“It’s good to be back in the City of Brotherly Love, where the foundation of our democracy was forged, and here, on these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as underdogs and climb to victory,” Harris told a crowd of 30,000 on Monday.

The return to portraying herself as the underdog comes after she removed the descriptor from her stump speech in mid-October, replacing it with her insistence that “we will win.”

Harris continued to express confidence Monday as polls prepare to open across the country on Election Day, repeating that “the momentum is on our side.”

“The race is not over yet and we need to finish strong. This could be one of the closest races in history. Every vote counts,” she said before the audience corrected her when she announced the wrong opening time of polling stations.

Against a backdrop of emblematic Pennsylvania Harris used the rally, held simultaneously with events in the six other battleground states for a national livestream online, to urge her supporters to vote for her on Tuesday and turn the page on Trump without saying his name. Harris stopped calling Trump by name last weekend after he used her Ellipse remarks to criticize him as a “little bully” and amplifying the former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s statement that the former president fits the definition of a fascist.

“This election gives us an opportunity to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division,” she said. “We are done with this. We are finished. We are exhausted.

Harris’s address did not list immigrationwhat polls suggest is one of voters’ top concerns, but she mentioned the economy, health careand the importance of “joy.”

“We started this campaign 107 days ago, and from the beginning our fight has not been a fight against anything,” Harris said. “This has been a fight for something, a fight for a future with freedom, with opportunity and dignity for all Americans.”

“Our campaign brought together people from every corner of this country and from all walks of life,
united by our love for our country and our belief in a brighter, stronger and more hopeful future that we will build together,” she added. “We end as we began, with optimism, energy, joy, knowing that we the people have the power to shape our future and that we can overcome any challenge we face when we do it together.”

The Philadelphia rally, punctuated by appearances from Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, and Ricky Martin, plus a surprise performance from will.i.am of his new song “Yes She Can,” capped Harris’ final day of campaigning, spent entirely in Pennsylvania, and her historic candidacy, just three and a half months old.

“For more than half the life of this country, women still had no voice,” Lady Gaga said. “We raised children. We held our families together. We supported men when they made decisions. But tomorrow, women will participate in this decision.

Winfrey appealed to new, mostly young voters, bringing 10 on stage with her before warning: “If we don’t show up tomorrow, it’s entirely possible we’ll never run again.” opportunity to vote again. .”

Other headliners at rallies across the country include Katy Perry In PittsburghBon Jovi in Detroitand Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas.

As Harris sought to portray herself as the underdog, the rallies also attempted to recapture the good vibes that propelled her campaign this summer, shortly after the president Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid in response to Democratic pressure following his debate with Trump, hoping for a last-minute surge of enthusiasm as Election Day approaches. The campaign turned the rallies into one of the largest interconnected get-out-the-vote events in political history, with special guest seats provided to every person who did a phone or door-to-door banking transaction. -door. Harris’ mood was disrupted by Trump’s resurgence in early fall.

Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes could decide the 2024 election, with Harris and Trump averaging within the margin of error in this and other swing states, according to RealClearPolitics.

Downtown Philadelphia was flooded with Harris supporters, some waiting more than four hours to enter the secure zone. “Fly Harris Fly” was projected on billboards around the art museum. “Fly Eagle Fly” is a slogan of the city’s NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

The crowd became agitated during breaks in the program amid technical glitches, chanting “Philly” and yelling at Harris to talk to them already at one point. People also left as Lady Gaga closed the show.

Earlier Monday, Harris attended the launch of an awareness campaign in Scranton, Pennsylvania, before staff and volunteers knocked on their final doors. The vice president was then in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for a rally with Fat Joe, during which the rapper asked the largely Latino community where their “dignity” is after Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden over the weekend. last night, during which a speaker made a joke about Puerto Rico to be a “floating island of waste”. Nearly 500,000 Pennsylvania residents are of Puerto Rican descent.

Harris visited a small Puerto Rican business in Reading, Pennsylvania, with the popular governor. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), whom she considered as her running mate before choosing governor. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as well, before knocking on doors herself.

Trump counterscheduled his own rally in Pittsburgh before another event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same location where he held his final stops in 2016 and 2020. Earlier Monday, the former president was in Raleigh, North Carolinaand reading too.

In Pittsburgh, Trump also emphasized the importance of Pennsylvania, saying that if he wins the Keystone State, he will win “everything.” Although his advisers encouraged him to stay true to his message, Trump remained free of his movements in the final days of his campaign, appearing to engage in a sex act on the microphone and indicating that he would not mind if an assassin targeted him through the media. who cover his rallies.

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This summer, shortly before Republican National Convention and Biden withdrew from the race, Trump was nearly killed an hour away in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, “an assassin tried to stop our movement,” the former president told the crowd on Monday.

“The fact of having come close to death did not stop us; it only made us more determined to finish the job,” he said. “Many people say God saved me to save America, many, many people say that, and with your help we will fulfill this extraordinary mission together.”