Of course, Mr. Trump refused to acknowledge this and insisted otherwise. For Ms. Harris, this victory was extremely important because it maintained the momentum of being ahead of Mr. Trump in the campaign with more than 50 days left until Election Day. Immediately after, Ms. Harris was also endorsed by music superstar Taylor Swift - who has 283 million fans on Instagram. Mr. Trump also refused to agree to debate Ms. Harris again.
The above new developments are favorable to Ms. Harris and unfavorable to Mr. Trump, but they do not completely determine the final outcome of the election. Mr. Trump can still win the election and Ms. Harris can still lose. In the 2016 US presidential election, Mr. Trump lost to Ms. Hillary Clinton in all three debates but still won the presidency. The results of public opinion polls in the US are not a guarantee for predicting the outcome of the election.
Mr. Trump has a very stable segment of American voters, and this segment of voters will vote for Mr. Trump regardless of what he does and thinks. But with this segment of voters alone, Mr. Trump cannot be elected.
Harris is in a similar situation. After the debate, Trump and Harris are in different places. Trump will have a hard time, if not an impossible, winning over voters beyond his base, while Harris has a realistic chance of doing so.
Therefore, if he wants to maintain his chances and prospects of winning the election, in the coming days, Mr. Trump must focus his campaign on convincing and mobilizing the segment of voters who are still moderate and do not vote for Ms. Harris. Ms. Harris must focus on mobilizing and convincing this segment of voters to vote for her, especially in battleground states, but also in states that are considered traditional strongholds of the Republican Party in presidential and congressional elections in the United States.
In this way, Ms. Harris can open up multiple paths to the White House, not just the option of winning battleground states, which means building multiple ways to create at least 270 electors needed to win the election.
The debate and subsequent developments have given Harris a new advantage, but not enough to make Trump lose hope. All scenarios for the final outcome of this year's presidential election in the US are still possible. Trump is currently avoiding another debate with Harris, but does not rule out changing his mind closer to the election. For both, the peak of their fierce, uncompromising and unconventional campaigning is still ahead.
