Election 2024: Live updates and analysis as America votes in Trump

In her abbreviated campaign, Harris cycled through several different themes when presenting herself as a foil to Trump. She ran with Tim Walz's "weird" putdown and emphasized how "normal" the Democratic ticket was. She promised an "opportunity economy" meant to bring down costs for Americans ( without getting on the wrong side of Wall Street and other corporate interests). She talked about "joy." But her closing argument was a return to the key theme of Biden's 2020 campaign and his since-abandoned re-election bid: protecting democracy.

It was a striking final note given that poll after poll shows that economic issues are top of mind for voters . Was it the right call? In some ways it'll always be impossible to know, because Harris ran an extremely short campaign and campaigns are rarely defined by just one set of arguments they make. But one thing I'll be on the lookout for is what exit polls indicate about how important defending democracy was to Democrats and independents as they cast their ballots.

The Georgia election interference case has already been halted by a pretrial appeal in which the defendants are trying to kick Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis off the case. And Trump was found guilty at trial in New York for falsifying business records, stemming from the Stormy Daniels hush money scheme ahead of the 2016 presidential election. That one is set for sentencing later this month but could be further delayed by appeals whether Trump wins the election or not.