Vice President Harris expresses optimism for America in final message to Michigan

EAST LANSING — Vice President Kamala Harris made her closing argument to Michigan voters Sunday in a bustling building full of MSU students, describing an optimistic and hopeful vision for the nation that stands in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s dire warnings about in anticipation of a world war and a nation in decline.

“We view our fellow Americans not as an enemy, but as a neighbor,” Harris said to loud roars.

“In this election, we have the opportunity to finally turn the page on decades of politics driven by fear and division,” she said. “America is ready for a new start” and “a new generation of leaders,” Harris said. , who turned 60 in October but is still nearly two decades younger than Trump, 78, and President Joe Biden, who turns 82 this month.

Harris said she sees “the promise of America in all the young leaders who are here.”

Harris campaigned in three cities in the key state of Michigan and plans to campaign Monday in Pennsylvania, also a critical swing state. She spent Sunday in Michigan appealing to two key voters – black voters in Detroit and Pontiac and young voters at MSU.

MSU Fire Marshal Thomas Miller told the Free Press on Sunday that the crowd inside the Jenison Field House was about 6,500 people, which he said was the maximum he allowed for safety reasons. Built in 1940, the barn-shaped building is the former home of the Spartans basketball team. On Sunday, he was surrounded by huge green and white banners reading “Vote for Freedom” and “President for All.” Another large crowd watched the action on screens installed outside.

Opinion polls released Sunday still showed Harris and the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, within the polling margin of error both in Michigan and nationally, and it was not clear how soon an announcement would be made winner after voting closed Tuesday night.

Trump, meanwhile, planned to hold his final campaign event late Monday in Grand Rapids. as in the two previous presidential elections.

“Today is Kamala Harris’s last chance to make Michiganders think that the last four years have not been a total failure,” said Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign in Michigan, which has hit out at the Biden administration over inflation and illegal immigrants. crossing the Mexico-US border. “But Michigan voters know better.”

Sunday marked the 16th day Harris has spent in Michigan this year, although she made four visits before launching her presidential campaign in August. Trump was in Warren on Fridayspeaking at Macomb Community College, and his rally in Grand Rapids late Monday will mark his 17th day in Michigan in 2024.

Sunday also marked the last day of early voting in Michigan before Election Day on Tuesday. According to the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office, Nearly 3 million ballots were cast in Michigan as of Sunday afternoon.

Samantha Thomas, a Lansing resident and senior business administration major at Ferris State University, was among thousands of people wait in line on Sunday afternoon enter the MSU site.

This is Thomas’ second presidential election, but “this is my first rally,” she said.

Thomas said she has already voted by mail and that reproductive rights and other women’s rights are the most important issues for her in the election.

“I just want to have the freedom to express my voice through voting,” she said.

Polls show Trump is doing well among young white men. Asked if she saw evidence of this among her peers, Thomas said she tended to associate with people who shared political views similar to her own. But based on television media interviews she’s seen or read with young white men who support Trump, she feels some of them are “making things up” or “exaggerating.”

Jaylen Baker, a senior communications major at MSU and a first-time voter, was also in line outside the Jenison Field House.

Baker said Trump’s campaign is surrounded by a “symbol of masculinity” and he believes the campaign is intentionally using certain language that plays on certain male stereotypes to appeal to young white men.

But based on his own research, Baker said he feels confident heading into Election Day. “Harris has a lot of support from Democrats” and “a lot of blue dots” on the national map, he said.

Baker said one of the most important issues for him in the election is combating misinformation.

Harris spent much of Sunday in metro Detroit working to increase support for blacks after flying to Michigan from New York following a brief and previously unannounced appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

At the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in northwest Detroit, Harris quoted scripture and talked about going to church in Oakland, California, with her sister as a child.

“God has a plan for us, good plans for us, plans that will unite us as a nation,” she told the congregation who supported her. “(But) It’s not enough to believe in these plans, we have to act.”

“We have two days before we decide the fate of our nation,” she said.

Harris also met with patrons at Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles restaurant on Livernois in Detroit, taking selfies and shaking hands with a crowd that included Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan before holding a short discussion at a historically black barbershop in Pontiac.

Asked if she had a final message to Michigan’s large Arab-American and Muslim community, many of whose members are angry that Harris and President Joe Biden have not demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or ordered an Israeli arms embargo, Vice the president said she has the support of “many who represent the interests and concerns of the Arab American community, but I also know quite well that this is not a monolith.”

“As far as Gaza is concerned, I have made it very clear that the rate of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” she said. “We need to end the war and we need to get the hostages out, and as President of the United States I will do everything in my power to achieve that goal and a two-state solution where the Palestinians have the right to self-determination, security and stability in region.”

“But again, the issues (affecting community members) are as varied as they are for any constituent… These are issues that resonate in this community as well as in every other community, and I will continue to talk to members of this community. communities and ask for their votes, which I hope I will earn.”

MSU is also located inside a congressional district that is considered a key race nationally. between Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing and Republican Tom BarrettCharlotte. Both are former state senators. Hertel addressed a large crowd on Sunday.

October 28 Harris held another large rally near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Contact Paul Egan at 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.