The Latest: Presidential campaigns begin sprint to election day

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are making their paths to the presidency clearer as their campaigns begin a two-month sprint to election day.

The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president will devote almost all of their remaining time and resources to just seven states. They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars targeting voters who, in many cases, have just begun to pay attention to the election. And their campaigns will try to focus their messages on three familiar issues — the economy, immigration and abortion — even in the midst of heated debates over character, culture and democracy.

The candidates will debate in one week in what will be their first meeting ever. The nation’s premier swing state, Pennsylvania, begins in-person absentee voting the week after. By the end of the month, early voting will be underway in at least four states with a dozen more to follow by mid-October.

In just 63 days, the final votes will be cast to decide which one of them will lead the world’s most powerful nation.

Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in most national polls conducted since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Federal judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that Trump had not satisfied the burden of proof required for a federal court to take control of the case from the state court where it was tried.

Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump ’s effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court that he had no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.

Read more here.

Harris to propose tenfold startup tax incentive increase she says will spur small business creation

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to propose on Wednesday a tenfold increase in federal tax incentives for small business startup expenses, from $5,000 to $50,000, hoping to help spur a record 25 million new small business applications over her four-year term should she win the presidency in November.

She’s set to unveil the plan during a campaign stop in the Portsmouth area of New Hampshire — marking a rare deviation from the Midwestern and Sunbelt battlegrounds the Democrat has focused on in her race against former Republican President Donald Trump.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a policy plan that hadn’t been released publicly, said Tuesday the change would cover the $40,000 it costs on average to start a business. The proposal would let new businesses wait to claim that deduction until they first turn a profit, to better maximize its impact lowering their taxes.

Read more here.

Top election security officials say U.S. election infrastructure secure, but foreign adversaries remain a threat

The nation’s top election security officials say there’s been no indication of any attempt by foreign adversaries to launch an attack on U.S. election systems, but they remain a “persistent threat.”

Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and her senior adviser Cait Conley told reporters on Tuesday that intense efforts since the 2016 election have boosted security around the nation’s voting systems. They highlighted estimates there will be a paper record of ballots cast for more than 97% of voters this year.

But they spoke about threats to U.S. elections, with adversaries like Russia, Iran and China continuing to show interest in undermining U.S. democracy.

“While our election infrastructure is more secure than ever, today’s threat environment is arguably more complex than ever,” Easterly said. “We can absolutely expect that our foreign adversaries will remain a persistent threat to attempting to undermine American confidence in our democracy and our institutions and to sow partisan discord.”

Easterly notes that since 2023 her agency has conducted over 1,000 physical security assessments, 700 cybersecurity reviews and 400 trainings for state and local election officials.

She says it’s important for the public to remember that “hiccups” are likely to occur during the election, ranging from polling places opening late to possibly a ransomware attack on a local government. And that foreign adversaries are likely to try to exploit any uncertainty during or after the election.

“What is most critical to remember is that when these incidents happen, while they may be disruptive, it does not mean that there has been impact on the security of votes being cast or on the accuracy of votes counted as cast,” Easterly said. “But our foreign adversaries may attempt to mislead Americans into believing otherwise, and we cannot let them.”

Harris' campaign to spend nearly $25 million to help down-ballot Democrats

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is spending nearly $25 million to help down-ballot Democrats, in a sign of confidence heading into the final two months before Election Day. A campaign official said it was the largest-ever transfer by a national campaign and the Democratic National Committee to committees focused on electing congressional and state-level Democrats. The official said $10 million will go to each to the Democratic arm aimed at electing members of the House and Senate, $2.5 million will go to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and $1 million each will flow to the Democratic Attorneys General Association and Democratic Governors Associations. It’s a reflection both of Harris’ strong financial position after a rush of fundraising that followed her replacement of President Joe Biden on the ticket, and an improving political map for Democrats that followed the same.

“The Vice President believes that this race is about mobilizing the entire country, in races at every level, to fight for our freedoms and our economic opportunity,” said Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. “That’s why the Vice President has made the decision to invest a historic sum into electing Democrats up and down the ballot: because Democrats win when we fight together.”

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign releases new economic agenda ad

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is releasing a new ad aiming to draw contrast with former President Donald Trump’s economic agenda. The spot highlights some of Harris’ new economic proposals, including federal price gouging legislation and taking on “corporate speculators” in the housing market, while Trump has push for tax cuts for corporations. The ad is part of the campaign’s massive television and digital ad effort running through Election Day.