US Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned in a packed arena in Arizona hoping to put Republican candidate Donald Trump on the back foot in the west as Trump held a rally in Montana to support a Republican Senate candidate.
The Democratic presidential candidate, less than a month into her bid for the White House, has been on a week-long tour after naming her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, focused on building excitement for her campaign in seven states that could tip the November 5 election.
That tour on Friday brought her to the Phoenix area, where she visited volunteers at a campaign office and spoke to voters.
While travelling, Harris won the endorsement of LULAC Adelante, the political action committee for the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organisation.
It was the group's first-ever presidential endorsement.
In Glendale, a crowd estimated at more than 15,000 greeted Harris, including some pro-Palestinian demonstrators who interrupted the remarks.
Harris has faced anger from liberal voters who disagree with her support for Israel in its war in Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attack.
"The president and I are working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home," Harris said.
"So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about the race in 2024."
Earlier in the week when some protested during her rally in Michigan and interrupted her speech, she had said: "If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking."
Also in the West, Trump held a rally in Bozeman, Montana, a state that Republicans have carried in every presidential race since 1996.
He again attacked Harris in personal terms - calling her "crazy", "dumb" and "low IQ" - and criticised her for not doing interviews or major press conferences since she became the Democratic candidate.
Trump on Thursday mocked the size of Harris' campaign crowds, even though they have matched his of late.
He falsely compared the size of the gathering on January 6, 2021 - the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol - to that who heard Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 in Washington.
"It's not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything," Walz quipped during a speech introducing Harris.
While Montana is not a battleground state in the presidential race, it will host a competitive race that could decide which party controls the US Senate in 2025.
Republican Tim Sheehy, who will be facing Democratic Senator John Tester, spoke at the rally.
Trump began his speech about an hour and a half later than planned after his plane was reportedly diverted to a different Montana airport due to a mechanical problem.
In an almost two-hour speech, Trump again portrayed Democrats as left-wing extremists, dubbing the party's ticket "comrade Walz and comrade Harris".
Trump also responded to a new Democratic attack line, popularised by Walz, that Republicans were weird.
"I think we're the opposite of weird," Trump said.
"They're weird."
Democrats hope to take two Western states that are closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters in November: Nevada and Arizona, both of which Democrat Joe Biden carried narrowly over Trump in 2020.
Both are almost a third Latino, a demographic group of key focus for both parties.
Recent polls taken in both states point to an exceptionally close race.
