Joe Biden was campaigning in Ohio today as opinion polls suggest a tight race in the battleground state where Donald Trump stormed to victory four years ago.
The Democratic party former vice-president, 77, has been pouring campaign funds into the “Buckeye State”, boosting advertising especially on local radio stations in rural western counties and in south-eastern Appalachian counties where Mr Trump won convincingly last time round.
Mr Biden was planning an afternoon campaign speech in Toledo, before heading to Cincinnati for a “voter mobilisation event” on his second campaign stop in the traditional bellwether state, which then Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost by 44 per cent to Mr Trump’s 52 per cent.
A new state-wide poll of likely voters shows Mr Trump with a lead of less than two percentage points with early voting already under way.
According to the Great Lakes Poll conducted by Baldwin Wallace University, Ohio Northern University and Oakland University, Mr Biden was leading by five to seven percentage points in the other crucial Midwestern states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Mr Biden has won the backing of model Hailey Bieber, 23, who posted a picture of herself on Instagram sporting a tie-dye T-shirt from his campaign.
