GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris And Donald Trump will both seek votes in Michigan on Friday as they try to block support in this key political battleground.
Harris, the Democratic vice president, will start her day in Grand Rapids before holding events in Lansing and Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.
Trump, the former Republican president, has his own event in Oakland County in the afternoon before holding a rally in Detroit in the evening.
Michigan is one of them three “blue wall” states which, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election.
Trump’s event in Detroit will be his first there since insulted the city last week. While warning of what will happen if Harris is elected, he said that “our entire country will end up looking like Detroit.”
The city spent years undermining residents and businesses and plunged into deep financial trouble before recovering in recent years.
One challenge for Harris at Michigan was support from the union. Although traditionally a Democratic bloc, she has not been able to win some important expressions of support.
Moreover, there have been Arab-American voters skeptical of Harris for the White House’s steadfast support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, co-chair of Harris’ campaign, said in an interview Thursday that the expectation was always that “it would be a close election.”
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s so close.’ And I’m like, haven’t you listened in decades? Whitmer said. “Michigan is a divided state. And that’s why we don’t write off the reddest areas on a political map. We show up.”
Kent County, where Harris will start her day Friday, has leaned Republican for years and was won by Trump by 3% in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020 and it has been voting increasingly Democratic lately.
____
Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed from Flint, Michigan.