Trump and Harris are making their final push with a series of rallies in battleground states

On the final day of a brutal, wild and hard-fought campaign, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris overwhelmed voters Monday with their final calls for turnout.

With the race at 49% nationally in an NBC News poll Sunday and battleground polls showing all crucial states within the margins of error, millions of Americans will cast their ballots on Tuesday. It is not yet clear how long it will take for these votes to be counted.

The last two elections were decided by historically narrow margins: Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by about 77,000 votes in three states and Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020 by about 44,000 votes spread across the same number of states.

In other words, the final pitches could be crucial.

Harris sees herself as a candidate on the rise at the crucial moment. She held her final rally late Tuesday night in Philadelphia, standing on the steps of the city's art museum made famous by the “Rocky” films.

“It is good to be back in the City of Brotherly Love, where the foundation of our democracy was laid,” Harris said. “And here, on these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as underdogs and rise to victory.”

“The momentum is on our side,” she added at her rally, which was attended by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga and Will.i.am. “Our campaign captured the ambitions, aspirations and dreams of the American people.”

Trump told his supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina, that he was ahead and just needed their votes to seal his return to the White House.

“Hopefully everything goes well; we are leaders. All we have to do is close, we have to close it,” he said. “I actually hate that expression, but it’s up to us to lose. Does that make sense to you? It's up to us to lose. If we get everyone out and vote, they can’t do anything.”

Trump's final rally was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same city where he ended his last two campaigns. As usual, the former president was late and didn't take the stage until after midnight.

Trump expressed confidence he would win – he said there was a 95% chance – bragged about the size of his crowd and lashed out at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“She’s evil, sick, crazy, b—Oh no,” he said, silently mouthing the derogatory term. “It starts with a 'b', but I won't say it.”

“I want to say it,” he added as the crowd urged him to say it.

But there were signs that Make America Great Again voters were more exhausted than their candidate. Trump spoke to partially packed venues in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and people left the venues in droves before he ended his address in Pittsburgh after 9 p.m

The rally was probably Trump's last ever, an end that he acknowledged with a certain sentimentality during the election campaign.

“This will be my last rally. “Can you believe this?” he said to the crowd in Grand Rapids.

Both Harris and Trump placed their focus on Pennsylvania on Monday, suggesting they still believe the “Keystone State” is more than just a nickname. His 19 electoral votes went to Trump in 2016 and to Biden in 2020, who gave up his re-election bid this summer. Most political analysts say neither side can afford to lose the state.

“This is about a final attempt to mobilize and persuade voters, and the fact that both Harris and Trump are spending so much time in Pennsylvania shows how both campaigns see it: whoever wins the state will likely win the presidency.” says Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis.

Harris focused particularly on Pennsylvania, sweeping the state with all four rallies on the final day. The vice president also surprised some voters in Reading by knocking on the door at the last minute to stop the vote.

Trump held two rallies in the state – meeting, like Harris, in Reading and Pittsburgh – after the stop in Raleigh and before ending his tour late night in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A person close to Trump said Democrats had decided on a last-ditch stand in the state – and predicted it wouldn't end well for Harris.

“There is clearly desperation in her campaign,” the person said. “This is their Alamo.”

But Harris' top aide Jennifer O'Malley Dillon told reporters Monday that camping in Pennsylvania has everything to do with numbers.

“We’re very happy with Pennsylvania and the work we’ve done,” she said. “Of course, Pennsylvania is a state where 75% of voters will vote on Election Day. That's why we focused on bringing our organization to Pennsylvania, largely because of the way people vote there.”

At the same time, Trump signaled the urgency with last-minute endorsements from conservative host Megyn Kelly, whom he famously criticized for her performance as moderator of a 2016 GOP primary debate, and podcaster Joe Rogan. Trump also posted a video on his Truth Social account on Monday of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his independent bid for president this year and is still trying to rally his followers to support Trump.

“By 2028 it will be too late,” Kennedy said in the video, speaking directly to the camera. “Once we are in the clutches of totalitarianism, we will no longer be able to vote out of it. This is our last chance to stop him.”

His hectic final day on the trail included the unveiling of a new policy proposal. Trump said that if Mexico does not stop undocumented immigrants from crossing the U.S. border, he will impose a 25% tariff on Mexican goods.

In addition to Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan, both campaigns have considered Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada as key swing states. Most of the rest of the country is considered safe territory for either Harris or Trump.

One way to look at the push for 270 electoral votes — the number needed to win the presidency — is to look at the states each candidate must win to reach that minimum, if no state outside of the main battlegrounds switches from one party to another.

Harris would achieve her goal by winning the 2nd Congressional District of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska, which allocates its own electoral vote. For Trump, victories in Georgia, North Carolina – which he won in 2020 – and Pennsylvania would bring him to 270.

Both campaigns closely monitored state decisions affecting election integrity in the final hours. In Georgia, the state Supreme Court ruled that Cobb County, a Democratic-leaning suburban Atlanta county with three-quarters of a million residents, could no longer count mail-in ballots received after 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a stark warning on Monday that he would not tolerate any attempts at voter intimidation.

“We don’t play,” he said, before suggesting that bullying would have consequences in the election. “Go around and find out.”

Fears that the election would be free, fair and free of false allegations of fraud were high throughout the campaign after Trump attempted to overturn his 2020 defeat with a push that resulted in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and federal charges culminated that he acted illegally.

But with the final rallies of the season signaling the end of a long and difficult election campaign — one that included a change in Democratic candidates, the shooting of Trump by a failed assassin and close polls — the candidates must now await the verdict of voters.

“The vote is the last critical step that could make the difference,” said Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett. “Exhausted candidates and campaigns will wonder what they could have done differently and wonder what will happen tomorrow.”

The only real question for each side, he said, is: “Will the road rise to accommodate them or will the car fall off a cliff?”