The Democrats gained the presidency in 2020 with the support of the Grand Canyon State, which narrowly voted to back the party's candidate for the first time since the 1990s.

This state borders Mexico for hundreds of miles, and has become a focal point of the nation’s immigration debate.

Border crossings have fallen in recent months from record highs, but the issue remains one of the top concerns for voters.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Ms Harris’s record on immigration, because she was given a role by President Joe Biden to try and ease the border crisis.

The former president has also vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation” in US history if he regains the presidency.

Arizona has also hosted a bitter row over abortion access, after state Republicans tried unsuccessfully to reinstate a 160-year-old near-total ban on terminating pregnancies.

The issue has become even more polarising since 2022 when the US Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling that gave women a constitutional right to abortion.

Image source, Getty Images

Aside from the presidential race, Arizonans will also be choosing their next US senator in November.

It's a choice between Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego - who is appearing with Tim Walz at his upcoming event in Chandler - and former news anchor Kari Lake, a Republican.

Lake ran an unsuccessful campaign for Arizona governor two years ago, repeating Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Though Lake was only narrowly defeated in that contest, polls suggest Gallego has opened up a comfortable lead in the senate race.

Gallego is a former Marine Corpsman who has served with a progressive record in the US House of Representatives since 2015.

He will face off against Lake later today in their first and only debate.

Image source, Getty Images

In the next hour, we expect Democratic vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz to participate in an event in Chandler, Arizona, focused on veterans and military families.

He will be joined by Congressman Ruben Gallego, who is running for the state's open Senate seat, and James McCain, the son of late Arizona Senator John McCain.

In his final years, the elder McCain - a well-respected lawmaker with a maverick streak - often found himself at odds with Donald Trump.

The feud began in earnest after Trump remarked that the Navy veteran, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was only considered "a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured”.

McCain, who ultimately declined to endorse or vote for Trump in 2016, exacted some measure of retribution when he killed the then-president's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act with a dramatic thumbs-down on the Senate floor.

After his death in 2018 from glioblastoma, Trump has continued to speak out against him.

McCain's wife, Cindy, went on to vote for Joe Biden in 2020 and Republicans failed to hold McCain's seat.

Jim McCain's decision to get on the campaign trail comes after he registered as a Democrat and endorsed Kamala Harris. He said he made the decision because he felt Trump had disrespected veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery by taking photos with supporters at the site.

Image source, Getty Images

History suggests that hurricanes have reduced voter turnout in hard-hit areas - and the ongoing hurricane season threatens to have a similar impact.

Hurricane Milton is set to slam into Florida, threatening devastation to parts of the state already piled up with debris from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks earlier. It remains unclear how many other states will be affected.

Helene was the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005. The storm made landfall in Florida before ripping through two crucial swing states - North Carolina and Georgia - that many observers believe could help decide the election.

On Monday, the North Carolina Elections Board announced changes to its early voting processes in 13 counties in the western part of the state, which continues to reel in the aftermath of Helene.

The Trump campaign and some Republican allies have also seized on the federal government's response to the hurricanes, spreading false claims about the recovery effort.

Officials are currently briefing President Biden on the storm - you can follow updates on that here

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Like many Americans, Hayden Cook decided long ago who to vote for in this year's presidential election.

And yet, every day, the 19-year-old from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is bombarded with political ads, despite installing a blocker on YouTube and opting out of cable television.

"It's still so constant," Cook said. "Work is six minutes away - you're already hearing two or three ads; then we have the radio on at work and there's ads there."

More than $10bn (£7.6bn) is expected to be spent on political advertising this election. That is up some 20-25% from 2020 - itself a record-setting cycle - depending on which forecaster is consulted.

If election success were determined by dollars alone, Harris could be declared the winner now, as she has significantly out-fundraised and outspent her Republican rival.

But elections are about more than a bottom line and an outspent Trump did prevail once before.

Keep reading

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Last week, I travelled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where both parties have focused their message on "pocketbook" issues in a bid to woo voters in the notoriously purple state.

Kamala Harris will be in the state tomorrow - part of a push into sunbelt states that includes Arizona, where JD Vance and Tim Walz are campaigning today.

While unemployment in Nevada has recovered from pandemic-era highs of 30%, unemployment in Nevada still stood at 5.5% in August - the highest in the US. In Las Vegas, the figure was about 6.7% the month before.

In dozens of interviews over the course of a week, residents almost unanimously told the BBC that economic issues - particularly inflation and high housing prices - are their most pressing issues before they head to the polls in November.

It's a trend that both the Republican and Democratic parties are well aware of.

"Nevadans are focused on the issues that hit closest to home—kitchen table issues like rising costs, stagnant wages, and affordable housing," Nevada Republican chairman Michael McDonald said in a statement. "When we ask ourselves if we are better off than we were four years ago, for most of us, the answer is no."

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Mastro said that she believes that "too many Americans are struggling with high prices" - and believes that Kamala Harris's message of lowering prices and going after corporations that "are taking advantage of consumers" will resonate with many Nevadans.

"On the other hand, Nevada voters know that former President Trump has no plan to lower their healthcare or housing costs, enacted a bill that gives handouts to the super wealthy and is famously anti-organised labour," she said. "Coming to the table with actual solutions makes a different to hardworking Nevada families."

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

During a week's worth of interviews in the Las Vegas area, voters - many of whom work in the city's hospitality industry - most identified inflation as their main concern before the November election.

“$5 isn’t $5 anymore, and $100 barely gets you any groceries,” said Fermin Gonzalez, an unemployed, Mexico-born ex-restaurant worker who, at 60, fears he will have difficulty finding work again. “We used to be able to make money here. People are dissatisfied….I think Trump will win.”

Dominic Richmond, a 50-year-old single grandmother who cares for four young special needs children - aged one, four, six and nine - as well as a mother with dementia who lives nearby, told the BBC that inflation, combined with child care issues, has made life almost impossible.

“When you put it all together, it’s like a hurricane coming at you,” she said, wiping away tears at the offices of Children’s Cabinet, a local non-profit. “It hurts. It’s just me doing all this. You can’t function in society on ‘just me’....our savings are gone.”

If you're just joining us, here's what's happening on the campaign trail today.

Donald Trump is seeking to make inroads in Pennsylvania, which both camps consider must-win. First he will make remarks at 15:00e (19:00 GMT) in President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, then he will hold a campaign rally focused on immigration at 19:00e (23:00 GMT) in Reading, the fourth biggest city in the state.

JD Vance, his running mate, is in Arizona as early voting kicks off in the southwestern state. He will participate in an early voting rally at 15:00e (19:00 GMT) at the Tucson Speedway, then travel to Mesa for a town hall event at 18:00e (22:00 GMT).

Kamala Harris has no events scheduled today. She and President Joe Biden are being briefed on the preparations for Hurricane Milton and she will later depart for Nevada, where she will hold events tomorrow.

Tim Walz, her running mate, is on his own trip to Arizona. At 13:00e (17:00 GMT), he will hold an event focused on veterans and military families, with Democratic Senate hopeful Ruben Gallego and Jim McCain, the son of late Republican Senator John McCain. At 14:30e (18:30 GMT), he will meet with tribal leaders from Arizona’s Native American communities. Then he will rally in the Tucson area at 17:30e (21:30 GMT).

Image source, Getty Images

Turning our focus back to the 2024 campaign, Fox News has just proposed another presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump - on either 24 or 27 October.

Their first debate - which was also the first time the two candidates had met face-to-face - took place last month in Pennsylvania, hosted by ABC News.

Harris drew strong reviews with her performance and ticked up in the polls.

Trump claimed victory and dismissed critics by arguing that ABC's moderators had been biased and created a three-on-one outcome.

On Tuesday, CNN nudged the candidates to give a formal response by Thursday as to whether or not they will participate in a 23 October debate on that network.

Harris had already accepted, but Trump has not, saying it was now too late because early voting has begun in multiple states.

Presidential debates are typically organised by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, but this year saw the Democratic and Republican campaigns bypass the CPD, negotiating directly with TV networks instead and agreeing on specific rules.

The result appears to be that American voters will get only one presidential debate before they cast their ballots - rather than the three that the CPD had planned to host.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he spoke with Donald Trump last week.

The revelation came ahead of Netanyahu's call with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this morning.

"The former American President, Donald Trump, on his own initiative, called Prime Minister Netanyahu about a week ago, and congratulated him on the determined and powerful actions that Israel carried out against Hezbollah," the PM's office said in a statement.

US Senator Lindsey Graham also participated in the conversation, the statement added.

US media reports indicate that President Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu are currently on the phone, with Vice-President Kamala Harris joining in remotely from New York.

Harris will also be briefed at noon local time (1600 GMT) on the preparations for Hurricane Milton, once again alongside Biden,

The White House has in recent weeks sought to highlight Harris's role and influence within the administration.

She has been included on more key calls and briefings than she typically participates in, and she has recently begun issuing competing statements with Biden on major developments in the country.

But Harris's growing involvement has also rankled some.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he had refused to take a call from Harris earlier this month because she had never called ahead of previous hurricanes. Harris hit back, saying the Republican governor was playing political games.

Image source, Getty Images

Democratic vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz has waded into his party's long-term discontent with the Electoral College.

Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections but have not won the Electoral College on each of those occasions - their most recent, and possibly most bitter, defeat being in 2016, when Hillary Clinton secured nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump but narrowly lost critical swing states.

Speaking to donors at the home of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Walz said "we need a national popular vote".

"I think all of us know the electoral college needs to go," he continued. "But that's not the world we live in. So we need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada and win."

A spokesperson for the campaign sought to clarify that Walz had done nothing more than "commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes".

But the Trump campaign quickly lashed out, suggesting that the Minnesota governor was laying "the groundwork to claim President Trump's victory is illegitimate".

Image source, None

Hurricane Milton is casting a long shadow over US politics today, with President Joe Biden cancelling an overseas trip to oversee preparations, as we reported earlier.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now sharing updates on his state's preparations for Hurricane Milton, a category four storm set to make landfall tonight.

DeSantis says he has been in contact with Biden, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), and 20 other states, adding: "This is just what we as Americans do."

"We're facing this with the seriousness it deserves but also with the determination that we will get through this," the Republican says, urging those who have not yet evacuated to use the time left to leave.

The gulf state is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago, and officials have been issuing dire warnings to flee Milton's impact zone.

Follow the latest developments on the hurricane

Image source, Getty Images

Away from the campaign trail, a crucial phone call between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to take place today.

Tensions have been rising between the two leaders, who have reportedly not spoken in nearly two months.

In the latest hiccup between the allies, a planned trip to Washington on Tuesday by Israeli defence chief Yoav Gallant was vetoed at the last minute by Netanyahu, according to Israeli media.

Wednesday's call comes one week after Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel and as Israel weighs its response, including potential strikes on Iran's oil infrastructure.

One US official told Axios, which first broke news of the Netanyahu-Biden call, that the Americans will "try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation".

Image source, Kamala Harris/ Twitter

An appearance on late-night television on Tuesday gave Kamala Harris a prime opportunity to respond to new reporting that suggests Donald Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin and stayed in touch with him after he left office.

(Trump's campaign dismissed the report).

Harris told host Stephen Colbert that Trump “gets played by these guys. He admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter him or offer him favour”.

The Democratic nominee was also asked about the war in Gaza. She told Colbert that the progress made toward a ceasefire would be “meaningless” if one is not eventually reached.

“We must have a ceasefire and hostage deal as immediately as possible. This war has got to end. It has to end,” she said.

But the enduring image from her interview on The Late Show will likely be the moment Harris shared a beer with Colbert, after he observed 2024 was “the vibes election” and voters wanted to know which candidate they’d like to share a beer with.

Over light conversation with their beverages, Harris needled Trump as a perennial “loser”, then joked: “This is what happens when I drink beer!”

Image source, Getty Images

A new book by veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodward says Donald Trump secretly sent coveted Covid-19 testing machines to Vladimir Putin for personal use when they were in short supply.

The book - titled War - also includes a report that Trump has secretly stayed in touch with Putin since leaving office, according to excerpts cited by US media.

The reports have been angrily dismissed by the Trump campaign, which said none of the "made-up stories" were true and that the Republican nominee had provided Woodward with "absolutely no access".

Trump himself told ABC News on Tuesday: "He's a storyteller. A bad one. And he's lost his marbles."

Woodward, who rose to fame for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency, has written several best-selling books based on access to high-level sources.

Trump had previously spoken to Woodward for the journalist's 2021 book, titled Rage.

He later sued him over it, claiming Woodward did not have permission to release recordings of their interviews, an allegation denied by the author.

Image source, Getty Images

President Joe Biden was scheduled to depart for Berlin, Germany tomorrow and then travel to Angola in central Africa - but Hurricane Milton has scuttled his plans.

The White House said the president was staying to oversee preparations for the storm as well as the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene across the US southeast.

Milton is currently a category four hurricane that threatens to ravage Florida with catastrophic storm surges and deadly winds when it makes landfall late tonight or early tomorrow.

Last night, Biden spoke by phone with two local officials - Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector and Pinellas County Chairwoman Kathleen Peters - and urged them to contact him directly if further assistance is needed, according to the White House.

The postponement comes as a big blow to Biden's intended hosts.

His trip to Angola would have marked his first trip to the African continent as president.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters on Tuesday their meeting "would have been very important" and preparations had been made "on all sides", though he added he would have made the same decision to cancel if faced with such severe weather.

You can follow updates on Hurricane Milton here.

Image source, Getty Images

The southwestern state of Arizona kicks off its early voting period, which will last from today through 1 November.

The deadline for residents to register to vote was this past Monday.

Arizona joins nine other states in launching some form of early voting before Election Day.

Vice-presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz are both campaigning here later today, and the Harris campaign is launching a blitz of events over the next few days to coincide with early voting.

The Grand Canyon State is one of the most competitive states this year. In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, the first win for a Democrat here since 1996.

But recent polls suggest a narrow lead for Trump over Harris. A win here on Election Night likely opens up a pathway to the presidency for the Republican nominee.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Hello and welcome to our politics live blog. We are now only 27 days away from Election Night in America.

Both campaigns are homing in on battleground Arizona, as early voting kicks off in the southwestern state. Democratic vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz and his Republican counterpart, JD Vance, will hold competing campaign events across the state.

Donald Trump will hold two events in must-win Pennsylvania, including one in President Joe Biden's home town.

Kamala Harris remains in New York but will be briefed remotely on preparations before Hurricane Milton hits Florida tonight, then she will depart for Nevada, where she will hold campaign events tomorrow.

In the White House, President Joe Biden has cancelled an overseas trip to Germany and Angola as Milton - currently a category five storm with life-threatening storm surge and winds - bears down on the mainland.

Biden will also speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in weeks. Tensions have been rising between Washington and Tel Aviv, so we'll be watching the developments closely.

Stay tuned as we bring you coverage through the day.