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WASHINGTON >> Democratic candidate Kamala Harris vowed today to serve “all Americans” if elected president, as she sought to contain fallout from a remark by President Joe Biden that threatened to undercut her message of unity.

“When elected president, I’m going to represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” the vice president told reporters before flying to a campaign event in North Carolina, one of seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the Nov. 5 election.

Her Republican rival Donald Trump is due to hold a rally there as well today.

Harris is spending the final week of the campaign telling voters that she would respect those who disagree with her and portraying former President Trump as a threat to democracy.

That promise — delivered at a massive rally in front of the White House on Tuesday night — was muddied by Biden, who criticized racist comments made at a Trump rally on Sunday.

According to a White House transcript, Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.” Trump’s campaign said Biden was referring to Trump supporters as “garbage,” while Biden said later he was talking about the language used by a comedian at the rally.

A Tuesday Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Harris leading Trump 44% to 43% among registered voters nationally, within the margin of error. Other opinion polls show tight margins in the seven election battleground states. Last month’s hurricane damage has made North Carolina’s results especially hard to predict.

Harris today will be in the state’s fast-growing capital Raleigh, while Trump will hold a rally in Rocky Mount.

Trump won North Carolina by under 1.5 percentage points in 2020. The last Democrat to win the state was Barack Obama in 2008, though it has had a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, since 2017.

Trump currently leads Harris by just one percentage point in the state, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight.

Trump and his allies have sought to portray voting by people who are noncitizens as a potential risk to the election, though private and state reviews have repeatedly shown that the illegal practice is very rare. The campaign to focus on the issue won a victory today when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Virginia’s decision to purge from its voter rolls 1,600 people who state officials concluded may not be citizens, a claim that Biden’s administration disputed.

At stake on Nov. 5 is who will run the world’s richest and most powerful country. Harris and Trump diverge on support for Ukraine and NATO, abortion rights, taxes, basic democratic principles and tariffs that could trigger trade wars.

LONG WAIT FOR RESULTS?

Residents in North Carolina, especially in the rural, hard-hit western region, are still trying to put their lives back together after devastating hurricane damage last month. The Republican-leaning area accounted for about 9% of the vote in 2020, according to an analysis by Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini.

While some state officials — including some Republicans — have praised federal cleanup efforts, Trump has falsely claimed that disaster aid intended for the state was diverted to help immigrants.

Republican Representative Andy Harris said last week the state legislature should preemptively declare that Trump won the state’s 16 Electoral College votes, to avoid “disenfranchised voters.”

Cooper ruled that out.

The outcome in North Carolina may remain unclear for a week or more after the election.

Absentee ballots that arrive on Election Day, as well as ballots from overseas and military voters, can be counted for up to 10 days afterward.

In 2020, media outlets did not call the result in North Carolina for Trump until Nov. 13, 10 days after the election.

More than a third of North Carolina’s registered voters have already cast ballots in the 2024 election, according to the state’s election board.

Later today, Harris will travel to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two other election battleground states. Her Madison, Wisconsin, rally will feature performances from musicians, including the band Mumford & Sons. Trump will also be in Wisconsin for a rally with retired National Football League quarterback Brett Favre.