What to watch for the final weekend of the 2024 presidential campaign

NEW YORK – The 2024 presidential contest is entering its final weekend, with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump in a razor-thin contest.

At this late stage of the campaign, every day counts. And while few voters might change their minds this late in a typical election, there is a sense that events in these final days could change the vote.

Harris and Trump are traveling across the country to rally voters in the states that matter most to them. They try – with varying degrees of success – to focus on a clear and concise final message. At the same time, both sides are investing enormous resources to increase voter turnout in the latest early voting period. And in these critical days, the flow of misinformation is increasing.

Here's what we're watching on the last weekend before Election Day, Tuesday:

You just need to look at the candidates' schedules this weekend to know where this election is likely to be decided.

Please note that schedules can and likely will change without warning. But on Saturday, Trump is expected to make separate appearances in North Carolina, with an exciting stop in Virginia.

No Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, although it has been won by less than three points in every election since. Trump's decision to spend Saturday there suggests Harris has a real chance in the state. But Trump is also trying to instill confidence by stopping in Virginia, a state that has been firmly in the Democratic column since 2008.

There is perhaps no more important swing state than Pennsylvania, where Trump will campaign on Sunday. But in addition to Georgia, he also has another appearance planned in North Carolina, another southern state that led Republicans for nearly three decades – until Joe Biden had a lead of less than half a percentage point four years ago.

Meanwhile, Harris is scheduled to compete in North Carolina and Georgia on Saturday, a sign that her team senses real opportunity in the South. She plans to make several stops in Michigan on Sunday and move to a Democratic-leaning state in the so-called Blue Wall, where her allies consider her vulnerable.

Trump's campaign manager wants voters to focus on one key question as they prepare to cast their ballots, and it's the same question he opens every rally with: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Harris' team wants voters to think about something else: Do they trust Trump or Harris to put the nation's interests ahead of their own?

Whichever candidate can better keep voters focused on their closing arguments in the coming days could ultimately win the presidency. But both candidates got off to a challenging start.

Trump is still opening the weekend with the fallout from his recent rally in New York City, where a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating pile of trash.” Things got even more difficult for Trump late Thursday after he threatened the shooting death of his Republican rival Liz Cheney.

It was exactly the kind of inflammatory comment his allies wanted to avoid at this critical moment.

Meanwhile, Harris' campaign is still working to steer the conversation away from President Biden's comments earlier in the week in which he called Trump supporters “trash.” The Associated Press reported late Thursday that White House press officials changed the official transcript of the call in question, prompting objections from federal employees who document such remarks for posterity.

The spotlight of presidential politics always burns brightly. But perhaps it will burn brightest this final weekend, leaving the campaigns with virtually no room for error. In an election that both sides believe is a real stalemate, any missteps in the final hours could prove crucial.

Trump's graphic attack on Cheney was particularly troubling given his allies' increasing concern about female voters.

Polls show a significant gender gap in the contest, with Harris generally scoring much higher among women than Trump. Part of this may be due to the Republican fight to restrict abortion rights, which has been disastrous for Trump's party. But Trump's divisive leadership has also pushed women away.

As the weekend begins, Trump's allies, including conservative hothead Charlie Kirk, are warning that far more women than men are voting early. While it's impossible to know who they'll vote for, Kirk clearly believes this is bad news for Trump.

Trump is not helping his cause. A day before his heated rhetoric about Cheney, the Republican former president caused a stir by insisting he would protect women whether they “like it or not.”

Harris, who would be the country's first female president, said Trump doesn't understand women's right to “make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.”

It remains to be seen whether the Democrats' argument can prevail on this packed weekend. But Harris' team believes there is still a significant portion of persuadable voters. And they say those undecided are disproportionately Republican-leaning suburban women.

More than 66 million people have already voted in the 2024 election, more than a third of the total number of voters in 2020.

There are significantly more Republicans among them than four years ago, especially because Trump has backed away from his demand that his supporters cast their votes in person on Election Day.

And while early in-person voting has ended in many states, there will be a big push for early voting in the final hours in at least three key states as campaigns work to collect as many votes as possible before Election Day.

That includes Michigan, where in-person early voting runs through Monday. Voters in Wisconsin can vote in person early through Sunday, although this varies by location. And in North Carolina, voters have until Saturday at 3 p.m. to cast their ballots in person.

The early voting period officially ended Friday in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, questions remain about the Trump campaign, which relies heavily on well-funded outside groups with little experience — including a group largely funded by billionaire Elon Musk that is facing new questions about its practices.

By contrast, Harris' campaign is running a more traditional campaign, with more than 2,500 paid staffers and 357 offices in battleground states alone.

Trump's allies appear to be amplifying their baseless claims of voter fraud, and some are being amplified by Trump himself. He has spent months sowing doubt about the integrity of the 2024 election if he loses — just as he did four years ago.

His unfounded accusations are becoming more concrete in some cases as wild claims appear on social media.

Earlier this week, Trump claimed on social media that York County, Pennsylvania received “THUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications from a third-party group.” He also pointed to Lancaster County, where he said “2,600 fraudulent ballots and forms were caught, all written by the same person.” Really bad “stuff.”

Trump was referring to investigations into potential fraud related to voter registration applications. Discovery and examination of applications provide evidence that the system is functioning properly.

The Republican candidate has also made unsubstantiated claims about overseas ballots and non-citizen voting and suggested without evidence that Harris may have access to classified insider information about the election results.

Expect such claims to increase in the coming days, especially on social media. And remember, a broad coalition of senior government and industry officials, including many Republicans, concluded that the 2020 election was the “safest” in American history.”

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AP writers Jill Colvin and Michelle Price in New York; and Zeke Miller and Will Weissert in Washington contributed.