KALAMAZOO, Michigan — Democrats’ pinch-hitter took the swing they wanted.
Michelle Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time since the Democratic National Convention on Saturday to make an explicit appeal to one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ weakest voting blocs — men — and other constituencies Democrats are scrambling to turn out.
Introducing Harris at a rally here, Obama said the race between the vice president and former President Donald Trump is “too close for my liking” and she is “deeply concerned … that too many of us are still confused and buying into the lies and distortions from people who do not have our best interest at heart.”
One of the Democratic Party’s most popular surrogates, Obama challenged the perception that voters — including some Democrats — feel like they still don’t know enough about Harris, arguing the vice president is being held to a “higher standard” than Trump. She delivered a blistering critique of the former president, from his failures in handling Covid-19 to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot after “the American people fired him from a job that was too big for him to begin with.” And she issued one of Democrats’ most explicit cases for abortion rights yet in an appeal clearly targeted toward men.
But “let’s not just sit around and complain,” Obama said. “Let’s do something.”
As Obama pleaded with Democrats to turn out, the party is starting to see reason for optimism in Michigan. Public polls have started to swing Harris’ way, though the race remains within the margins. And there are positive signs for Democrats in early voting returns, from the sheer volume of ballots already cast — nearly 1.5 million as of Saturday, per state data — to where and from whom those votes are coming.
“I’m nervous” but “hopeful,” said Sheri Millard, a Democrat from nearby Portage. “I do believe she has a better chance than Joe Biden did.”
Harris and Trump rallied in opposite corners of southern Michigan to mark the first day of early voting statewide. While Trump was in Novi, a Detroit suburb, Harris brought Obama to Kalamazoo as she works to drive up margins in a county that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden by an even larger margin in 2020.
“She is an inspiration,” Harris said of Obama, after the two embraced onstage to raucous cheers from the crowd. “And she motivates us to get to work, especially when the stakes are high.”
Democrats are encouraged by voting statistics so far in Michigan, where the large volume of ballots already cast has defied expectations that early voting would drop off in the post-pandemic era. Turnout in Wayne County, home to Detroit, where Democrats need to run up the score to win the state, is nearing 20 percent, according to state data. And those tracking statewide returns through modeling and publicly available data say women and Black voters have cast early ballots at a higher share at this point than in 2020.
The data is “suggesting Democrats could have at least a slight enthusiasm advantage” — and more so than in other battleground states where early returns have looked less promising for the party, said Tom Bonier, a Democratic strategist and CEO of the data firm TargetSmart.
“In all these other battleground states, Democrats are almost certain to head into Election Day needing bigger turnout from voters of color and younger voters,” Bonier said. If Michigan’s numbers hold, “this could end up being the state where Republicans are going to need the bigger push on Election Day.”
Polling also shows some positive signs for Harris. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Harris leading Trump 49 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in the state — a reversal from the university’s Oct. 9 poll that showed Trump up 50 percent to 47 percent. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, also released Wednesday, similarly showed Harris leading Trump here by 3 percentage points.
But Harris still has vulnerabilities in Michigan, and Republicans believe they are making inroads with key voting groups in the state, including Black, Arab American and Muslim voters, as well as union workers. Trump twice demanded at a rally in Traverse City on Friday that Michiganders “have to” vote for him because of his promises to aid the auto industry. The crowd at his rally in the Detroit suburb of Novi on Saturday was dotted with T-shirts professing support for Trump among United Auto Workers members.
“If we win Michigan,” Trump told the crowd, “we win the whole deal.”
But here in Kalamazoo, Democrats were convinced Obama would do what Harris hoped she would — motivate voters, especially Black voters, to turn out for the vice president. While former President Barack Obama has been campaigning extensively for Harris in recent days — including in Detroit this past week, where his appearance with Eminem (and his rapping of a few bars of the hometown rapper’s “Lose Yourself”) went viral — the former first lady has not hit the trail since the DNC in Chicago in August.
“It’s a historical moment, to have the support of the Obamas. They are so loved. It’s meaningful to a lot of people,” said Tonya Harris, a Democrat from Saginaw. “The energy feels like we’re going to have victory.”
And some attendees, as they danced in their seats, sang along to songs like “Uptown Funk” and started impromptu waves while they waited for Harris and Obama to appear, were simply starstruck.
“I have a bigger girl crush on Michelle Obama than I do on Kamala Harris,” said Mary Nielsen, a Democrat from Kalamazoo.
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