Plus, Harris says Trump “devalues” women\u2019s ability to make their own choices, and inside the final stretch of Ohio’s key Senate race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both parties are zeroing in on very different issues as they make their closing arguments to voters in the battles that will determine control of the closely divided House and Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abortion is the most-mentioned topic in Democratic closing ads, followed by immigration, health care, bipartisanship and taxation, according to an analysis of more than 300 TV ads from candidates and joint ads they ran with party committees. The analysis looked at ads, tracked by AdImpact, that aired Wednesday in competitive House and Senate races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, immigration is the top topic in Republican ads, followed by Vice President Kamala Harris, taxation, President Joe Biden, and candidate character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats have gone all in on abortion: Every Democratic campaign in a competitive Senate race mentioned the issue in an ad on Wednesday, less than one week from Election Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes Democrats in red-state races like Montana and Ohio, where Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown are looking to win over voters who will likely be supporting former President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buckeye State battle: <\/strong>Speaking of Ohio\u2019s Senate election, Henry J. Gomez and Ali Vitali were on the trail in the state this week as Brown, the only Democrat besides Barack Obama who has won more than one statewide election in Ohio in the last 30 years, fights for political survival against Republican Bernie Moreno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The race, which polls show is deadlocked and could tip control of the Senate, has already drawn more ad spending than any other Senate contest in history, eclipsing the $412 million spent in Georgia\u2019s 2020 race between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue. The Brown-Moreno battle is about to surpass the $500 million mark, according to AdImpact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Brown has focused on the abortion issue, he has avoided talking too much about national political figures from either party in his increasingly red-leaning state. Conversely, Moreno is spending the final week of his campaign rallying with a retinue of MAGA-world favorites like Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PHOENIX \u2014 Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump\u2019s remarks this week<\/a> about protecting women whether they \u201clike it or not\u201d is another sign of how he \u201cdevalues\u201d women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHis latest comment is just the most recent in a series of examples that we have seen from him in his words and deeds about how he devalues the ability of women to have the choice and the freedom to make decisions about their own body,\u201d Harris told NBC News in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vice president also argued that most Americans \u201cbelieve that women are intelligent enough and should have and be respected for their agency to make decisions for themselves about what is in their best interest,\u201d rather than the government or Trump \u201ctelling them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump on Wednesday said that his \u201cpeople\u201d had instructed him not to say that he wanted to \u201cprotect the women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m going to do it, whether the women like it or not.\u2019 I\u2019m going to protect them,\u201d Trump said during his rally Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donald Trump is swerving off the battleground map this week to host rallies in New Mexico and Virginia \u2014 states that haven\u2019t voted for the GOP presidential nominee in two decades and where he lost by double digits in 2020 \u2014 and he is flirting with a trip to New Hampshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His campaign is newly confident that he is in such good shape to beat Kamala Harris that he can afford to divert his focus from the seven main battlegrounds the two sides have focused on for the entirety of the race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is whether his campaign is high on its own supply or grounded in a reality that public polls have missed. In the vast majority of independent surveys in New Mexico, Virginia and New Hampshire in recent weeks, Trump has trailed by more than 5 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Trump and his team are seeing indicators that suggest he could break into unexpected territory with a wind at his back over the closing week of the election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is focused on driving turnout in the countdown to Election Day, one campaign official said, and part of the strategy includes hammering away at drawing a contrast with Harris over the pillars of his closing argument<\/a>: immigration, inflation and foreign wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no indication that Trump has all or any of the big seven swing states \u2014 Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina \u2014 in the bag already. Trump lost in 2020 by less than 44,000 votes spread across Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. He will need to flip several of the battlegrounds to reach the 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College and win back the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decision to campaign outside of those venues \u2014 including a Madison Square Garden<\/a> rally in deep-blue New York and a news conference in GOP-tilting Florida on Wednesday \u2014 has led some Republicans to infer that Trump is overruling the political pros on his team. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHarris says Trump \u2018devalues\u2019 women\u2019s ability to make their own choices<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Trump is campaigning outside of battleground states. Is that confidence or hubris?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n