US presidential elections: Kamala insists she is underdog even though polls show her leading; more Republicans abandon Trump

WASHINGTON: Conservative Republicans continue to publicly abandon MAGA supremo Donald Trump amid signs his campaign is starting to tank in the face of growing support for Kamala Harris from women and gen x voters.
Former vice-president Mike Pence, whose life was threatened by a MAGA mob during the January 6 insurrection, publicly said on Tuesday that he "cannot in good conscience" endorse his then President in the 2024 race.Separately, late Republican Senator John McCain's son Jimmy McCain, a first lieutenant in the National Guard, announced he has joined the Democrat party and pledged to support Kamala Harris.
The twin blows to the erratic Trump campaign that is struggling for energy and momentum came amid two other signs that things are not going well for the former President.
A campaign official whose leaked internal memo said Trump stood no chance in New Hampshire and he would be better served by diverting resources to another battleground state was fired. And emboldened by raising more than $ 500million in the last six weeks and by small but steady leads in presidential polls, the Harris campaign diverted $ 25 million in campaign finance for down ballot races to the Congress and state legislatures, as Democrats eyed far more than just the White House.
But it was Pence sticking it to his former boss that riled the MAGA mob which had threatened to hang him from the steps of the Capitol on January 6 for declining to support Trump's claim that he had won the 2020 election. Almost four years after falling foul of Trump for his defiance in adhering to the Constitution, the mild-mannered Pence told Fox News that Trump "is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years" so he "cannot in good conscience" endorse him.
Pence did not reveal who he’ll vote for in the 2024 general election, saying that he’ll keep “my vote to myself,” but the late Republican stalwart John McCain's son Jimmy McCain was not so coy, bluntly telling CNN that he has changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to support Kamala Harris.
McCain Jr expressed outrage over a recent altercation involving Trump campaign staff at Arlington National Cemetery, calling it “violation” while recalling the MAGA supremo's repeated slighting of his father, a Vietnam war hero, saying he “could never forgive” Trump for the insults. The McCain family is widely respected in Arizona, a battleground state that Trump lost by just 10,000 votes (0.3 per cent) in 2020, with some polls putting him marginally ahead in 2024.
Overall, the Presidential elections are now boiling down to seven battleground states, with both sides wheeling out polls showing their candidate ahead, although all polls are within or close to the margin of error, and neither candidate is ahead by 5 per cent, which is considered a safe margin. in any state.
But despite more polls showing Kamala Harris almost level or marginally ahead of Trump, having erased the lead he had when Biden was his opponent, the Democratic nominee remains cautious. She characterized herself in Labor Day rallies as the "underdog" and told her supporters that a lot of hard work remains to be done to win the White House.
Some of the caution is due to the belief among analysts that polls consistently underestimate support for Trump, partly because some moderate supporters are too embarrassed to tell pollsters they are voting for him, and party because his MAGA base is hostile to mainstream media surveys.
While the demographics appear to favor Harris, with women, gen x voters, and blacks/minorities breaking for her in a big way, Trump pulls ahead when it comes to issue-based voting featuring the economy and immigration.
In recent weeks through, Trump has lost even more ground among women, particularly white women, after a series of missteps on the issue of abortions rights, a top priority for many women. Trump had a 13-point advantage among white women before the Democratic convention and that has now been whittled down to a 2-point edge. Harris is leading Trump 54 percent to 41 percent among women, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday.