US Vice President Kamala Harris has slammed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for saying he would protect women whether they “like it or not” as he tries to woo female voters.

“I am going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them,” Trump told a rally in Wisconsin on Thursday (US time).

Democrat candidate Harris said it was the “latest on a long series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency”.

She said Trump did not understand women’s “agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies”.

“I think it’s offensive to everybody, by the way,” Harris said.

Harris and Trump will focus on key battleground states on Friday (AEDT) as polls show a deadlocked race in the final sprint to the election finish.

Both presidential hopefuls will court Hispanic voters on trips to Nevada, the smallest of the seven swing states expected to play a decisive role in the election outcome.

It comes as CNN polling showed no clear leader between Harris and Trump in the southern battlegrounds of Georgia and North Carolina.

Voters in Georgia were divided 48 per cent for Trump to 47 per cent for Harris, according to the CNN poll by SSRS.

In North Carolina, Harris was at 48 per cent to Trump’s 47 per cent.

A separate poll for the Washington Post revealed Harris and Trump deadlocked in the swing state of Michigan, with Harris on 47 per cent support and Trump with 46 per cent.

More than 59 million Americans have already voted, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Courting Hispanic vote

Both candidates will be in Nevada on Friday (AEDT), where about 30 per cent of the state’s population is Hispanic, traditionally an area of strength for Democrats.

Former president Trump, however, has gained ground in the nationally and religiously diverse US Latino population.

Nationally, Trump had the support of 38 per cent of registered Hispanic voters in a series of Reuters/Ipsos polls in October, up from 32 per cent at the same point in 2020.

Harris’s share of Hispanic voters was at 50 per cent, compared with Democratic President Joe Biden’s 54 per cent in October 2020.

Singer Jennifer Lopez will speak at a Harris rally in Las Vegas, where Mexican pop rock band Mana will perform. Trump will hold a rally in Henderson, in the city’s south-east, where there is a population of more than 330,000 people.

Trump’s event will be at Lee’s Family Forum, home to the Henderson Silver Knights ice hockey team.

Harris’s rally and concert is part of a series of “When We Vote We Win” events to help mobilise support. Harris will also be in Reno.

Last Sunday, a Trump rally in New York set off an outcry after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”, drawing criticism from a number of high-profile Hispanic Americans.

Singer Nicky Jam backed Trump in September but on Wednesday pulled his endorsement.

“Puerto Rico should be respected,” he said in a video posted on Instagram.

The Trump campaign has said the joke did not reflect its views and has tried to distance itself from the remarks.

“I don’t know who he is … I know nothing about him,” Trump said in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

“I love Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico loves me.”

Trump also said a comment by Biden in which the President appeared to describe some supporters as “garbage” revealed the disdain of Democratic leaders towards his backers. Harris tried to limit the damage.

“I will be a president for all Americans,” she said.

Harris, who would be the first female US president, and Trump, seeking a return to office after his 2017-21 term, diverge on support for Ukraine and NATO, tariffs that could trigger trade wars, abortion rights, taxes and basic democratic principles.

In Nevada, Republicans hold a “robust” lead, according to political commentator Jon Ralston, who posted that nearly 40 per cent of registered voters there have already cast ballots.

Nevada has made changes to speed up its counting after its results came out slowly in 2020, with news outlets not calling the state for Biden until five days after the election.

This year, any ballot postmarked by November 5 will still be counted if it arrives within four days.

On Thursday, Trump will also travel to New Mexico, a stop reflecting a late push to try to “expand the map” and win states that were out of reach for him in 2020, an adviser said.

Also on Thursday, Harris and her running mate Tim Walz will be in Phoenix. Arizona is another state both campaigns are fiercely vying to win.

-with AAP