their messages on three familiar issues – the economy, immigration and abortion – even amid heated debates about character, culture and democracy.

The candidates will debate in a week. It will be their first meeting ever. Pennsylvania, the country's most important swing state, will begin mail-in voting the following week. By the end of the month, early voting will begin in at least four states, with a dozen more to follow by mid-October.

In just 63 days, the final vote will decide which of them will lead the most powerful nation in the world.

In most national polls since President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign, Harris and Trump are neck and neck.

Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

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Harris' campaign team plans to spend nearly $25 million to support Democrats in lower ballot spots

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is spending nearly $25 million to support Democrats on lower ballots, showing its confidence in the final two months before Election Day. A campaign official said it is the largest transfer a national campaign and the Democratic National Committee have ever made to committees that work on electing Democrats to Congress and at the state level. The official said $10 million each will go to the Democratic arm that selects members of the House and Senate, $2.5 million will go to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and $1 million each will go to the Democratic Attorneys General Association and the Democratic Governors Associations. These donations reflect both Harris's strong financial position after a flood of donations that followed her displacing President Joe Biden on the ballot and the improving Democratic political map that followed.

“The Vice President believes this campaign is about mobilizing the entire country at every level to fight for our freedoms and our economic opportunities,” said Harris' campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon. “That's why the Vice President has decided to invest a historic amount of money to elect Democrats on every ballot: because Democrats win when we fight together.”

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign team releases new commercial on economic agenda

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is releasing a new ad designed to contrast former President Donald Trump's economic agenda. The ad highlights some of Harris' new economic proposals, including a federal law to combat price gouging and fighting “corporate speculators” in the housing market, while Trump is pushing tax cuts for corporations. The ad is part of the campaign's massive television and online advertising campaign running through Election Day.