Vice President Kamala Harris has joined forces with indie singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers to urge young people to vote.
The Grammy-nominated singer and Democratic presidential nominee told students from Ann Arbor’s nearby University of Michigan that voting meant they could have their voice heard in a time when “the future feels so uncertain”.
“You can vote early now through Sunday, November 3rd, and we need you to vote early, Michigan, because we have just eight days to go,” the Democratic presidential nominee said.
“Eight days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.”
“And we will win,” she said. “We have an opportunity to turn the page and chart a new and joyful way forward.”
Michigan had the highest youth voter turnout rate nationwide in 2022, with lines stretching outside polling locations on university campuses.
Democrats hope they can recreate that same enthusiasm this year, with rallies such as the one Ms Harris held in Ann Arbor.
Thousands packed into Burns Park to see Ms Harris and to see Rogers perform, who sang Love You for a Long Time and several of her other hits.
In between sets, Rogers said the headlines she has been seeing on her phone are “terrifying”.
.@maggierogers performs at Kamala Harris rally
💙 pic.twitter.com/wD8vLHOOwS— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 28, 2024
Advertisement
“The future feels so uncertain, and I don’t always know what to do with that feeling,” she said.
Rogers said taking action is greater than fear.
“Voting is the key to the future,” she said.
Early in her remarks, Ms Harris was interrupted by more than a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters.
Hearing the chants of “Israel bombs, Kamala pays, how many kids have you killed today?” she said: “Hey, guys, I hear you.”
“On the subject of Gaza, we all want this war to end as soon as possible and to get the hostages out, and I will do everything in my power to make it so,” Ms Harris said.
The group was escorted out of the event shortly after their chants were drowned out by counter-chants of “Kamala”.
Michigan, because of its sizeable Arab-American population and progressive cities like Ann Arbor, has become the epicentre of activism against Ms Harris and Democrats because of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Throughout her speech, Ms Harris sought to draw contrasts between herself and Republican nominee Donald Trump, describing him as unstable and unhinged, and criticising him on women’s reproductive rights and other issues.
During earlier stops in the Michigan cities of Saginaw and Warren, Ms Harris courted working-class voters, highlighting the administration’s efforts to bring more factory jobs to the state and her support for labour unions.
“I’m here, I’m here for you,” she told workers after touring an International Union of Painters and Allied Trades training facility in Warren.
She said Mr Trump is not concerned about working and middle-class people and specifically called out the way he filled the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union figures, a frequent criticism levied against Mr Trump by union members.
She also hit Mr Trump for lauding Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the social media platform X, for discussing firing striking workers.
In Saginaw, she toured a semiconductor factory to emphasise how government funding for computer chip manufacturers could create factory jobs in Michigan.
She visited days after Mr Trump criticised the bipartisan 2022 law that provides federal money and said he would rather just charge tariffs.
Last week, the Commerce Department said Hemlock Semiconductor would receive up to 325 million dollars (£250 million) in direct support to build a new factory making hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies. The new facility would add 180 factory jobs in Michigan.
As of August, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided 30 billion dollars (£23.1 billion) in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department.
That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the United States to produce 30% of the world’s most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Mr Trump’s presidency.
Still, Mr Trump attacked the policy in a Friday night interview recorded for The Joe Rogan Experience.
“We put up billions of dollars for rich companies to come in and borrow the money and build chip companies here, and they’re not going to give us the good companies anyway,” the Republican nominee told the podcast.
The money has gone to business industry leaders such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung, Micron, Intel and GlobalFoundries to open factories in the US.
