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Trump vows to spend big on White House race

Tampa - Donald Trump vowed to pour his own millions into the race for the White House Wednesday, refusing to be written off in the uphill battle against frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Polls showed the Democratic nominee, who is vying to become the first female US president, still comfortably ahead of her billionaire Republican rival with just 13 days to go before Americans pick a new president.

The 70-year-old Manhattan businessman took heart, however, from a new survey that shows him with a two point lead in early voting Florida, and a slight narrowing in the race nationally.

"We are going to have, I think, a tremendous victory," Trump said in an interview with CNN before heading to North Carolina, one of the battleground states he needs to win on November 8.

Pressed on whether he'll open his wallet to match an onslaught of Clinton ads, Trump said he will have spent $100m by Election Day.

"I'm willing to spend much more than that if I have to," he said.

Trump departed for Charlotte, North Carolina after carving out precious time for the grand opening of his new luxury hotel in Washington, the Trump International Hotel.

A Bloomberg poll out on Wednesday put Trump 45- to 43% among likely voters in Florida, a must-win state for him.

A RealClearPolitics poll average still puts Clinton ahead in the state by 1.5%. But Bloomberg's survey shows Trump doing somewhat better than Clinton with independents, who may hold the key to victory in a state that famously deadlocked in 2000. The Supreme Court decided the outcome, giving the win to George W Bush.

Clinton holds a 4.7% lead nationally over Trump in a poll average compiled by tracker RealClearPolitics, but it has narrowed by over half a point since Tuesday.

"There are 13 days left. Most Americans are going to cast their votes on Election Day. And we know we are going to win this election because enthusiasm and momentum, the movement in the polls," Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CBS This Morning.

"She's the one with the huge advantages. We're the ones with the momentum," she said of Clinton.

President Barack Obama - who will campaign for Clinton on Friday in Florida - has said he wants an overwhelming Democratic victory in order to send the message that Americans reject Trump's divisive rhetoric.

Florida is the country's third most populous state, and one with a wide mix of constituencies, including retirees, Hispanics and Bible Belt whites.

"We don't plan to lose Florida. It is the biggest prize," Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters on Tuesday.


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