Kamala Harris is eying these undecided voters with final warning about Trump

WASHINGTON ― Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is targeting two different audiences that make up a small sliver of undecided voters who could tilt the election as the Democratic nominee closes out the race with a warning about reinserting Donald Trump back in the White House.

As Harris has sharpened her rhetoric against Trump ? labeling him a fascist ? some Democratic allies have questioned a Trump-centric strategy, calling it a risk for Harris to narrowly focus on the character of the former president and Republican nominee.

Republican critics have accused the vice president of ditching the "joy" as she prepares to give her "closing argument" speech at the Ellipse in Washington D.C., the same place where Trump gave his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, before his supporters attacked the Capitol.

Yet in an election that is historically close in seven battleground states, the Democratic nominee's final argument ? casting Trump as too dangerous to be given power ? is intended to appeal directly to about 3% to 5% of the electorate whose minds aren't made up, or can change, one week before Election Day, according to a Harris campaign official.

One camp is the "persuade to participate" voters, the official said. This includes young voters, voters of color and others who are inclined to vote for Harris but still need to be motivated. The group includes so-called "low-information voters" who don't closely follow the daily news of the campaign.

More: Kamala Harris to remind voters of Jan. 6 attack in 'closing argument' at Ellipse

The second group consists of more engaged traditional swing voters ? independent and Republican voters from suburbs who may have supported Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primaries against Trump but isn't on board with Harris. Many of these people voted Democratic in the 2022 midterm elections, driven largely by the issue of abortion following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, said in a call with reporters Tuesday that presidential campaigns historically focus solely on get-out-the-vote efforts so close to Election Day. But she said the Harris campaign remains in persuasion mode in addition to mobilization.

"We do know that there is really this segment of undecided voters that is open ? and frankly after this weekend ? maybe some new voters who are open to supporting us," O'Malley Dillon said, referencing Trump's campaign rally Sunday night at New York's Madison Square Garden that has received bipartisan blowback for its racist tropes and vitriol.

"These are very much the people we've been talking to all along," O'Malley Dillon said of the two different camps. "And there's no doubt that we think we have opportunity to peel away support from Trump from the past."

Trump says Harris is running on 'campaign of hate'

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University national poll, taken Oct. 14 to 18, found 5% of the likely electorate was undecided in a race Harris narrowly led 45%-44% over Trump. A New York Times/Siena College poll, taken Oct. 20 to 23, found Harris and Trump tied at 48% nationally among likely voters with a fewer 4% undecided.

More than 50 million people across the country have voted early ahead of the Nov. 5 election, according to tracking from the University of Florida's Election Lab.

The seven battleground states expected to decide the election ? Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada ? are all within 1 or 2 percentage points, according to the FiveThirtyEight average of recent polls.

Trump accused Harris of running a "campaign of hate" during remarks to supporters at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home ahead of his Democratic rival's Ellipse address. The Trump campaign has landed on a closing message of "Harris broke it, Trump will fix it," seeking to tie Harris to the unpopularity of Biden and his poor marks on handling the economy and immigration.

"She's running on a campaign of 'immoralization' and really a campaign of destruction," Trump said on Tuesday morning. "But really, perhaps more than anything else, it's a campaign of hate. It's a campaign of absolute hate.

Harris' push to paint Trump as dangerous comes as the favorability ratings for the former president stand out as being higher than when he ran for reelection in 2020 while leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times/Siena College poll found Trump is viewed favorably by 48% of likely voters and unfavorably by 50%. Trump was viewed favorably by 43% of voters and unfavorably by 54% in the final Times poll before the 2020 election.

In her closing argument speech Tuesday, Harris is expected to portray Trump as fixated on himself and personal retribution ? who would carry an "enemies list" into the White House ? in contrast to Harris and her "to-do list" of policies for the American people.

The campaign said Harris will present herself as a "new generation of leadership" to move past a decade of politics dominated by Trump and discuss her various policy proposals to improve housing affordability and spur small business growth.

"This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better," Harris plans to say of Trump, according to excerpts of her speech provided by the campaign.

Harris faces questions about closing strategy

The Ellipse at the National Mall was chosen not just to bring up memories of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol ? in which Trump supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election win. But with the White House as the backdrop, the location is meant to remind Americans of the "gravity of the job," O'Malley Dillon said, so they can picture the different approaches in the Oval Office.

"This speech is really designed to reach those undecided voters, those folks that are making the decision, to break through at a time when it's sometimes hard to break through," O'Malley Dillon said.

Some Democrats have argued Harris should make a more aggressive economic appeal in the final days of the campaign."

"When she shifted gears to Trump’s attacks on democracy, Harris’s campaign stalled," Robert Reich, former Labor secretary in the Clinton administration, wrote in a column Tuesday in The Guardian. "I think that’s because Americans continue to focus on the economy and want an answer to why they continue to struggle economically." Reich urged Harris to connect Americans' lingering economic anxieties to the power of large corporations.

Harris has seized on recent comments from John Kelly, Trump's former White House chief of staff, who said Trump fits the description of a fascist and made past admiring statements about Adolf Hitler.

But leaders of Future Forward, the leading super PAC supporting Harris' presidential bid, have raised concerns about Harris closing out her campaign by exclusively attacking Trump as a fascist.

In a Future Forward email to fellow Democrats, reported by The New York Times, the group wrote: “Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans."

The Harris campaign has pushed back at criticism over the strategy, arguing the ratcheted-up warnings about Trump are central to the contrast message with Harris.

"America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else," Harris plans to say in her speech. "I offer a different path."

Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris speaks to specific group of undecided voters in final argument