Vice President Kamala Harris fired up a crowd of young voters on the Michigan State University Campus Sunday night after a shock poll out of Iowa gave her hopes she could find a path to victory fueled by women voters.
The Democratic candidate made a bold claim about the state of the presidential race with polls on a knife-edge less than 48 hours until the polls close.
‘We have momentum on our side can you feel it?’ she told thousands of screaming student voters inside the Jenison Field House on campus in East Lansing.
The showdown between Harris and Trump is shaping up to be one of the closest in 50 years.
The candidates are frantically jetting between swing states that will decide the election as time runs out in one of the most unprecedented presidential election campaigns in generations.
Vice President Kamala Harris got loud applause when she spoke about abortion rights and praised Generation Z
She gave a nod to a campus hero when she called it ‘the house of my dear friend Magic Johnson – Go Green!’
And in an acknowledgement of a challenge that has dogged her candidacy as it did President Biden’s, she spoke at some length about the Middle East at the top of her remarks. That allowed her to get a jump on potential protesters and disruptions.
She gave a shout out to leaders of the Arab American community ‘which has deep and proud roots here in Michigan,’ then added: ‘This year has been difficult given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza.’
She said as president she would do ‘everything in my power to end the war in Gaza’ – getting cheered loudly inside the venue – as well as to ‘bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure’ and ensure ‘the Palestinians people can realize their right to dignity, freedom and security and self determination.’
Harris managed to get through the speech without suffering major protests – although a man yelled ‘Cease fire!’ just after she heralded ‘Gen Z’ and told student leaders, ‘I see you and I see your power.’
Democrats traditionally hold the edge among young voters, but the Harris camp has had to stare down troubling surveys showing erosion in the group in battleground Michigan – a state that is key to her most plausible path to victory.
At the same time, she must contend with worries about a shift of some Arab American and Muslim voters toward Donald Trump amid fury over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The late polling shows a big gender gap, with Harris running up the score among women, and Trump holding a big edge among men.
One of her biggest lines in East Lansing came when she spoke about abortion and the ‘fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.’
Harris already banked the vote of Daphne Ruby, a 21-year-old fourth year student. ‘Honestly, it was just very calming … I feel like we all just agree on one thing and that’s just like we want something better for our country,’ she said.
Harris talked up the importance of young voters on the last day of early voting in Michigan
Supporters react as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House
'You all are rightly impatient for change,' Harris told Gen Z voters, in one of her stock lines. 'I see you and I see your power,' she said
Brooke Racine, 19, a first-time voter from Lake Orion, liked how Harris handled the Gaza issue. 'She hasn't really said much about it, so I'm happy that she said first thing' about the issue, and noted that a lot of college students are concerned about the issue.
'I think her saying it here, and saying it so clear, that was really important,' she said.
With just two days before Election Day, it was a day of demographic strategy for the Harris campaign.
The campaign said there were 7,000 people packed into the arena, with more outside in an overflow area.
Harris's optimism came on a day when some encouraging polls came in for her.
But she holds the narrowest of an edge in battleground Michigan and Wisconsin, with Trump holding a tiny margin in Pennsylvania in the RealClearPolitics average.
Harris started her day in Detroit, where she visited a black church just hours after her surprise trip to appear on 'Saturday Night Live' – in a bid to get before as many eyeballs on TV as possible.
Later, she visited a barbershop in Pontiac, in Oakland County Michigan, a critical battleground where Joe Biden won with 56 percent of the vote in 2020.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled around the state of Michigan Sunday
Harris spoke at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit to start the day
Harris rallied students at Michigan State University, days after rallying students at the University of Michigan. They packed into the Jenison Field House, where Magic Johnson once powered the Spartans
Read More
Donald Trump jokes assassins would have to 'shoot through the fake news' to kill him
She also popped into Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles in Detroit’s Livernois district – in the final hours of a campaign that began with a play by Trump to question her racial identity.
Those stops were meant to underline the importance of African American voters turning out to vote, in a race where Trump has eaten away at a traditional edge among Black and Hispanic men.
'As a nation, we face real challenges, we carry real burdens. We feel real pain, and we must remember that faith, combined with our actions, gives us power, the power to move past division and fear and chaos, the power to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God,' Harris said, speaking at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit.
'And the power to fulfil The promise of America, the promise of freedom and opportunity, not just for some, but for all,' she said, in a city with a long history of labor and civil rights direct action.
'So church, we have two days, two days until we decide the fate of our nation,' she said.
She didn't mention Trump by name on her fourth consecutive Sunday in a Black church, although she did say 'there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos.' It came on a day Trump went on what he calls 'the weave' at his afternoon rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania. He called Democrats 'demonic,' complained about the bulletproof glass surrounding him, said 'somebody would have to shoot through the fake news' to get him, and said he 'shouldn’t have left' the White House in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden.
The shock Des Moines Register / Mediacom poll had Harris leading Trump 47-44 in Iowa, a state that hasn't been competitive in a presidential race in November for years.
The Trump campaign dismissed it as an outlier, although it drew sudden attention by showing Harris beating Trump by 20 points, 56 to 36, among women, greater than his 52-38 margin among men.