US election: reflections from the campaign trail

The campaigning to be the next President of the United States is over.

Millions of people are going to the polls on election day in the US, in one of the closest contests in years. It could be hours, days or even weeks until we find out whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be in the White House.

Our teams on the campaign trail reflect on what they’ve heard on the streets of America from voters, in the lead-up to the vote.

Matt Frei

Halloween, a warm evening in the dying light of October. In the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, we asked the residents of Adair Avenue the only question that matters in America right now: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

Adair Avenue could have been anywhere in America, neighbours sat on their spooky front lawns talking; laughing; dancing and walking through the street in elaborate costumes – children, dogs and ghouls in tow.

It could have been anywhere in America, because beneath the celebrations, the unity, the outward harmony, this was a street divided.

“I’m not scared of Donald Trump, I’m scared of what Trump can do”, a young man supporting Kamala Harris told me. I asked whether he already cast his ballot? He was quick to say, yes.

And he wasn’t alone, it didn’t take long for us to meet Trump supporters who also cast their ballot early. One Trump voter told us “The other side is insane, supporting illegal immigration is insane. They hate freedom of speech.”

But both men have cast their votes early because, for them, a loss in this election is existential. It spells the end of the America they know and want.

So, it’s no surprise American voters all over the country aren’t willing to wait until election day to have their say. 75 million people have cast their ballots early, and 4 million of those were in Georgia, a crucial battleground state that could decide the results of the election.

But it was the voters who refused to talk to us – the shy voters – who will quietly cast their ballot today that will decide this election and America’s future.

Perhaps that was best explained by a young pirate, walking with his mother. ‘Harris or Trump’, I asked her? She glanced at her son. “We shouldn’t talk about politics outside of the house,” he told me earnestly, his eye patch glinting in the light of the jack o’lanterns.

On Halloween night, when the air is thick with the promise of witchery, mystery and shocks, I wondered if, perhaps, someone is about to get more of a scare than they bargained for.

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Siobhan Kennedy

More than anything else this has been the gender election. Gender and joy. The two biggest messages of the Harris campaign, even as they watch the polls with classic Democrat angst.

In fact, the gender split this time around is the widest it’s ever been. Currently the gap is 15 points but it has been as wide as 34, with Kamala Harris winning with women while Donald Trump is ahead with men, though by a lot less.

But whatever the numbers, what is clear is that since that moment in July when Harris suddenly found herself at the top of the ticket, she has energised the campaign in ways many thought impossible. And much of that boost has been down to the power of women (white dudes for Harris notwithstanding…!)

Harris was already a champion of women’s issues but as the presidential nominee, she took that message to new heights. Beyoncé’s Freedom has been the soundtrack of her campaign and everywhere she goes Harris has made women’s reproductive freedoms the central issue of her campaign, while the Republicans have wildly flipped and flopped: one day Trump’s the father of IVF, the next JD Vance is bemoaning childless cat ladies.

Harris meanwhile has consistently and relentlessly told female voters that it was Donald Trump who proudly took away their freedoms and would go even further if he wins the White House again. On the ground it’s clear that message is resonating – take the Republican women in Arizona who can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump, but can use the right to choose to vote for Harris instead. Like a comfort blanket, it’s the issue that’s making them bond with the Vice President, even as they disagree with her on much else.

“I’m voting my conscience,” is how they describe it. Many independent women feel the same way and we heard it from young women, with zero prompting.

They’re voting for Harris, they told us, because they refuse to allow men – one man in particular – to make decisions about their bodies. As one told me at a volleyball match in Phoenix:

“We’re not asking men to give up any of their rights this election. So I don’t think that mine should be on the table at all.“

Of course pro-life Christian women dislike Kamala Harris precisely because of her determination to restore abortion rights in America. And those women, along with Maga men, are voting for Donald Trump in their millions. And they may yet win the day.

But the Democrats are hoping that like the mid-term elections in 2022, it’s not just inflation and immigration on voters’ minds. That enough of them will care about women’s rights too. And they’ll wake up today and agree with Harris. They’re not going back.

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Kiran Moodley

I am sure many Brits back home, or Europeans for that matter, are unclear how people can still be undecided in this election. And it is often hard to find those voters yet to make their minds up.

Everyone I spoke to at the Michigan State football game the other week in Ann Arbor had already made up their mind. The overly-confident bro voters who were backing Donald Trump hands down; the female students who were adamant that misogyny was at play and Kamala Harris had to win.

It’s about finding those who’ve fallen in the cracks of the campaign season. Because the undecideds, the independents, the waverers; they are not going to the big rallies we’re covering in our reporting, nor are they necessarily going to be vocal in their decisions. That’s why everyone is constantly wondering, not just ‘where are they?’, but also, ‘what are they making of it all?’

I have to admit I didn’t stick around for the football match, and instead watched it on TV. What struck me was, not just that I still can’t get the rules, but how nearly every single advert during the breaks was about the election and from both campaigns. A constant bombardment. Does that shift the dial? Do they reach the swing voter somewhere out there?

Whatever happens, this really is make or break for the Trump legacy. A win would be a stunning comeback after his last tenure in the White House and January 6th. A loss – well, where next? There are the criminal cases to contend with, but what happens to the movement he has created for the past decade?

When I spoke to the head of the Saginaw County Republicans in Michigan, he was a convert. He had never been interested in politics until Trump came along. So what happens when Trump leaves the stage – be it now, if he loses, or even when a potential second term comes to an end? Well, he told me that he didn’t think JD Vance would have his support. Perhaps he’d back one of Trump’s sons. He wasn’t sure.

If that is the same opinion shared by many others, this Trump Republican experiment may start and end with The Donald. And that would leave many questions unanswered for the Republican party and Trump’s supporters.

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