Trump and Harris on Keystone collision course as campaigns pick up the pace

Labor Day - which is traditionally the starting gun for the final stretch in a presidential election - is now in the rearview mirror.

"Sixty-four days until the most important election of our lives, and probably one of the most important in the life of our nation," Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized as she spoke to supporters at a union gathering in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Tuesday marks nine weeks until Election Day 2024, when Harris and former President Donald Trump face off with the White House at stake.

However, in reality, the election gets underway well before Nov. 5.

ELECTION SEASON STARTS A LOT EARLIER THAN YOU THINK

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)

In a slew of states, the election actually kicks off this month. 

In swing state North Carolina, absentee ballots are mailed out starting on Friday. Early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds.

Next Tuesday, Harris and Trump are scheduled to meet for their first and potentially only presidential debate, a primetime showdown taking place in Philadelphia. 

NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN 4 KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

Pennsylvania, the biggest of the seven crucial battlegrounds that decided the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden, is getting plenty of attention this week. 

Harris returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday, her second trip this week to western Pennsylvania's largest city and union stronghold, and her 10th stop this year in the Keystone State.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden arrive at a campaign event at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh on Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trump, who has also made numerous trips to Pennsylvania this year, returns on Wednesday to headline a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Harrisburg.

Most of the latest national surveys show Harris with a slight single-digit edge over Trump, but the presidential election is not a national popular vote contest. It is a battle for the individual states and their electoral votes.

The latest surveys in the seven key swing states indicate a margin-of-error race. Among those polls are a batch from Fox News that made headlines last week.

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Trump argues he has the momentum.

"We're leading in the polls now," the former president said in an interview Friday with Fox News' Bryan Llenas.

Minutes later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump touted that "our poll numbers are starting to skyrocket."

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamalas Harris. (Getty Images)

Harris is urging her supporters not to pay too much attention to the polls because, as she reiterated on Labor Day, "we are the underdog in this race."

Last week, at a rally in Savannah, Georgia, the vice president predicted that "this is going to be a tight race until the very end." 

The current state of the race is a big change from earlier this summer when Biden was still running.

Biden's disastrous performance against Trump in their late June debate turned up the volume of existing doubts from Americans that the 81-year-old president would have the physical and mental stamina to handle another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from top Democratic Party allies and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race.

National and battleground state polls conducted in July indicated Trump had opened up a small but significant lead over Biden.

The president dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, and Democrats immediately coalesced around Harris, who quickly enjoyed a boost in her poll numbers and in fundraising.

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Still, pollsters and political analysts stress that the Harris-Trump contest remains a coin-flip at this point.

However, Trump's team likes the current poll position, as they point out that the former president has a history of outperforming public opinion surveys.

"At this point in the race in 2016, Donald Trump was down to Hillary Clinton by an average of 5.9 points. At this point in the race in 2020, it was 6.9 to Joe Biden," senior adviser Corey Lewandowski noted this weekend in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.