ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump made their final speeches to voters Monday in the same part of Pennsylvania at around the same time, spending the last full day of the presidential campaign in a state that could make or break their chances.

Focusing on the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage in Reading, about 30 miles from Allentown, where Harris held her own event about a half-hour later.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” Trump said. “It’s over.”

Indeed, a Trump victory in Pennsylvania, overturning his 19 Electoral College votes, would pierce the Democrats’ “blue wall” and make it harder for Harris to win the 270 votes needed.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, spent all day Monday in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome, and offered a similarly blunt assessment.

“We need everyone in Pennsylvania to vote,” she said. “You are going to make the difference in this election.”

In addition to Allentown, Harris visited Scranton — the birthplace of President Joe Biden — and Reading and had planned a stop in Pittsburgh before ending with a late-night rally in Philadelphia that was scheduled to include Lady Gaga And Oprah Winfrey.

“Are you ready to do this?” Harris shouted Monday in Scranton, with a large handmade “VOTE FOR FREEDOM” sign behind her and a similar “VOTE” banner to her side.

Trump first visited North Carolina before traveling to Reading. He then traveled to Pittsburgh, on the opposite end of the state, before concluding in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he will hold his final campaign rally in the same location where he concluded his 2016 and 2020 campaigns .

Southeastern Pennsylvania is home to thousands of Latinos, including a large Puerto Rican population. Harris and her allies repeatedly hit Trump over the dig at a comedian in Puerto Rico during the former president’s marquee event at Madison Square Garden. The actor Tony Hinchcliffe, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

“It was absurd,” said German Vega, a Dominican American who lives in Reading and became a U.S. citizen in 2015. “It upset so many people — even many Republicans. It was wrong and I think Trump should have apologized to Latinos.”

But Emilio Feliciano, 43, was waiting outside Reading’s Santander Arena for the chance to take a photo of Trump’s motorcade. He dismissed the comments about Puerto Rico despite his family being Puerto Rican, saying he cares about the economy and that’s why he will vote for Trump.

“Will the border be safe? Are you going to reduce crime? That’s what matters to me,” he said.

Harris told the crowd: “I stand here proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and its people. »

“And I will be a president for all Americans,” she said, adding that “the momentum is on our side.” Can you feel it?

Meanwhile, Trump has been content to talk about his plan to crack down on immigration. He called to the stage Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, 37, a mother of five, who was found dead on a Harford County trail a day after she went missing during a hiking trip. Authorities say the suspect in her death, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, entered the United States illegally after allegedly killing a woman in his home country of El Salvador.

About 77 million Americans have voted early. A victory for either side would be unprecedented.

Trump’s victory would make him the first incoming president to be indicted and convicted of a crime, after his secret trial in New York. He will gain the power to end other ongoing federal investigations against him. Trump would also become the second president in history to win non-consecutive terms in the White House, after Grover Cleveland. at the end of the 19th century.

Harris aims to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office — four years after breaking the same barriers to national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second-in-command.

The vice president rose to the top of the Democratic field after Biden’s disastrous performance in a June debate that kicked off his tenure. withdrawal from the race — one of the many convulsions that have hit this year’s campaign.

Trump survived an assassination attempt on a man by a few millimeters gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Secret Service Detail foiled a second attempt in Septemberwhen a gunman set up a rifle while Trump played golf at one of his courses in Florida.

Harris, 60, presented herself as a generational shift from Biden, 81, and Trump, 78. She highlighted her support for abortion rights following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion services, and she has regularly highlighted the former president’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Assemble a coalition made up of progressives like the US representative. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York to the former Republican vice president Dick CheneyHarris called Trump a threat to democracy and, late in the campaign, even embraced the criticism that Trump is accurately described as a ” fascist.”

Heading into Monday, Harris has mostly stopped mentioning Trump by name, instead calling him “the other guy.” She promises to resolve problems and seek consensus.

Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters that not mentioning Trump’s name was deliberate because voters “want to see in their leader an optimistic vision, hopeful and patriotic for the future.”

Harris also gave some insights into her personal background as a politician that she doesn’t often divulge. In Scranton, she talked about being a failure while running for San Francisco district attorney in 2002 and how she “campaigned with my ironing board.”

“I was walking to the entrance of the grocery store, outside, and I was holding up my ironing board because, you see, an ironing board makes a very good standing desk,” said the vice-president. president, remembering how she taped it. post signs outside the board, fill the top with flyers, and “ask people to talk to me as they come in and out.”

In Allentown, Harris rallied around rapper Fat Joe. She then made her own visit to Reading after Trump’s rally ended, visiting the Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant, with Ocasio-Cortez. Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, and Ocasio-Cortez are both of Puerto Rican descent.

Supporters chanted “Sí se puede” and “Kamala” as the vice president’s motorcade stopped. Once inside, Harris chatted with a few diners, even mixing in “Gracias” and a few Spanish words. The vice president then ordered cassava, yellow rice and pork, saying, “I’m very hungry,” noting that she was too busy campaigning to find time to eat many meals.

Afterward, Harris did some of her own canvassing, stopping at two Reading homes, flanked by campaign volunteers.

“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to come and tell you that I hope to win your vote,” she said at one house.

The woman responded, “You already got my vote” and said her husband would vote the next day.

Waiting in line for Harris’ rally in Allentown, Ron Kessler, 54, an Air Force veteran and Republican turned Democrat, said he planned to vote for only the second time in his life. Kessler said that for a long time he didn’t vote, thinking the country would “vote for the right candidate.”

But “now that I am older and much wiser, I believe it is important, it is my civic duty. And it is important that I vote for myself and for democracy and the country.

As recently as Sunday, Trump renewed his false claims that the US elections are rigged against himreflected on the violence against journalists and said he ” I shouldn’t have left the White House in 2021 — dark turns that overshadowed another anchor of his closing argument: “Kamala broke it.” I’ll fix it.

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Superville reported from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Barrow reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.