By Eduardo Medina, Jack Healy and Julie Bosman
Michael Magnanti paid attention in his church in Oxford, North Carolina, on Sunday morning as the pastor inquired if anyone had announcements for the congregation.
Magnanti rose from the choir loft, his voice strengthened from singing hymns.
“Election Day is on Tuesday,” stated Magnanti, the chair of the Granville County Republican Party. “I implore you to get out and vote, as this is the most crucial election if you’re alive today.”
It was a last, almost frantic appeal to voters in a battleground state where the presidential contest remained too tight to determine. Polls released over the weekend, including those from The New York Times and Siena College, indicated that the competition between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was distressingly close in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona, offering little comfort to Americans eager for closure near the culmination of a protracted, exhausting campaign.
The ambiguity has also sparked momentum. In the closing hours of the campaign, candidates, staff, and tens of thousands of volunteers nationwide participated in an all-out dash to secure as many voters as achievable. The prospect of an evenly matched race intensified the urgency and chaos of the push from both sides to mobilize every last voter.
On stages and in campaign offices, party leaders rallied crowds to press on. Volunteers ventured out in pairs with clipboards, persistently knocking on doors, rain or shine.
They were all focused on maximizing the time available to elevate turnout for their candidate just enough to make a difference in an election where each vote could matter significantly.
The Harris campaign seems to have retained an advantage in ground operations in many pivotal states, executing a well-organized and well-funded plan to mobilize voters that surpasses the Trump campaign in both scope and intricacy. Over the weekend, the Harris campaign announced that it dispatched over 90,000 volunteers in swing states who knocked on more than 3 million doors.
In contrast, the Trump campaign has depended more on external organizations for its canvassing activities, concentrating on informing infrequent voters likely to favor Republicans. Billionaire Elon Musk has initiated a $130 million voter turnout campaign through his political committee, America PAC, coordinating 2,500 canvassers to reach primarily rural voters in battleground states.
When asked about the number of canvassers active recently, a Trump campaign spokesperson did not provide exact figures but stated that there were “hundreds of thousands of volunteers nationwide tirelessly working to mobilize votes in their communities.”
In critical states, the frantic drive to get individuals to the polls was evident in the campaign’s concluding hours.
In Nevada, after early voting concluded, registered Republicans had cast 43,000 more ballots than registered Democrats, alarming Harris supporters. Thus, over the weekend, hundreds of volunteers with the Nevada Democratic Party knocked on doors to engage voters in Reno, the largest city in Nevada’s only swing county. Reno’s Mayor Hillary Schieve, a Harris backer, encouraged residents to persuade friends or family to vote. “Reach out to one person,” she advised.
In Georgia, Josh McKoon, chair of the state Republican Party, conveyed a similar message, telling Trump supporters that their individual votes alone weren’t sufficient. He urged that the remaining campaign hours should focus on motivating relatives and friends to participate.
“You need to ensure everyone you know who intends to support this decent man, this good man, this man who sacrificed for us, casts their vote,” McKoon stated at a rally Sunday.
Both campaigns turned to celebrities and prominent figures who flocked to Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Pennsylvania to motivate voters who might require additional encouragement.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, gathered in Georgia over the weekend to energize women supporting Trump. (Almost 56% of individuals who have already cast votes in Georgia are women.)
Among the volunteers flooding counties across Pennsylvania over the weekend was 83-year-old actor Sam Waterston, best recognized for his role in “Law & Order.” He greeted fellow volunteers at the Democratic headquarters in Lancaster, posed for photographs, and even spent time knocking on a few doors himself.
Former President Bill Clinton made an appearance in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday at a rally aimed at boosting voter turnout, urging Harris supporters to proactively seek out the dwindling number of undecided voters in Georgia.
“There’s still a small number you can genuinely influence,” Clinton remarked.
In some swing states, volunteers battled against wind, rain, and inclement weather; however, many participants claimed there was insufficient time left in the campaign to be significantly hindered by adverse conditions.
Dozens of volunteers in Madison, Wisconsin, entered a Democratic campaign office on the city’s West Side on Sunday, prepping to canvass in Madison and the adjacent suburb, Stoughton. Some equipped themselves with waterproof attire and rain boots.
“One, two, three, win this!” a group of volunteers chorused together, gathering in a huddle before heading out to canvass.
During a rare rainy weekend in Arizona, Democratic canvassers were deployed across the state. On Saturday alone, they knocked on 112,000 doors and made 600,000 phone calls, according to Senator Mark Kelly, who addressed a crowd at a Phoenix restaurant participating in a get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at Latino voters.
“Folks, it’s crunch time,” Kelly emphasized. “This is tight, and we’ve still got work to do to win this election.”
Some campaign events resembled exuberant celebrations, attracting voters in costumes and waving “Make America Great Again” flags from pickup trucks.
In North Carolina, where a New York Times poll released on Sunday indicated Harris leading by 3 percentage points, Republicans undertook one last weekend effort: a district-wide jamboree aimed at instilling confidence within their base and converting conservative holdouts who had yet to vote, according to Michele Woodhouse, the Republican Party chair for the 11th Congressional District in North Carolina.
A Trump road rally dubbed “the Red Surge” took place in western Haywood County, featuring live bands playing patriotic music while attendees showed up dressed as Trump.
“If anything, a poll indicating that Kamala Harris is favored to become the president of the United States motivates Republicans and Trump supporters to exert every ounce of effort to ensure everyone they know makes it to the polls,” Woodhouse remarked.
In a flurry of phone calls aimed at prospective voters, both campaigns emphasized the logistics surrounding Election Day: inquiring about voters’ plans, how they would arrive at the polls, and if they needed to register.
Young Republicans convened in Nash County, North Carolina, to canvass, send text messages to voters, and blanket social media platforms with precinct opening and closing times along with other pertinent information, according to Mary Helen Pelt, vice chair of the party in the county.
“There’s always that one who says after the fact, ‘I did not realize it was Election Day,’” she commented. “Which astounds me, but it happens.”
