Nov. 5 (UPI) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to Americans on Monday night ahead of Election Day.
Harris delivered her speech at the Philadelphia Museum of the Arts, while Trump held a rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Harris projected an image of optimism as she delivered her final campaign speech in Philadelphia on Monday night, stating she was offering the United States the opportunity to turn the page on the past decade of divisive politics led by Trump.
The Democratic nominee did not, however, mention Trump’s name during her speech at the Philadelphia Museum of the Arts, as she continued to position herself as the underdog in the race.
She spoke from the steps made famous by the Rocky film, stating they are a tribute “to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory.”
She noted there was only one more day left “in the most consequential election of our lifetime.”
“And the momentum is on our side.”
Harris said it is time for a new generation of leadership at the helm of the United States, and “I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president.”
“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division. We are done with that. We are done. We are exhausted with it,” she said.
“America is ready for a fresh start. Ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow Americans not as an enemy but as a neighbor. And we are ready for a president who knows that the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down but based on who you lift up.”
She spoke the eve before Americans head to the polls to select their next president in an extremely close race.
In her final pitch to the voters, she leaned into her experience as a prosecutor, asking the public that if they elect her president that nothing will stand in her way as she fights on their behalf.
“Instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day on your behalf working on my to do list, full of priorities to improve your lives,” she said, vowing to bring down the cost of living, ban corporate price gouging and make housing and child care more affordable, as well as cutting taxes for workers, the middle class and small businesses.
She also reiterated her statement that her campaign has not been a fight against a cause, but a fight for one — specifically a fight for a future with freedom, opportunity and dignity.
“Our campaign has brought together people from all corners of this nation and from all walks of life, united by our love for our country and our faith in a brighter, stronger and more hopeful future that we will build together, and tonight, then we finish as we started. With optimism, with energy, with joy, knowing that we the people have the power to shape our future, ” she said.
“Generations of Americans before us lead the fight for freedom. And now the baton is in our hands.”
Trump arrived on stage at the rally at 12:15 a.m. more than two hours after its scheduled start time as he returned to Grand Rapids on the eve of Election Day to close out his campaign as he had previously done in 2016 and 2020.
“It’s unbelievable. Think of it. This is it. This is the last one that we’re gonna have to do,” he said.
Michigan is a key swing state, which Trump carried in 2016 on his road to the White House but went to his opponent President Joe Biden in 2020, helping the Democrat secure his election win.
“Grand Rapids, it’s been a special place,” Trump said. “Remember 2016? We were given a 3% chance, we came to Grand Rapids, I said ‘how the hell are we going to lose?'”
Trump said his campaign was “in very good shape” but urged voters to “just assume” that the race between he and Harris was “sort of even” calling for voters to head to the polls.
“To make you feel a little guilty, we’d only have you to blame,” Trump said, referring to the potential to lose the race.
Throughout the speech he took direct aim at Harris, calling her a “radical left lunatic who destroyed San Francisco.”
“If you vote for lying Kamala, you will have four more years of misery, failure and disaster our country may never recover from. I don’t believe that our country can take any more of this,” he said.
Trump also lashed out at various other political adversaries, calling former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “an evil, sick person,” referring to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as “an unattractive guy, both inside and out” and dismissing his former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as “dumb as a rock.”