With fifty days to go until the election, the race for the White House is once again in turmoil.
Two months after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in western Pennsylvania, the Secret Service opened fire as Trump was golfing at one of his courses in South Florida to prevent what appeared to be a second assassination attempt on the former president.
After decades without an assassination attempt on a sitting president or a major party presidential candidate, for the second time this summer, the nation has narrowly avoided a tragedy of mammoth proportions that would only further deepen the country’s already firmly cemented polarization.
“Nothing will stop me. I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!” the former president vowed in a fundraising email sent to supporters on Sunday after the incident.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORT ON THE SECOND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON DONALD TRUMP
FBI agents are seen at the crime scene outside Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, 2024, following a shooting at former President Donald Trump’s golf course. The incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt against the former president. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
A top Trump ally, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, argued in a statement that “as Americans we must unite behind him in November to protect our republic and bring peace back to the world.”
It is too early to assess whether the latest incident will affect the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed President Biden.
The only thing that is certain is that the time remaining in the 2024 campaign is fleeting.
Harris stressed that “the clock is ticking,” as she called on supporters at a fundraising event on Saturday to volunteer and mobilize their friends to vote.
“Join our teams in the battleground states and help register people to vote… And talk to your neighbors and friends about what’s at stake,” he urged.
WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS RANKINGS SHOW IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
With the first and potentially only debate between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates now behind us and early voting and mail-in voting just beginning to gain momentum, the Harris-Trump matchup remains a close race in the seven key states that determined the outcome of Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 and will likely determine the winner of the 2024 election.
Fox News Power Rankings presidential forecast.
Fox News’ latest Power Rankings currently rates six of the seven states as undecided.
Those states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada — have seen the bulk of campaign traffic for both Democratic and Republican candidates and are battlegrounds in the ad wars between the two sides.
“I think this is going to be an exercise in turnout. Whoever does the best job of mobilizing voters in those seven states is going to win,” veteran Republican strategist Nicole Schlinger told Fox News.
HARRIS AND TRUMP HOLD MEETINGS IN KEY BATTLEFIELDS
Harris’ campaign, touting a “historic 24-hour fundraising effort,” last week showed off its fundraising prowess by raising $47 million in the immediate aftermath of the debate.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The money raised by Harris’ campaign was the latest sign of the vice president’s fundraising surge in the nearly two months since she replaced Biden at the top of the Democrats’ national 2024 ticket.
“In politics, 50 days is a lifetime, but today I would rather be Kamala Harris than Donald Trump,” said veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caizzzo, who has been involved in multiple presidential campaigns. “I think the enthusiasm is still overwhelmingly among Democrats, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
RACE FOR MONEY: HARRIS GETS A LOT OF MONEY AFTER DEBATE WITH TRUMP
Harris’ campaign notes that it is investing much of its fundraising into grassroots outreach and voter mobilization efforts, noting that it is “putting its resources into reaching the voters who will decide the election.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The massive field operation, originally built when Biden was the nominee, according to the campaign, includes more than 312 offices and more than 2,000 staffers in key battlegrounds coordinated between the presidential campaign, the DNC and state Democratic parties.
In a straight-up Harris campaign and compared to the Trump campaign and the RNC, Democrats enjoy a considerable advantage on the ground. However, Trump relies on a handful of aligned outside groups to help run the turnout operations that a presidential campaign traditionally runs.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley disputed the suggestion that Democrats enjoyed a stronger voter-mobilization operation.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Tucson, Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“No, they don’t have a stronger strategy. I feel very, very comfortable with the strategy that we’re implementing through Trump Force 47,” the RNC chairman emphasized in an interview with Fox News Digital last week.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Whatley pledged that “we absolutely have the resources we need to get our message across to all of the voters we’re talking to and we feel very comfortable that we’ll be able to see this campaign through to the end and that we’re going to win on November 5.”
Schlinger, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns, also says Trump has the advantage on the key issue.
“Voters whose top issue is the economy believe the economy is going in the wrong direction and they believe Donald Trump will do a better job of fixing it,” he said. “I think Harris has an uphill climb to explain why she’s going to do something different than Joe Biden on that front.”
Schlinger added that for undecided voters, familiarity with the Republican candidate could give Trump an advantage.
“Nearly a third of voters have said they need to know more about Kamala Harris. With President Trump, you know what you’re getting, and I think that’s an advantage for Republicans,” he argued.
Get the latest updates on the 2024 election campaign, exclusive interviews and more in our Fox News digital election hub.
