Two candidates in the same state: US President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden are campaigning this Friday in Minnesota.
The tenant of the White House will deliver an outdoor speech in the evening at an airport in the city of Bemidji.
The former vice-president of Barack Obama preceded him in the afternoon to Duluth, a large city on the shores of Lake Superior, close to vast wilderness but also to the great mining region of the Iron Range.
The Democrat has once again exhausted Donald Trump's management of the Covid-19 pandemic, by directly appealing to minors in the region who had voted for the Republican billionaire in 2016, after decades of Democratic victories.
"How many people across the Iron Range, how many empty chairs around the table at night because of his shortcomings and his selfishness,"
Joe Biden said after visiting a union training center , near Duluth.
"Times are tough, unemployment has increased,"
he said.
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Deploring his management of the health crisis which has claimed nearly 200,000 lives in the United States and plagued the world's largest economy, he had called on the president the day before
"to resign"
.
The veteran of politics resumed Friday his new line of attack on the difference between his modest origins and those of Donald Trump, heir to a fortune.
“I don't respect people based on the size of their house.
I don't despise those who break their backs just to earn a living ”
.
After months of confinement and restricted travel around his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden resumed air travel in late August.
Anxious to fight the image of a reclusive candidate that the Republicans brandish, he met voters and firefighters in the streets on Friday.
Despite the Covid-19, his rival travels the country for meetings in front of hundreds of supporters, and multiplies the press conferences.
Advance voting
In 2016, Hillary Clinton had won by a short head in this border state with Canada.
Who thus becomes this time one of the States scrutinized closely because it could decide, in part, of the winner.
According to the latest Morning Consult poll, Joe Biden has a slight lead (48% against 44%) over Donald Trump.
"Sleepy Joe has no idea"
of how to handle a pandemic, the Republican tweeted before flying to Minnesota.
The trip of the two septuagenarian candidates coincides with the start of early voting in this state, either in person or by mail.
According to an ABC / Washington Post poll, nearly 40% of residents in the state plan to vote before November 3.
Voting before the election date has long been in effect in many states.
But the trend should noticeably increase this year: due to the Covid-19 epidemic, many states are indeed offering more flexibility to those who do not want to physically go to the polls on D-Day.
Democratic Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz called on the two campaign teams to abide by state rules to slow the spread of Covid-19.