Election 2024 live updates: Harris and Trump make last appeals to battleground voters

The new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll that showed Harris leading in Iowa within a margin of error came as a major surprise — even to the pollster that conducted it.

“This was a shock poll,” J. Ann Selzer, the president of the Des Moines-based polling company that conducted the survey, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I’ve been shocked since Tuesday morning last week, so I’ve had the time for this to sink in, because no one, including me, would have thought that Iowa could go for Kamala Harris,” she said.

The poll, which was released Saturday, showed Harris ahead of Trump by 47% to 44%. Though that lead was within the survey’s margin of error of 3.4 percentage points, it was a marked seven-point shift from September. Harris’ edge was partly fueled by a 28-point lead over Trump with independent women voters.

“If you’re a Democrat, you’re really looking at this and hoping that it means something for states like Michigan and Wisconsin that appear to be deadlocked battleground states,” Brianne Pfannenstiel, the Des Moines Register’s chief politics reporter, said on CNN.

— Rebecca Picciotto and Dan Mangan

Top Trump campaign officials acknowledged the possibility that their nominee may not win as they briefed staff about how operations will wrap up after the election.

An internal email, signed by senior advisors Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and obtained by NBC News, tells campaign staff that their last payroll day is Nov. 30, “regardless of the outcome of the election.”

The message reflects standard procedure for any operation that will soon close its doors, but it is noteworthy when anyone in Trump’s orbit nods to the possibility that he could lose.

If Trump does win, many of the employees will be reassigned to either the Trump-Vance transition team or the president-elect’s inaugural committee, the email says.

Those working at the campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach are advised to clear their work areas of personal belongings by Nov. 10. The space will be converted to handle the transition and inaugural teams, “God-willing,” Wiles and LaCivita write.

“As the campaign comes to a close in a few days, please be proud of the work you have done and the contribution you have made to President Trump and Senator Vance [and their] work on behalf of freedom, security, the financial health of our nation, and to peace around the world,” they write.

“Most of all, be proud that your worked to Make America Great Again.”

— Kevin Breuninger and Jonathan Allen, NBC News

A Philadelphia judge could rule at a hearing that Elon Musk’s $1 million daily voter lottery should be blocked from continuing — but with just a day before Election Day that might not matter much.

Philadelphia’s district attorney last week sued the Tesla billionaire CEO and his political action committee in the county Common Court of Pleas, accusing them of running an illegal lottery by awarding cash prizes — 16 so far — to registered voters in swing states who signed a petition backing the Constitution.

Musk then got the case briefly transferred to federal court, but DA Larry Krasner nearly as quickly got it returned to the county court.

Musk has said his America PAC would run the giveaway until Election Day, so if Krasner gets the injunction he is seeking from a judge at the hearing, it could save the Trump backer a million dollars or two.

– Dan Mangan

Shares of Trump’s social media company dropped as much as 8% in premarket trading, exacerbating the Truth Social operator’s stock slide just before the election.

Trump Media, which trades as DJT on the Nasdaq, last week saw its market cap fall more than 40% between Tuesday afternoon and Friday.

The sudden drop erased much of the company’s gains from a massive rally in October, when its share price more than tripled.

Despite its multibillion-dollar valuation, the company has posted net losses of more than $340 million on revenues of less than $2 million this fiscal year.

The frenetic trading around the stock often seems to bear little correlation to its business fundamentals. Rather, analysts see the company as a magnet for pro-Trump retail investors to support the former president and bet on his odds of beating Harris in the election.

— Kevin Breuninger

Harris will spend her final day on the campaign trail holding rallies across Pennsylvania, a must-win battleground state that both Republican and Democratic strategists see as the key to winning the Oval Office.

Harris will start the day in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, before holding a rally in Allentown, then going on to a local stop in Reading. On Monday night, Harris will hold rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The latter two will feature musical guests, including Lady Gaga in Pittsburgh and Katy Perry in Philadelphia, according to the campaign.

Pennsylvania went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but flipped to Biden in 2020. Polls show Harris and Trump neck and neck in the state.

— Jake Piazza

Roughly 76 million Americans have already voted early, both through mail-in and early in-person voting, according to NBC News.

Among the states that record voters’ party alignment, 41% of early voters are registered Democrats and 39% are registered Republicans. Early voting rules differ across states.

— Jake Piazza

Trump will split his time across three battleground states on the final day before the election.

Rallies are planned in Raleigh, North Carolina; Reading, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to the Trump campaign.

Grand Rapids occupies a unique position in Trump campaign history: Michigan’s second largest city has been Trump’s final stop on Election Eve in both of his previous presidential campaigns.

— Jake Piazza