GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both sought support from Arab American voters Friday as they campaigned in Michigan, trying to lock down support in this key battleground state.
Trump was expected to visit a new campaign office in Hamtramck, one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, and he will be joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed him. Meanwhile, three city council members in the same town have endorsed Harris.
The Republican presidential nominee is trying to capitalize on frustration with Harris over the U.S. backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.
Trump’s allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in Michigan, which is a critical swing state in the November election and has a sizable population of Arab Americans, particularly in and around Detroit.
Harris, in comments Thursday following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, said his death provided an opportunity to end the war in Gaza. She will begin her day in Grand Rapids with a rally with other Democratic leaders.
She then goes to Lansing, where she will speak at a United Auto Workers union hall and promote the White House’s record of supporting domestic car manufacturing.
David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Harris, said Friday on CNN that he believed all of the swing states were still in play, but the key was zeroing in on voting blocs.
“We’re going to treat every cohort like they’re a swing voter,” he said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”
Harris’ final event of the day is a rally in Oakland County, northwest of Detroit. Former first lady Michelle Obama will rally with Harris in Michigan on Saturday.
Trump hasn’t commented publicly about Sinwar’s death. He has his own event in Oakland County on Friday afternoon before holding a rally in Detroit in the evening.
Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election.
Trump’s event in Detroit will be his first there since insulting the city last week. While warning what will happen if Harris is elected, he said that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit.” The city spent years hemorrhaging residents and businesses, plunging into deep financial problems, before rebounding in recent years.
One challenge for Harris in Michigan has been union support. Although organized labor is traditionally a Democratic bloc, she’s failed to win some key endorsements.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a co-chair of Harris’ campaign, said in an interview Thursday that the expectation was always that “it was going to be a close election.”
“People are like, ‘Oh it’s so close.’ And I’m like, ‘Have you not been listening for decades?’” Whitmer said. “Michigan is a divided state. And that’s why we don’t write off the reddest of areas on a political map. We show up.”
Kent County, where Harris will start her day Friday, leaned Republican for many years, and was won by Trump by 3% in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020, and it has increasingly voted Democratic recently.
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Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan.