Clinton and Trump in last-minute scramble for votes as polls narrow

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump scrambled for votes in North Carolina yesterday as the final days of the presidential campaign became a fight for Clinton to hold on to battleground states where she safely led just two weeks ago.

With polls in several of the largest swing states, including Ohio and Florida, now frequently showing Trump leading, the Democratic nominee appeared to be shifting strategy to hold on to states previously seen as a “firewall” against a Trump victory.

If the Republican billionaire is able to take both Ohio and Florida,  Clinton must hold on to a clutch of bellwethers like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado in order to fend off a late Trump surge that has gained momentum since the revelation that the FBI was looking at new evidence  Clinton may have improperly used a private email server.

North Carolina has become the focus of both campaigns’ efforts to swing the needle; like neighbouring Virginia, it was once a reliably Republican state that Democrats have been hoping to win because of changing demographics and keen African-American support for Barack Obama. Clinton and Trump both held two rallies yesterday in the state, where polls show a virtual dead heat. Mr Obama will headline two more rallies there today, amid signs that black voters are not turning out at the level Democrats had hoped for.

Trump is trying to capitalise on that weakness with four visits to the state in the final five days, making North Carolina the clear focus of his end game. North Carolina voted for Obama in 2008, but he lost the state to Mitt Romney in his re-election campaign in 2012.

Michael Bitzer, a politics expert at Catawba College in North Carolina, said the number of unaffiliated voters taking part in early voting was up 42 per cent this year over 2012, raising concerns among Democrats that Trump was bringing new voters to the polls, replicating the trend that helped the New York tycoon win a record number of votes in the Republican primary.

“That’s a whole new dynamic and nobody can say truly which way they are going to go,” said Bitzer.

Speaking at a rally in Florida before flying to North Carolina, Trump again hit Clinton over the email scandal, which has altered the momentum of the race in its final week. “It was reported that an avalanche of information is coming in,” Trump told Jacksonville supporters, who screamed back “Vote for Trump, Vote for Trump!” “The FBI agents say their investigation is likely to yield an indictment.”

National polls show Clinton with a lead of 1.7 points, but the latest survey, from Rasmussen, showed Trump with a three-point advantage. More worrying for Mrs Clinton, she has seen her lead in other key swing states, most notably Pennsylvania where she been significantly ahead, narrow to within the margin of error.

Trump is sending his wife to campaign in Pennsylvania, a state where he hopes to shore up support among white Republican women who might be concerned over his comments about women. Clinton will today campaign in Detroit, a heavily African-American city in Michigan, a state that has not gone Republican since 1988.

“If you want to know what a campaign’s priorities are, just follow the money,” said Kevin Madden, who was a top adviser to Romney in his 2012 campaign. “The fact that [the Clinton campaign] and their Super PAC have returned to the airwaves in blue states shows that they feel the need to reinforce Clinton’s position there.”