The Latest: Harris and Trump offer competing visions for the economy

Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to build an economy that is both pro-business and helps the middle class. In remarks Wednesday at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in battleground Pennsylvania, she said she “would take good ideas from wherever they come” as she promised to double the number of people being trained in registered apprenticeships and outlined her support for more home ownership.

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump offered his own competing vision of the economy while visiting a furnituremaker in Mint Hill, North Carolina. He defended his idea for a special lower tax rate for U.S. manufacturers and pledged to impose tariffs high enough that there would be an “exodus” of auto factory jobs from Japan, Germany and South Korea.

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Here’s the latest:

Harris makes scandal-plagued Republican the star of her campaign to win North Carolina

There’s an unlikely star in Kamala Harris ′ push to win North Carolina: Mark Robinson.

The state’s embattled Republican candidate for governor, Robinson is featured in conversations this week with Harris volunteers and voters on the phone and at their doorways. Democrats wave signs warning of Trump-Robinson extremism at their news conferences. Billboard trucks circulate in key cities warning that Robinson, also the state’s lieutenant governor, is “unhinged.” And Harris is running a new television advertising campaign highlighting Donald Trump’s history of lavishing Robinson with flowery praise.

No Democrat has carried this Southern state since former President Barack Obama in 2008, whose victory stands as the only Democratic win on the presidential level here in a half-century. But Trump held North Carolina by just 1.3 percentage points four years ago, and it is again emerging as one of the most competitive states in the final weeks before Election Day.

A new mystery firm enters Trump’s orbit, rekindling criticism of his presidential campaign spending

Launchpad Strategies was incorporated less than a year ago and has since received $15 million from Donald Trump’s election fundraising machine.

For what is mostly a mystery. Campaign finance records indicate the limited liability company was hired to provide online advertising, digital consulting and fundraising. On its website, the firm boasts it is a “full-service Republican digital agency run by expert strategists.”

Yet, those expert strategists aren’t identified. An online contact form doesn't appear to work. And business registration records in Delaware provide no clues as to who owns or runs the firm. The campaign’s checks are sent to a P.O. Box in North Carolina.

Campaign finance experts say Launchpad Strategies was built for anonymity and is the latest example of how the Trump campaign has used secretive businesses to obscure its spending from the public.