Democrat Kamala Harris delivered her closing speech for the U.S. presidency to Arab Americans at a historic Black church and battleground state of Michigan on Sunday, while her Republican rival Donald Trump embraced violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Opinion polls show the two are locked in a tight race, with Vice President Harris, 60, backed by strong support among female voters, while former President Trump, 78, is gaining ground with Hispanic voters, especially men.

Voters generally view both candidates unfavorably, but that doesn’t deter them from voting, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

More than 77 million Americans have done so ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, according to the University of Florida Election Lab; That’s close to half of the 160 million total votes cast in 2020, when U.S. voter turnout was the highest in more than a century.

Control of Congress will also be seized on Tuesday; While Republicans are favored to take the majority in the Senate, Democrats appear to have an equal chance of overturning Republicans’ narrow majority in the House. Presidents whose parties cannot control both chambers have struggled to pass major legislation over the past decade.

“In just two days, we have the power to determine the destiny of our nation for future generations,” Harris told parishioners at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Detroit. “We must act. Just praying is not enough, just talking is not enough. We must act according to the plans He has for us and bring them to life through our work, our daily choices, our service to communities in our democracy.”

He later addressed the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans at a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, and began his speech by saluting the civilian victims of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. As president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Harris said. He said he would applaud.

Harris is skeptical of some people who are upset that she hasn’t done more to help end the war in Gaza and reduce aid to Israel. Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday and promised to end the conflict in the Middle East, without saying how.

Samah Noureddine, 44, a Lebanese American from the town of Grosse Ile near Detroit, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but will vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party this year.

“I’m sad because Harris is financing genocide, and if we catch Trump, we will suffer too,” he said. “I’m sick of both.”

TRUMP LEFT THE SCRIPT

At the first of his three rallies on Sunday, Trump frequently abandoned the teleprompter with cavalier remarks in which he decried opinion polls showing Harris’ move. He called Democrats an “evil party,” mocked Democratic President Joe Biden and complained about apple prices.

Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July when a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear, mused to supporters on Sunday that an assassin would have to fire through the news media as he complained to supporters about gaps in the bulletproof glass surrounding him. to get it.

Trump, who has long criticized the media and tried to stir public sentiment against it, said, “Someone would have to expose the fake news to catch me, and I don’t care that much.”

Last week, a prominent Republican critic suggested that former congresswoman Liz Cheney should face gunfire for her hawkish foreign policy, prompting an Arizona prosecutor to launch an investigation.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung released a statement saying Trump was not directed at the media, but instead was “concerning threats to himself spurred by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.”

Trump then spoke in Kinston, North Carolina, and would end his day with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia.

Of the seven US states seen as competitive, Georgia and North Carolina were the second biggest prize winners on Tuesday; each received 16 of the 270 votes a candidate must win by state in the Electoral College. presidential. Pennsylvania comes in first with 19 voters.

Near the end of his speech in Pennsylvania, Trump, whose false claims that his 2020 loss was the result of fraud inspired his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, mused that he would prefer not to cede power. .

“The day I left, we had the most secure border in the history of the country. I shouldn’t have left. Honestly, we did so well because we did,” Trump said.

Trump said in his speech that the election results should be announced on Election Night, despite warnings from officials in many states that it could take days to determine the final result.

Democrats say they have plans in case Trump tries to prematurely declare victory this time.