There is a growing fear in Democratic circles that the victory in the presidential race may be slipping more and more from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Hill reported.
Of course, Democrats still think Harris can beat former President Donald Trump. Support for the two is so close in the seven states that are likely to determine the outcome of the race that a slight tipping of the scales in favor of one of the candidates or an error in the counting of votes could prove decisive, the media noted.
At the same time, Democrats have expressed concern in private conversations that polls in those states appear to have given Trump a lead over the past two weeks.
The states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are all moving in the same direction in the presidential race, but Harris is losing ground to Trump in the polls, especially in Wisconsin. In Michigan, doubts among Arab American voters worry Democrats. "Can we still win?" quoted "Hill" a Democratic Party strategist. "Maybe. Should anyone be even slightly optimistic right now? No.”
Harris could have another path to victory that would involve winning Pennsylvania, losing another state, but winning North Carolina and Nevada. However, none of these states are firmly in her camp, nor are two other states - Arizona and Georgia.
John Ralston, a veteran Nevada political journalist, also reported an atypical lead in the state among Republican early voters in the state.
"It's too early to call it a trend, but it was an extremely important day for Republicans in Nevada,”, Ralston wrote in his popular blog in the "Nevada Independent". He later noted that Democrats had narrowed the Republican lead overnight, but the GOP maintained a 2-point lead as of Tuesday.
Democratic strategist Jim Manley, who was a senior aide to then-Senator Harry Reid during his tenure as Senate majority leader, acknowledged the news as disheartening. Still, he noted that he's still optimistic about Harris' chances.
"It's damn disappointing that support for the two is so close given how extreme and reckless Trump's rhetoric has become in the last few weeks,” Manley said.
A former White House aide to Barack Obama told The Hill that the race could go either way and no one should be surprised by the outcome.