With just over two weeks before the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are hitting the campaign trail in strategic battleground states.
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Here’s the latest:
Biden administration awards $428M to help hard-hit coal communities transition to clean energy
The Biden-Harris administration is awarding $428 million for 14 clean-energy manufacturing projects in Pennsylvania and other states hit hard by the decline of the U.S. coal industry.
One of the larger grants, $87 million, will go to a Pennsylvania company to make state-of-the-art linear generators at a plant outside Pittsburgh, a key battleground in the presidential election.
Linear generators can use any fuel source to produce low-carbon power for utilities, data centers and industry. Mainspring Energy plans to use Energy Department funds to create enough electricity annually to power more than 40,000 homes. Harris, like Biden, has pledged to help workers displaced by the transition to clean energy, a key-issue in energy-rich Pennsylvania.
Mideast conflict looms over US presidential race as Harris and Trump jostle for an edge
Two weeks out from , the is looming over the race for the White House, with one candidate struggling to find just the right words to navigate its difficult cross-currents and the other making bold pronouncements that the age-old conflict can quickly be set right.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been painstakingly — and not always successfully — trying to balance talk of strong support for Israel with harsh condemnations of civilian casualties among Palestinians and others caught up in Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Former President Donald Trump, for his part, insists that none of this would have happened on his watch and that he can make it all go away if elected.
Both of them are bidding for the votes of and , particularly in extremely tight races in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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How Project 2025’s rightward vision became a flashpoint in this year’s election
For the past year, has endured as a persistent force in the , its far-right proposals deployed by as shorthand for what would potentially do with a second term at the White House.
Even though the former president’s campaign has vigorously distanced itself from Project 2025, the sweeping Heritage Foundation’s proposal to and dismantle federal agencies with his vision. Project 2025’s architects come from the ranks of Trump’s administration and top Heritage officials have briefed Trump’s team about it.
It’s rare for a complex to figure so dominantly in a political campaign. But from its early start at a think tank, to its viral spread on social media, the rise and fall and potential rise again of Project 2025 shows the unexpected staying power of policy to light up an election year and threaten not only Trump atop the ticket but down-ballot Republicans in .
Through it all, Project 2025 hasn't gone away. It exists not only as a policy blueprint for the next administration, but as a database of some 20,000 job-seekers who could and administration and a still unreleased “180-day playbook” of actions a new president could employ on Day One.
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Early voting kicks off in battleground Wisconsin with push from Obama and Walz
In-person early voting kicks off Tuesday across , with former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz hosting a rally in liberal Madison and Republicans holding events to encourage casting a ballot for before Election Day.
Wisconsin by just under in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump and Vice President are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early.
Trump was of voting by mail in past elections, falsely claiming it was rife with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are of voting, including by mail and early in-person. Trump himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month.
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Harris’ campaign says her ‘opportunity agenda’ will expand opportunity for Latino men
Harris is set to discuss how her plan will lower costs, increase their chances for homeownership and expand job opportunities for Latino men in an interview she’s taping Tuesday in Washington with Telemundo, the Spanish-language TV network.
The campaign says Harris, running mate Tim Walz and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are giving interviews to several Hispanic media outlets this week in a bid to get her message across to Latino men.
Harris’ Telemundo interview is set to air Wednesday night.
