Here's what to watch in the final full week of the presidential campaign

NEW YORK — Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be pivotal in deciding the winner.

Here's what we're watching this week:

Can Trump stay on message (relatively speaking)?

Even before the week began, Trump's campaign risked being knocked off course by controversy. A rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden late Sunday that was meant to serve as a closing message was instead overshadowed by racist insults, including a comedian who called Puerto Rico a ''floating island of garbage.''

And with eight days to go until Election Day, history suggests Trump is virtually guaranteed to say or do something else controversial in the final stretch. The only question is whether it will break through.

If there's one thing we know, it's that Trump cannot help himself. He's been using authoritarian-style rhetoric in recent days to suggest that his Democratic opponents, whom he calls '' the enemy within,'' are more dangerous to the nation than the threat posed by Russia and China.

Democrats will be combing through every Trump interview and public appearance for something similar to exploit. There are also multiple ongoing criminal investigations into Trump, who has already been convicted of 34 felony charges, that could reveal new information.

There is precedent for a final-week stunner, however. Remember, it was Oct. 28, 2016, when former FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress indicating that federal investigators learned of new emails pertinent to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Will Harris' closing message harness Democrats' anxiety?

It would be an understatement to describe Democrats as anxious as Election Day looms. But there was a deliberate effort by Harris' senior team over the weekend to project optimism to help temper the fear.

Harris senior adviser Jen O'Malley Dillon predicted victory on MSNBC on Sunday: ''We are confident we're going to win this thing,'' she said. ''We're seeing extraordinary enthusiasm. This is going to be a close race, and our campaign is exactly where we want to be.''

Harris will try to alleviate Democratic anxiety further on Tuesday when she delivers her ''closing argument'' at the Ellipse, the same spot near the White House where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021 shortly before his supporters attacked the Capitol.

But she's expected to hit broader themes as well, encouraging voters to look behind her at the White House and imagine who will be sitting at the Resolute Desk at a moment of great consequence. She's aiming to drive home the stakes of the Nov. 5 election for undecided voters — especially moderate Republicans who may be uncomfortable with Trump's divisive leadership and extreme rhetoric. And while Harris' team is betting that there is a significant number of moderates who can still be persuaded, progressive Democrats are worried she's not focused enough on economic issues in the campaign's closing days.

Democratic anxiety, we have learned, may be a fact of life.

Where will they go?

The candidates' evolving travel schedules will tell us much about the battlegrounds that will matter most on Election Day.

Here's what we know for sure: Harris and Trump are aggressively competing in just seven swing states that will ultimately decide the election. They are the three so-called ''Blue Wall'' states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — in addition to Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

Harris spent Sunday in Pennsylvania, which may be the election's biggest prize. Harris is next scheduled to go to Michigan. And after Tuesday's closing argument in Washington, she plans to visit North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Wednesday alone. She heads to Nevada and Arizona on Thursday.

What do we know about Trump's schedule? He's booked to host at least one rally every day next week: Monday in Georgia, Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Wednesday in Wisconsin, Thursday in Nevada, Friday in Wisconsin again and Saturday in Virginia.

But as a reminder, these schedules are likely to change based on the campaigns' intelligence on the ground.

Will the early voting surge continue?

More than 41 million votes have already been cast in the election nationwide. Democrats generally have an advantage in early voting, but so far, at least, Republicans are participating at a much higher rate than they have in the past.

Trump, of course, has for years encouraged his supporters to cast only in-person ballots on Election Day. The practice put the GOP at a significant disadvantage. He largely reversed course in recent months as he and his party acknowledged the obvious benefit of being able to bank their votes as early as possible.

Because of the Republican participation, the early turnout was breaking records last week in swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina.

But with the GOP more focused on ''election integrity'' rather than a traditional get-out-the-vote operation, it's unclear whether the uptick in Republican early voting will continue. Democrats hope it won't.

How hard will Trump work to undermine election results?

History may one day decide that the most significant thing Trump said in the closing days of the 2024 election is the thing that many voters barely notice anymore: his persistent warnings that this election is rigged against him.

Still, Trump's unfounded warnings make an already tense and violent election season even more fraught. And there are real threats that foreign adversaries — especially Russia, China and Iran — will meddle in the election.

At the same time, the Republican National Committee has invested tens of millions of dollars into an operation to mobilize thousands of polling place monitors, poll workers and attorneys to serve as ''election integrity'' watchdogs. Democrats are worried that the effort could lead to harassment of election workers and undermine trust in the vote.

Both parties are aggressively preparing for long legal battles no matter who wins.

Will wars in the Middle East shift the focus?

U.S. presidential elections are rarely shaped by foreign affairs, but the wars in the Middle East have been escalating at the very moment that millions of voters are preparing to cast ballots.

If the region spirals further toward all-out regional war or holds steady at an already devastating and destabilizing level of violence could also determine the extent to which the Middle East conflict shapes the U.S. election.