Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris warned voters on Thursday that Republican Donald Trump and his allies would scale back healthcare programmes if he wins the White House and said his comments at a Wednesday rally were offensive to women.
In a brief press conference, vice president Harris reminded voters that former president Trump had tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, during his 2017-2021 presidency.
"Healthcare for all Americans is on the line in this election," she told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin, before flying to Arizona and Nevada as both candidates took the campaign to the Southwest.
In response, Mr Trump said he never wanted to get rid of the programme. "I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing," he posted on his Truth Social platform after she made the remark.
Historically close contest
Opinion polls show a historically close contest between Ms Harris and Mr Trump, with the outcome of Tuesday's US presidential election likely to be decided in seven battleground states.
Reuters/Ipsos polling in October found the race to be sharply divided along gender lines, with Ms Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Mr Trump leading among men by seven percentage points.
More than 63 million people have already voted through in-person early voting and mail-in ballots, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab.
Once again a campaign issue, the 2010 Affordable Care Act provides coverage to roughly 40 million Americans as part of the country's patchwork of health insurance programmes. A political liability for Democrats when signed into law in 2010, it is now broadly popular.
Failed Obamacare repeal
In his 2016 campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal Obamacare and following his election, when the House voted to do just that, he welcomed Republican representatives to the White House for a celebration. But the repeal effort died in the Senate in July 2017 when the late senator John McCain cast the deciding vote with a thumbs-down gesture.
Mr Trump has downplayed the issue during this campaign, though on Thursday he reiterated he would as president push insurers to cover the cost of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments.
When asked about healthcare in the September 10th televised debate with Ms Harris he repeated his contention that "Obamacare was lousy healthcare" but acknowledged he has yet to propose a comprehensive alternative, saying he has "concepts of a plan".
Ms Harris has made abortion rights a cornerstone of her campaign, while Mr Trump has vowed to dramatically scale back immigration.
Democrats made an issue of Mr Trump's comment at a Wisconsin rally on Wednesday when he said, "Whether the women like it or not, I've got to protect them. I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in."
Ms Harris told reporters she found the "like it or not" comment offensive.
"It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies," she said.
Trump campaigns in New Mexico
Mr Trump held his first rally of the day in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state he lost by 10 percentage points in 2020, before moving on to Henderson, Nevada, one of the seven battleground states along with Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Ms Harris had campaign stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada.
With both candidates in the southwest, they courted Hispanic voters.
While in Albuquerque, Mr Trump argued he could win over the state's large Latino population, even polling the crowd to see whether they preferred to be called "Latinos" or "Hispanics". The response "Hispanics" won handily.
In Phoenix, where Arizona Democratic senate candidate Ruben Gallego warmed up the crowd with remarks fluidly switching between English and Spanish, Ms Harris criticised rhetoric from Mr Trump that she called "full of hate and division".
"He insults Latinos, scapegoats immigrants," Ms Harris said.
Hispanic voters have traditionally been an area of strength for Democrats, but Mr Trump has been gaining ground in the nationally and religiously diverse US Latino population.
Nationally, Mr Trump had the support of 38 per cent of registered Hispanic voters in a series of Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted this month, up from 32 per cent at the same point in 2020. Ms Harris' share of Hispanic voters was at 50 per cent, compared with Democratic president Joe Biden's 54 per cent in October 2020.
Pop star Jennifer Lopez was due to speak at a Harris rally in Las Vegas where Mexican pop rock band Mana would perform.
A Trump rally on Sunday in New York set off an outcry after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage," drawing criticism from a number of high-profile Hispanic Americans.
