Election forecaster shifts 2024 prediction in North Carolina in the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

For as far as the eye can see there is nothing but brown border fence, red dirt, low-lying desert shrubs and the occasional sweatshirt, water bottle or children’s toy. The trash is new and fresh footprints can be seen in the dust – people were just here.

This stretch of the Arizona border near a small hamlet called Sasabe is part of the Tucson Sector of Border Patrol’s map of operations, and it’s one of the busiest areas in the country for crossers not wanting to be caught.

Arizona cattle rancher John Ladd told DailyMail.com the situation at the border is not just bad, ‘this is the worst it’s ever been.’

His family has operated a beef operation on the border since homesteading the property in the 1890s. Ladd says he must regularly must repair cut fence wire and recapture escaped cattle due to illegal migrant activity as they cross his property.

He estimates that his 16,000-acre ranch that butts up to over 10 miles of border wall has been the preferred path for an estimated at least 500,000 migrants in the last three decades after counting himself and discussing with Customs and Border Protection.

A top election forecaster has shifted the potential result in North Carolina from ‘lean Republican to a ‘toss up’ as Kamala Harris narrows the gap with Donald Trump.

Cook Political Report said the Tar Heel State, considered one of the battlegrounds that could decide the 2024 presidential race, is now ‘more competitive than ever’.

‘Despite the optimism and hype, [President] Biden was never able to keep this race [in North Carolina] close. By the time he dropped out of the race in late July, the president was trailing Trump by almost seven points,’ Cook Editor-In-Chief Amy Walter wrote.

Polling averages have Trump and Harris in a dead heat, with the vice president seeing a surge in the 38 days since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

A former Biden administration appointee and aspiring Texas lawmaker has been accused of running four fake social media accounts that were harassing him and his campaign.

Taral Patel, 30, was arrested in June and charged with online impersonation and a Class A misdemeanor after he allegedly staged racist attacks against himself in an attempt to gain sympathy.

The Democratic candidate for Fort Bend County commissioner is now accused of running several fake accounts – including one where he impersonated a real district judge, as reported by ABC 13.

Patel allegedly used images of real people to create the fake Facebook accounts, which he used to abuse himself online – possibly to gain the public’s sympathy.

Court records show that current Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers requested police open a probe into the racist comments against Patel last October.

Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz claimed the Trump-Vance ticket is ‘not good for unions’ in a speech to firefighters in Boston on Wednesday.

The Minnesota Governor alleged the Republicans know ‘how to take advantage’ of working people and praised unions for building the middle class.

‘When Republicans used to talk about freedom, they meant it. Not anymore. They want government to invade every part of our life, from our union halls to schools,’ he said.

Walz said he was ‘proud’ of being part of a union and paid tribute to Chris Parsons, a union leader and firefighter who died in the line of duty.

The VP contender will join Harris on a campaign swing through the swing state of Georgia later on Wednesday.

Then they will pre-record the interview that will air on CNN at 9pm on Thursday night.

Donald Trump and his team are hitting back at claims that his trip to Arlington National Cemetery included an altercation with a member of the staff there.

A member of Trump’s team and staffer at the cemetery clashed over the presence of a photographer in Section 60, the area of the cemetery where American troops who were killed in recent wars are buried, according to reports.

An official with the cemetery tried to ‘physically block’ members of Trump’s team, according to Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman.

‘The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,’ Cheung said in the statement.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Kamala Harris is launching an ad blitz this week that will tie Donald Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blue-print drawn up by former Trump allies.

The ad is part of a $370 million media blitz that will air in battleground states through Election Day. However, it will also run in the TV market in Palm Beach, Fla., where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is located, in an effort to make sure the former president sees it.

‘Donald Trump’s back, and he’s out for control,’ the narrator says.

‘And he has a plan to get it. … It’s called Project 2025, a 922-page blueprint to make Donald Trump the most powerful president ever.’

Project 2025 calls for dismantling the Education Department, passing sweeping tax cuts, imposing strict limits on abortion, drastically cutting the federal workforce, and giving the president more power over the civil service.

Trump has denied any knowledge or affiliation with Project 2025.

The bombshell update came from the former president who said he had ‘reached an agreement’ with the Harris campaign for a primetime showdown in Philadelphia using the same rules of the CNN debate with President Joe Biden.

His statement on Truth Social on Tuesday suggested the impasse over whether microphones should be muted had been resolved.

Trump’s statement included some rules but doesn’t specifically mention what is being done about the microphone muting. But the ex-president hinted he got his way and that microphones will be muted.

The debate will be the first time the two presidential nominees will share a stage.

J.D. Vance is finally addressing his awkward encounter with a donut shop worker in Georgia.

Last week, Vance, 40, stepped into Holt’s Sweet Shop in Valdosta to order some sweets for his campaign crew ahead of a planned speech in the battleground state.

But the apparently unplanned visit quickly became uncomfortable, as the woman working behind the counter asked not to be shown on camera.

The Ohio Senator then made a show of telling the press to cut her out of their videos, before introducing himself to the employee.

‘I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice president,’ he said, with a grin on his face.

The woman, in turn, simply replied, ‘OK.’

He told NBC News days later during an interview: ‘I just felt terrible for that woman.’

We walked in, and there’s 20 Secret Service agents, and there’s 15 cameras, and she clearly had not been properly warned, and she was terrified, right? I just felt awful for her.

He went on to say he loves to engage in retail politics, including stops at local food joints, but acknowledged they should be better planned out.

I like to get out there and talk to people, and we want to make sure we’re doing it, but definitely make sure that people are at least OK with being on camera, or we’re going to walk in and you’re going to have a person who has, practically, a panic attack because she’s got 15 cameras in her face.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has claimed more than one million names of ineligible voters have been purged from the state’s voter rolls since the enactment of Senate Bill 1 in 2021.

The purged names include those of individuals who have moved out of Texas, those who have passed away, and non-citizens, among other criteria. The governor’s office has indicated that this removal process is still underway.

According to a release from the governor’s office, this process is still ongoing.

‘Election integrity is essential to our democracy,’ Abbot said in the statement. ‘I have signed the strongest election laws in the nation to protect the right to vote and to crackdown on illegal voting.

‘Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting.’

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a new slimmed-down version of his indictment against ex-President Donald Trump for alleged election interference in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.

The move comes after the Supreme Court in June granted the former president substantial immunity from prosecution for acts ‘core’ to his official duties.

The superseding indictment was returned by a new grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, which had not previously heard evidence in the case.

Prosecutors write that the fresh indictment ‘reflects the government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions.’

It contains the same four core charges against the former president for trying to subvert the election: Conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

But it is pared down to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

Vice President Kamala Harris is being called out for ‘rewriting’ her story about where she really grew up in northern California to claim more moderate beginnings.

The presidential hopeful speaks fondly about her upbringing in Oakland, California, but she actually spent the majority of her youth and early school years in Berkeley, a place with more leftist connotations.

During her presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago, Harris spoke about how her mother rented an apartment in ‘the East Bay.’

‘In the bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands,’ she said. ‘We lived in the flats, a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride.’

Harris, however, did not officially move to the flats of Oakland until she was an adult in her 20s, according to the New York Times.

Although she was born in an Oakland hospital, her birth certificate lists an  apartment building near to the University of California at Berkeley where her parents were pursuing their doctorates.

Harris has a record of speaking vaguely about her upbringing, likely an attempt to identify with a more humble middle class life, instead of the privileged life as a child of Berkeley academics.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will sit for their first joint interview on Thursday with CNN, according to a release from the cable news network.

The interview will be conducted by CNN’s chief political correspondent and anchor Dana Bash in Georgia on Thursday afternoon and will air at 9 p.m. ET.

The highly anticipated interview will take place 39 days since Biden dropped out of his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris.

Bash has earned trust from President Biden’s White House and Harris’ team.

Bash interviewed Harris in April 2021 where the vice president made her comment about being the last person in the room when President Joe Biden made his decision to exit Afghanistan.

Bash also interviewed Harris in June 2022 about the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.