Harris and Michelle Obama aimed to close the gender gap, while Trump appealed to voters of Middle Eastern descent.
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held back-to-back rallies in Michigan for a second week, each appealing to a different demographic on the first statewide day of early voting.
Harris’s Oct. 26 event in Kalamazoo, co-billed with former first lady Michelle Obama, targeted men who plan to vote for a third-party candidate or not vote at all because of lingering questions about the Democratic nominee.
Trump’s rally in Novi appealed to Michiganders of Middle Eastern origin, including adherents of Islam, a demographic comprising some 240,000 state residents, heavily concentrated in the Detroit area, including the suburb of Dearborn.
Michigan, with its 15 electoral votes, is a focal point of both campaigns’ electoral strategies. The candidates made a combined six campaign stops in Michigan on Oct. 18 and two visits this week.
Statewide polls now show Harris with a 0.2 percent advantage, and nonpartisan elections analyst Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.
Trump won the state by 0.2 percentage points in 2016, the first Republican to carry Michigan since 1988. Candidate Joe Biden carried Michigan by 2.8 percent in 2020.
Trump Reaches Out to Middle Eastern Voters
Novi lies in Oakland County, a blue patch of suburban Detroit where Republicans have sought to make gains. Biden won the county with more than 56 percent of the vote in 2020.
Republican speakers at the midday Trump event made an explicit appeal to the state’s Arab and Muslim populations.
“If the Arab and Muslim community gets out the vote, then that’s one more reason that Donald Trump is going to win Michigan—because, guess what? Arab voters in Michigan, they want a strong leader,” Trump advisor Stephen Miller said ahead of the former president’s appearance.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), of Lebanese Christian descent, was among the politicians who spoke before Trump.
Trump during his speech, invited Arab and Muslim leaders to join him on stage and deliver remarks.
Imam Belal Alzuhairi said, “We as Muslims stand with President Trump because he promises peace.” Alzuhairi went on to predict a Detroit Lions Super Bowl victory.
Mohammad, a rally attendee who declined to share his last name, told The Epoch Times that the Dearborn community has “really realized that the Democratic state is not really for us anymore.”
Mohammad said that he didn’t support Trump in 2016 or 2020, but his disappointment with the Biden administration has led him in a new direction.
Earlier this year, 100,000 voters in Michigan, about 13 percent of the total, cast “uncommitted” votes in the Democratic primary in protest of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. The Uncommitted National Movement—which started in the Great Lakes state—in September declined to endorse Harris.
Mohammad’s biggest concern in this election is the economy. The 24-year-old Detroiter questioned claims that the current administration has fueled job growth. “I’m not seeing it here. I’m not feeling it here,” he said.
Harris Appeals Across Gender Divide
The Harris–Obama duo drew an overflow crowd of mostly women to the 5,100-seat Wings Event Center on Oct. 26, though the former first lady’s remarks largely focused on men.
Echoing remarks made by her husband on Oct. 10, Obama devoted a lengthy portion of her 40-minute speech to urging men to support Harris.
Recent polls have shown a wider-than-usual gender divide in this race, with women preferring Harris by a 13-point margin and Trump having a 10-point advantage with men.
The former first lady expressed her concern that many voters continue to withhold support for Harris. “There are still folks wringing their hands, crossing their arms, tuning out, and saying they plan to sit this election out to prove a point,” Obama said.
Shifting to the topic of health care, Obama addressed men directly, saying they must support Harris for the sake of their wives and daughters. “I want the men in the arena to bear with me on this, because there’s more at stake than just protecting a woman’s choice to give birth,” Obama said.
Obama said that Trump intends to dismantle the women’s health care system piece by piece. “In the worse-case scenario, you might be the one holding flowers at the funeral. You might be the one left to raise your children alone.”
Harris’s remarks paralleled her usual campaign speech, which promises a more prosperous and unified America under her leadership while questioning Trump’s fitness to hold the office of the president.
Harris also painted a picture of Trump’s policies being a threat to women’s well-being, repeating the assertion that he intends to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. Trump has stated that he intends to allow states to decide the matter and will not pursue a federal abortion ban.
Since the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in June 2022, seven states have voted on abortion-related referendums. The outcome favored abortion access in all seven states.
Harris closed her remarks by urging voters to go to the polls.
Early voting began in Detroit on Oct. 19 and in Canton Township and East Lansing on Oct. 21. Michiganders in all counties may vote early at regional early voting sites Oct. 26 through Nov. 3.