Vice President Kamala Harris is spending Friday and part of Saturday campaigning across Michigan, but she’ll be back a week later with what might be her party’s biggest star: Michelle Obama.
The author, attorney and former first lady announced on Friday morning that she will be joining Harris in Detroit for a get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday, Oct. 26.
The Detroit rally will be the first of at least two pro-Harris events featuring Obama, who announced earlier this week she’ll be joining Harris in Atlanta on Tuesday, Oct. 29. It will also be Obama’s first public campaign appearance since her August Democratic convention speech, which drew widespread praise.
“Michigan! I’ll be joining @KamalaHarris for a rally on October 26 – and I hope you’ll tune in!” Obama posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “It’s up to all of us to do all we can from now until Election Day to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Every single vote counts, and there’s no time to waste! #DoSomething.”
Obama will be in Detroit less than a week after her husband, former President Barack Obama, will be in the city to headline an event of his own.
Their successive appearances ― and the Harris campaign’s focus on Michigan more generally ― stands in contrast to the relative lack of attention that Hillary Clinton campaign gave the state in 2016.
Clinton would end up losing Michigan by just a little more than 10,000 votes. Subsequent analysis suggested a big reason was lack of enthusiasm and relatively low turnout among traditional Democratic Party constituencies, including Black voters, who account for roughly three-quarters of Detroit’s population.
President Joe Biden got higher turnout levels and it’s a big reason he was able to win. Harris and her allies are determined to replicate that, through grassroots actions and frequent appearances ― and all the help they can get from popular surrogates.
The timing of the Michelle Obama visit is critical, because next Saturday will be the first day of in-person voting.
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But the Harris campaign will have to be careful about scheduling if it wants the state’s full attention: The annual Michigan-Michigan State football game is set to take place on the same Saturday, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
Polls suggest voters in Michigan are closely divided, making it one of a handful of states ― along with Georgia ― likely to decide who becomes president in 2025.