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Last debate over, candidates enter final sprint

With the debates behind them, the candidates hit the campaign trail Friday for a final sprint before Election Day.

Already more than 50 million Americans have cast their ballots.

The massive early-vote total gives the Republican President Donald Trump less leeway to change minds before voting concludes. Opinion polls show him trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden, both nationally and, by a narrower margin, in several battleground states that will decide who wins the White House.

Both campaigns were stumping on Friday, with Biden in his home state of Delaware delivering a speech on his plan for the coronavirus response and the economy.

BIDEN: "Folks, together we can harness the unlimited potential of the American people, not just to get back to where we were before this virus, but to get back better."

Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States and cost millions their jobs has remained the key issue in voters minds.

Democrats have cast roughly 5 million more votes than Republicans so far, though their margin has shrunk in recent days, according to a Democratic analytics firm.

Democratic analysts say they are cheered by those numbers but caution that they expect a late surge of Republican votes on Election Day.

Republican strategists say strong in-person turnout in Florida, North Carolina and Iowa gives them hope that Trump can win those battleground states again this year.

Trump helicoptered into The Villages Friday - a sprawling retirement center in Florida, where many seniors in the crowd were without masks, before holding a rally in Pensacola later in the day. Trump won voters above the age of 65 by 17 percentage points in 2016, but polls show him running even or trailing Biden with senior voters this year in the state.

TRUMP: "We're putting The Villages first... and with your vote, we will continue to cut taxes. I got you the largest tax cut in the history of our country, cut regulations, lower drug prices. Your drugs will go down 60, 70, 80%"

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Biden in Florida on Saturday.

Biden entered the final days of the race with more cash than Trump. The Democrat raised about $130 million in the first two weeks of October, about three times the roughly $44 million raised by Trump's campaign.