Democrat Kamala Harris delivered her closing speech to the US presidency on Sunday to a historically black church and to Arab Americans in battleground Michigan, while her Republican rival Donald Trump adopted violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Opinion polls show the two men engaged in a tight race, with Vice President Harris, 60, backed by strong support among female voters, while former President Trump, 78, gaining ground among Hispanic voters, particularly men.

Voters have an unfavorable opinion of both candidates overall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but that has not dissuaded them from voting.

More than 77 million Americans have already done so before Election Day on Tuesday, according to the University of Florida Election Lab, nearly half the total of 160 million votes cast in 2020, the year the Voter turnout in the United States was the highest in over a century.

Control of Congress is also in play Tuesday, with Republicans favored to gain a majority in the Senate while Democrats are seen as having an equal chance of overturning Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Presidents whose parties do not control both chambers have struggled to pass major legislation over the past decade.

“In just two days, we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Harris told parishioners at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. “We must act. It is not enough to pray; it is not enough to speak. We must act according to the plans He has in store for us, and we must bring them to fruition through our works, in our daily choices, in the services rendered to our communities, in our democracy.

Later, at a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans, beginning her speech with a nod to the civilian victims of Israel’s conflict, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Harris said to applause.

She faces skepticism from some, frustrated that Harris has not done more to help end the war in Gaza and cut aid to Israel. Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heartland of the Arab-American community, on Friday and promised to end the Middle East conflict without saying how.

Samah Noureddine, 44, a Lebanese-American from Grosse-Ile, a city near Detroit, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party this year.

“I’m upset because Harris is funding genocide and if we have Trump, we’re going to suffer too,” she said. “I’m sick of both.”

Trump goes off script

Trump, at the first of three rallies on Sunday, frequently abandoned his teleprompter with off-the-cuff remarks in which he denounced opinion polls showing movement in Harris’ favor. He called Democrats the “evil party,” ridiculed Democratic President Joe Biden and complained about the price of apples.

Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in July when a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, complained to supporters on Sunday about gaps in the bulletproof glass that surrounded him as he spoke and thought an assassin should shoot through the media. to have it.

“To catch me, someone would have to debunk the fake news and that doesn’t bother me that much,” said Trump, who has long criticized the media and sought to rile public opinion against them.

Last week, he suggested that prominent Republican critic, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, should face fire in fights because of her hawkish foreign policy, leading an Arizona prosecutor to open an investigation.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung released a statement saying Trump was not speaking to the media but rather: “These were threats against him that were motivated by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.” .

Trump then spoke in Kinston, North Carolina, and was scheduled to end his day with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia.

Among the seven U.S. states considered competitive, Georgia and North Carolina are the second-biggest prizes up for grabs Tuesday, each holding 16 of the 270 electoral college votes a candidate must win on a state-by-state basis to secure election. presidency. Pennsylvania is first with 19 voters.

Toward the end of his speech in Pennsylvania, Trump — whose false claims that his 2020 loss was the result of fraud inspired his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol — thought he would have preferred not to cede power. .

“We had the most secure border in the history of our country the day I left. I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did it, we did it so well,” Trump said.

Trump said during his speech that election results should be announced on election night, despite warnings from officials in several states that it could take days to know the final result.

Democrats say they have plans in place in case Trump tries to prematurely claim victory this time around.