Battle Royale

By: Elián Zidán

The U.S. election season is entering its final stretch, and it’s been anything but predictable. Over the past several months, we’ve witnessed it all: insults, mockery, and even a dramatic shift in the Democratic field.

This race for the White House has turned into a free-for-all, with both sides doing whatever it takes to win over voters. From the outset, the tone and focus of the attacks have shifted dramatically.

When President Joe Biden first announced his bid for re-election, the primary line of attack from former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party centered on Biden’s age, questioning his physical and mental ability to continue leading the executive branch.

Meanwhile, the Democrats seized on Trump’s growing list of legal battles, using them as ammunition against him.

But everything changed on the night of June 27, when Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off in their first debate.

That moment marked a pivotal turning point for the Democrats, who realized they could not continue forward with Biden leading the campaign.

Under pressure and facing dwindling support from key party strongholds, Biden made the decision to step down from the race, citing "the good of the country".

The news hit like a bombshell. After all, Biden had already secured his party’s nomination through the primaries and caucuses.

Biden’s decision also put an end to the argument that his age had been a liability for the Democratic Party. The big question now was: Who would take his place as the nominee?

After a whirlwind of speculation, which included names like former First Lady Michelle Obama, the mystery was finally solved when Biden publicly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.

At that moment, everything shifted. Donald Trump was no longer facing just any opponent—he was facing a woman, and one 18 years younger than him.

For the first time in U.S. history, a former president was up against a sitting vice president.

Since then, the attacks have taken a dramatic turn. Trump and his supporters have questioned Harris’s legitimacy as a candidate, since she hadn’t been selected during the primaries or caucuses.

Even her race was called into question when Trump made the inflammatory claim that she had "suddenly become Black."

For weeks, uncertainty reigned until the Democratic National Convention, when delegates from across the country publicly ratified Harris as the new party nominee.

From that point on, both candidates began focusing heavily on the crucial swing states that would bring them closer to the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

In one of these key states, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt while speaking at an outdoor rally.

This only heightened the violence of the race. A former president and presidential candidate had narrowly escaped death.

In the weeks that followed, polling data showed the race tightening. The early momentum that had favored Kamala Harris was starting to fade, while Trump’s base remained steady at around 45%.

With time running out, both candidates zeroed in on securing the votes of key demographic groups—namely Latinos and Black men.

As the election nears its conclusion, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have worked hard to win over these important voters.

For both candidates, reaching out to the 36 million eligible Latino voters has become a priority. That’s why both participated in the only Spanish-language Town Hall organized by Televisa Univision, where undecided voters asked them directly the questions that could determine who they’d vote for.

In this election, many voters have made it clear that they won’t be voting for the candidates themselves, but rather for the values they represent—or simply for the “lesser of two evils.”

These elections will be remembered not just for the personal attacks between the candidates, but for how they reflect the state of American society, where intolerance, polarization, and disrespect have become all too common in politics and beyond.

With the race this tight, nothing is guaranteed, and anything could happen on November 5.

Amid the fear of being judged or attacked, many voters will cast their ballots in secrecy, choosing the candidate they believe offers the best path forward, while avoiding the conflict that has come to define this election.

We can only hope that, regardless of who loses, they’ll accept the results gracefully—and that both the loser and their supporters will concede peacefully—for the sake of democracy.