Harris will rally with Michelle Obama in Michigan; Biden touts Harris support for labor
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris returned to Michigan on Saturday for a meeting with the former first lady Michelle Obamathe latest in a series of high-profile combinations from her campaign aimed at boosting turnout among the Democratic Party faithful.
She will stop by a doctor’s office in Portage to talk to health care providers and medical students ahead of the meeting, and her remarks later in the day are expected to focus on the fight over abortion rights.
“We are looking at a health care crisis in America that affects people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters after landing at the airport in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden took to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the crowd to “follow your gut” and “do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houstonand she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity power that surpasses everything Donald Trumpthe Republican candidate, has been able to emerge this year. But there is no guarantee that Harris will help in the tight race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, despite electrifying her audience with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to leverage star power for her campaign.
“Kamala is at a dance with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, will hold a rally in the Detroit suburb of Novi on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
Harris and Michelle Obama will be in Kalamazoo, in the southwestern part of the state. It will be the first time that the former first lady will travel for Harris.
It’s also the first day early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters.
When Clinton ran against Trump, Michelle Obama inspired the Democrats with the slogan ‘when they go low, we go high’.
But this year she adopted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago a more caustic approach. She accused Trump of “doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually improve people’s lives.”
Biden went to Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon for a campaign event with the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
He said she once walked a picket line with the United Auto Workers — “she has a spine like a ramrod” — while Trump has undermined organized labor.
“He sees unions as an obstacle to the accumulation of wealth for individuals,” Biden said. “It is in the interest of the labor movement to defeat Donald Trump more than any other race you have been in.”
Biden’s remarks to the predominantly male audience referenced the gender gap that has been a consistent feature of this year’s presidential race.
Biden said of Trump: “I’ll just say it straight: he’s a loser as a man.”
He also said women deserve more opportunities than they have received in the past.
“They can do anything any human being can do, including becoming president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
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Madhani reported from Pittsburgh and Megerian reported from Washington.