Labor Day, the traditional anniversary that signals the start of the final stretch of the presidential election, is now a thing of the past.
“We are 64 days away from the most important election of our lifetimes, and perhaps one of the most important in the history of our country,” Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized, telling supporters at a labor union rally in Pittsburgh on Monday.
Tuesday marks nine weeks until Election Day in 2024, when Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off for the White House.
But the reality is that the election begins long before November 5th.
Election season starts much sooner than you think
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
In many states, the election actually begins this month.
In the battleground state of North Carolina, absentee ballots will be mailed starting Friday. Early voting begins in two other key battleground states, Pennsylvania on September 16 and Michigan on September 26.
Next Tuesday, Harris and Trump are scheduled to face off in the first, and likely only, prime-time presidential debate in Philadelphia.
Latest Fox News poll results in four key battleground states
Pennsylvania, the largest of seven key battleground states that determined the outcome of the 2020 presidential election between President Trump and President Biden, has been attracting a lot of attention this week.
Harris will return to Pittsburgh on Thursday, her second visit this week to western Pennsylvania's largest city and union stronghold, and her 10th visit this year to the Keystone State.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden arrive at a campaign event at the IBEW Local 5 union hall in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Trump, who has visited Pennsylvania multiple times this year, returned to the state on Wednesday. Sean Hannity hosts Fox News Town Hall In Harrisburg.
While most of the latest national polls show Harris leading Trump by small single-digit margins, the presidential election is not about the national popular vote — it's about states and their electoral votes.
of Latest Research Polls in seven key battleground states suggest the race is within the margin of error, including a Fox News poll that made headlines last week.
Fox News' Hannity to host town hall meeting with President Trump on Wednesday
Trump claims he has momentum.
“We're leading in the polls right now,” the former president said in an interview with Fox News' Brian Lenas on Friday.
Minutes later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump thundered, “The poll numbers are starting to skyrocket.”
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
Harris has urged her supporters not to pay too much attention to the polls because, as she reiterated on Labor Day, “we are behind in this race.”
“It's going to be a close race all the way to the end,” the vice president said at a rally in Savannah, Georgia, last week.
The current election landscape has changed significantly since early this summer, when Biden was still running.
Biden's crushing defeat to Trump in a debate in late June has further fueled doubts among Americans about whether the 81-year-old president has the physical and mental strength to serve in the White House for another four years, and has prompted calls from prominent Democratic Party supporters and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race.
National and battleground state polls conducted in July showed Trump building a small but significant lead over Biden.
The president gave up his reelection bid on July 21 in favor of his vice president. Democrats quickly rallied around Harris, who enjoyed a rapid rise in her approval ratings and fundraising.
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Still, pollsters and political analysts stress that the race between Harris and Trump is currently a matter of luck.
But Trump's team points out the former president has a history of doing well in the polls and is viewing his current polling position as a positive.
“At this point in the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump was trailing Hillary Clinton by an average of 5.9 points. At this point in the 2020 campaign, he was trailing Joe Biden by 6.9 points,” senior adviser Corey Lewandowski noted in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend.
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital's Election Hub.
