Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will travel to the battleground of Georgia today for a star-studded rally featuring rock legend Bruce Springsteen, entertainer Tyler Perry and former President Barack Obama.
It is the latest attempt by the Harris campaign to capitalise on the backing of movie and music stars to rally voters in the closing days of a tight election race against Republican rival Donald Trump.
Ms Harris' whirlwind campaign started with a big jump in polls after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July, but her lead has narrowed in national polls and evaporated in the battleground states that will decide the US election. Celebrity endorsers add cultural cachet to candidates, and have typically helped campaigns raise money, turn out crowds at rallies and generate excitement on social media.
For both the Harris and Trump campaigns, they are part of the down-to-the-wire blitz to mobilize voters ahead of Election Day on 5 November. It will also mark the first time Ms Harris and Mr Obama will campaign together. Ms Harris is also slated to appear with Michelle Obama on Saturday in Michigan, one of seven swing states expected to decide the winner.
The latest polls in Georgia show Mr Trump with a slight lead, but Harris campaign officials say they remain confident the state - along with its neighbour North Carolina - are still in play come November.
President Joe Biden pulled off a surprise victory in Georgia in 2020, and Democrats won two hard-fought Senate seats there that gave them control of both houses in Congress for the first half of Mr Biden's term.
Some 1.9 million residents have already cast their ballot in Georgia, according to the secretary of state's office. On Monday, Bruce Springsteen will also appear in Philadelphia with Mr Obama and the Harris campaign has signalled more concerts with other musicians will be announced soon.
In 2016, Springsteen played a three-song set at a rally in front of 20,000 people at Philadelphia's Independence Hall for Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on the eve of the election.
In 2008, Springsteen played a seven-song set for tens of thousands on the city's Benjamin Franklin Parkway to urge people to register and vote for Barack Obama.
Taylor Swift, Pink, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Lizzo and many other celebrities have endorsed Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.
Trump supporters from the entertainment world include musicians Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Jason Aldean, wrestler Hulk Hogan, who spoke at this summer's Republican National Convention, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White, actor Dennis Quaid, and TV star Amber Rose.
Meanwhile, Ms Harris told a town hall in Pennsylvania that her administration would be different from that of President Joe Biden's, as Mr Trump campaigned in Georgia, another battleground state.
Ms Harris's attempt to distance herself from Mr Biden comes as several polls show the president is a drag on her candidacy and that voters are eager for a new direction.
Ms Harris has mostly brushed off questions on the campaign trail over how - and to what extent - she would break from Mr Biden on policy.
"My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration," Ms Harris said during a televised CNN town hall.
"I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches."
Her town hall in Chester Township was an attempt to persuade the dwindling number of undecided voters to support her in a closely divided race where even a small percentage of votes could be critical.
Fielding several questions from attendees, Ms Harris vowed to tackle high grocery prices, said it was time to end the war in the Middle East and called Mr Trump a fascist and "danger to the well-being and safety of America."
The vice president also tackled questions on her changing position on policies such as fracking, saying she does not believe in having "pride associated with a position" when the important thing is to build consensus on issues.
Ms Harris has repeatedly said she would not ban fracking if elected president, a reversal of her position during her first presidential run in 2019.
Asked if she was in favour of expanding the Supreme Court to 12 justices from the current nine, Ms Harris said: "I do believe that there should be some kind of reform of the court, and we can study what that actually looks like."
Record early votes
Nearly 25 million voters have already cast ballots, either through in-person early voting or postal ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Several states, including the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia, set records on their respective first day of early voting last week.
"The votes in Georgia are at record levels," Mr Trump told a religious-themed "ballots and believers" event in Zebulon, Georgia.
"The votes in every state, frankly, are at record levels. We're doing really well and hopefully we can fix our country."
Mr Trump in recent days has sought to rally turnout from Christian evangelicals, hoping they will set aside any concerns about his frequent off-colour commentary, like his recent tale about Arnold Palmer's anatomy.
Mr Trump, who made campaign rallies a staple of his political career starting back in 2015, said in Zebulon that "in many ways it's sad" that his time as a political candidate is coming to a close. If he wins on 5 November, he would serve his second and final term.
"We've been doing this for nine years, and it's down to 12 days," he said.
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After Zebulon, Mr Trump was speaking in Duluth, Georgia, for a rally with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson and former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Also present was country music star Jason Aldean, who encouraged attendees to vote early, a message that Mr Trump is slowly embracing after denouncing the practice for years.
Pennsylvania and Georgia are among the seven battleground states that will decide who wins the presidency, and both candidates are likely to spend much of the rest of their campaigns visiting them.
Earlier in the day, Ms Harris seized on comments by Mr Trump's former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who told the New York Times that the former president met the "general definition of fascist" and admired dictators.
Ms Harris called Mr Trump's remarks as quoted by Kelly "deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous."
Mr Trump's campaign has denied Mr Kelly's account, calling them "debunked stories."
The vice president tried and failed to push Mr Trump to agree to a second presidential debate on CNN after she was considered to have won the first and only presidential debate between the two candidates, which took place in September on ABC News.
Ms Harris held a marginal 46% to 43% lead nationally over the former president in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Trump accused of groping model he met through Jeffrey Epstein
Meanwhile, a former model has accused Mr Trump of groping her after the two were introduced by sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s, The Guardian newspaper has reported.
Stacey Williams said she met Mr Trump at a party in 1992 after being introduced by the disgraced financier, whom she had dated.
"It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together," Ms Williams was quoted as saying.
She discussed the alleged assault on a call on Monday organised by Survivors for Kamala, a lobby group supporting Ms Harris.
Epstein, who was convicted on sex offenses and took his own life in prison in 2019, paid Mr Trump an impromptu visit with Ms Williams in 1992 at his New York office block, where he pulled her toward him and began groping her, she alleged.
Ms Williams, now 56, says Mr Trump put his hands "all over" her, causing her to freeze on the spot, and she noticed that the two men appeared to be smiling at each other.
The Guardian quoted a Trump campaign spokeswoman dismissing the allegations as a "fake" story.
She said it was invented by the Harris campaign and described Ms Williams "a former activist" for Democratic ex-president Barack Obama.
Ms Williams shared a postcard depicting Mr Trump's south Florida mansion she said he had sent her agent after the episode, with the message, in his handwriting: "Stacey - Your home away from home. Love Donald."
Mr Trump has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by more than 20 women but denies all wrongdoing.
He was ordered by a New York court in January to pay $83.3 million to compensate the writer E Jean Carroll, whom he was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming.
