In Michigan, Harris and Trump Fight for Blue-Collar and Arab Voters

Mrs. Harris and Mr. Trump arrived in Michigan on Friday as they struggled for literally any voter, especially Arab Americans, who have not yet made up their minds in a swing state that has rapidly risen to the top of each side’s list of targets.

At the rallies held in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County, a key Detroit ‘burb, Ms. Harris leaned into and reinforced appeals to blue-collar Americans as she campaigned in Michigan, a state rooted in the labor movement and where the polls suggest that she could be having difficulty with working class voters.

“Donald Trump is no friend of labor — let’s be really clear about that, no matter what the noise is out there,” Ms. Harris said in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She vowed to “compete for union jobs and develop high paying skilled jobs besides those that require one to hold college education.”

Mr. Trump fired back through a tweet suggesting that his administration would help the auto industry through tax credits and tariffs. It sounds terrible but at this point, the microphone went off and he was left stranded to pace the stage for nearly 20 minutes as he was saying: For tariffs, we are great.”

While the technical issues were sorted out, Mr. Trump said his plans would ensure that the city enjoys an economic revival that he has been dubious of Detroit’s continued recovery this past week. He then opined that Ms. Harris’s tax proposals were going to be ‘economic Armageddon for Detroit.’

In her speech at Grand Rapids in Kent County, Michigan – a state that went for Trump in the 2016 election but flipped to Biden in 2020 – Ms. Harris oscillated between direct and forceful in painting a picture of the heightened risks of the election if Mr. Trump were to win, and more than a little relishing in attempts to again render the president as a man unworthy of serving in that office.

Appearing to refer to Politico’s reporting that Mr. Trump was dodging media appearances because of exhaustion, she jabbed: Lather, rinse, repeat, but if you’re too tired campaigning to shake a few hands and make some speeches, it really does make one wonder whether one is too tired to be President of the United States of America. Come on. Come on.”

After stepping off his plane in Detroit, Mr. Trump called Ms. Harris a “loser” and insisted to reporters: “I’m not even tired. I’m really exhilarated.”

He also later visited his campaign office in Hamtramck, Michigan also know to be home to many Muslim and Arab American voters and whose mayor endorsed him last month.

The former president and his allies have been seeking to take advantage of the fury felt by Arab American and Muslim voters in Michigan towards the Biden administration support for Israel in the war in Gaza. entists’ large number, along with some number of progressives, claim they may not vote for Ms. Harris.

Friday, Mr. Trump arrived in Hamtramck with the city’s mayor, Amer Ghalib, and dozens of the spectators, most of whom are Muslim or Arab American men. “We had a history of estranged and lack of communication with the Republican Party,” Mr. Ghalib said. “Finally, we have arrived to reject that separation.”

Mr. Trump said to his followers I have been working to forceably make peace in the Middle East possible. But prior to that he had some good words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his handling of the Gaza conflict describing him as doing a good job.

Speaking at an evening rally in Oakland County Ms Harris said the passing of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar ‘has to be a turning point’.

“I think everyone should take this opportunity to put an end to the war in gaza, free the hostages and to put an end to the suffering we are going through,” she said.

But in a sorry display of Ms. Harris’s vulnerability with the state’s Arab American voters she was able to name only one official of Arab American orgin – and he is an appointment, who she claimed was supporting her.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump both spoke in Oakland County, the suburban region that has been turning from red to blue gradually as many middle to upper class voters who live in the area rejected Mr. Trump. The democrats are looking to coast big margins in Oakland County and such other areas.

Mr. Trump after coming from Hamtramck engaged in what was termed an economic meeting, an economic round-table meeting, in Auburn Hills, Oakland County. They discussed more about policing, education prospective, and issues concerning with the presence of fluorides in the water than inflation.

However, before focusing on anger toward the automaker, he began his rally at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit on Wednesday evening with a call for people to embrace the economic power of Detroit. “They have been saying comebacks for so long, our America will bring it back and it will be even better than it has ever been,” Mr. Trump said.

The comment seemed like an attempt to soften the language of the assault he launched on the city last week, when here in another address he said, “If this woman wins, our whole country will end up being like Detroit.”

Deportation: Mr. Trump also insisted again on an extreme anti-immigrant policy with lies and a couple of misconceptions about immigrants and crime. He bumbled through the teleprompter, miscounted the days to the election and ended the rally with an bizarre off-note call to fellow Americans to tell their friends, ‘get your fat husband off the couch, get that fat pig off the couch,’ while encouraging them to vote for Trump.

The Trump campaign has been going after Ms. Harris over the economy in Michigan, with Mr. Trump constantly vowing to bring auto industry and manufacturing back — something he vowed during his first campaign only to fail to achieve while in office. Its essence has been calls to blue-collar voters and the middle-class citizens.

Ms. Harris attempted to rebut that out-of-surface during a early evening stop around a United Auto Workers union hall in Lansing.

Ms. Hicks complained that during Mr. Trump’s presidency, “thousands of Michigan auto workers lost their jobs,” she warned, “And if he wins again, we can expect there will be more of the same.”

Michigan is one of the states in which Ms. Harris must virtually guarantee victory to overcome Mr. Trump, along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Some polls suggest that the candidates are fairly evenly matched; The New York Times has put the probability of the candidates on an average of polls at approximately equal.

In interviews, democrats say Michigan is as close as they’ve seen it. Their attempts to liberate the state, which the former president Mr. Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020, have been hindered by the war in Gaza and by the choices made by some national unions such as the Teamsters and the International Association of Firefighters not to endorse a president, after both unions voted for Mr. Biden in 2020.

“I’m not used to it being this tight,” said Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. “It’s close. It’s close.”

Unlike what Mr. Trump posted during his various political escapades, Ms. Harris’s campaign is not shy to admit that it is out to lure the suburban voter. In a memo which was leaked to CBS News the campaign wrote it intended to use the former Presidents unprecedented weakness in the suburbs to carry Michigan. Ms. In the New York Times/Siena College survey of Michigan, Harris tops Mr. Trump by 5 percentage point among suburban likely voters. According to results of exit polls in 2020, Mr. Trump gained a victory among this section of voters.

Democratic Congresswoman of Michigan Debbie Dingell said the party had assembled a formidable ground game, unlike Clinton’s campaign which many Democrats feel was arrogance personified.

“It’s not like 2016,” Ms. Dingell said of the Clinton campaign. “They thought it was done. Now they know it’s not done.”