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Vice President Harris expresses optimism about America in closing message to Michigan
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Vice President Harris expresses optimism about America in closing message to Michigan

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EAST LANSING — Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her closing remarks to Michigan voters Sunday in a raucous building packed with MSU students, describing her vision of an optimistic and hopeful nation that contrasted sharply with former President Donald Trump’s dire warnings about it. a pending world war and a nation in decline.

“We view our American friends as neighbors, not enemies,” Harris said loudly.

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

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

Harris has campaigned in three cities in Michigan, the key battleground state, and plans to spend Monday campaigning in Pennsylvania, also a critical swing state. He spent Sunday appealing to two key constituencies in Michigan: black voters in Detroit and Pontiac and young voters at MSU.

MSU Fire Chief Thomas Miller told the Free Press on Sunday that the crowd at Jenison Field House was about 6,500, which he said was the maximum he could allow for safety reasons. Built in 1940, the barn-shaped structure is the former home of the Spartan Basketball team. On Sunday, he was surrounded by giant green and white banners that read “Vote for Freedom” and “President for All.” A large crowd also watched the event on screens set up outside.

Polls released Sunday continued to show Harris and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump within the margin of polling error both in Michigan and nationally, and it wasn’t entirely clear how soon a winner would be declared after voting ended Tuesday night.

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

“Today is Kamala Harris’ last chance to make Michiganders think the last four years have not been a final failure,” said Victoria LaCivita, Michigan spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, which has challenged the Biden administration over inflation and undocumented immigrants. We are crossing the Mexico-US border. “But Michigan voters know better.”

Sunday was Harris’ 16th day in Michigan this year, though she made four visits before launching her presidential campaign in August. Trump was in Warren on FridayHe’s speaking at Macomb Community College, and his Grand Rapids rally late Monday will mark his 17th day in Michigan in 2024.

Sunday was also 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 votes were cast in Michigan As of Sunday afternoon.

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

For Thomas, this is his second presidential election, but “this is my first rally,” he said.

Thomas said she was already voting by mail and that reproductive rights and other women’s rights were the issues most important to her in the election.

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

Polls show Trump doing well among young white men. When asked if he sees evidence of this among his peers, Thomas said he tends to socialize with people who have similar political views to his own. But based on TV media interviews he’s seen or read with young white men who are Trump supporters, he thinks some of them are “making things up” or “blowing things out of proportion.”

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

Baker said there is a “masculinity trope” surrounding Trump’s campaign and that he believes the campaign is deliberately using certain verbiage that plays on certain masculine stereotypes to appeal to young white men.

But based on his own research, Baker said he feels confident heading into Election Day. “There’s a lot of Democratic support for Harris,” he said, and “there are a lot of blue dots” on the national map.

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

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

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

“God has a plan for us, good plans for us, plans to bring us together as a nation,” he told the congregation, to applause. “(But) It is not enough to believe in these plans, we must take action.”

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

Harris also met with diners at Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles on Detroit’s Livernois, took selfies and shook hands with a crowd that included Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, then followed up with a traditionally black barbershop in Pontiac He held a short discussion in his shop.

Asked if he had a closing message to Michigan’s large Arab-American and Muslim community, the vice president said he was angry that Harris and President Joe Biden did not demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and order an arms embargo on Israel. “I know full well that he has the support of many people who represent the interests and concerns of the Arab American community, but that it is not monolithic,” he said.

“I have been very clear about Gaza; the level of deaths of innocent Palestinians is immeasurable,” he said. “We must end the war, we must remove the hostages, and as president of the United States, I will do everything I can to achieve that goal and achieve a two-state solution where Palestinians will have rights.” to self-determination and security and stability in the region.”

“But again, the issues (that concern community members) are as diverse as they are for any voter… These are issues that resonate with that community and all other communities, and I will continue to talk to members of that community and I want to get their votes so I can hopefully win this.” “

MSU is also in a congressional district seen as a key race nationally. Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing. vs. Republican Tom BarrettCharlotte’s. Both are former state senators. Hertel addressed the large crowd on Sunday.

Harris on October 28 Another large rally was held near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

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