VP Harris urges younger generation to vote, saying it is 'rightly impatient for change'

ANN ARBOR — With eight days to go until the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday night urged a crowd that included large numbers of University of Michigan students and other young voters to help the nation turn the page from Republican former President Donald Trump, saying their generation is "rightly impatient for change."

Citing many of the issues that have defined a younger generation, from growing up with the threat of climate change and active shooter drills in schools to a more recent rollback of abortion protections nationally, Harris said, "The issues that are at stake are not theoretical issues for you. This is your lived experience. ... I see you and I see your power."

With early voting underway statewide in Michigan, Harris, the Democratic nominee for president promised to fight for the issues that motivate younger voters, including working toward an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. At one point when some of those in attendance started to interrupt her, she said, "We all want this war to end as soon as possible and get the hostages out and I will do everything in my power as president to make it so."

Much of the 25-minute-long speech, for which she was introduced by her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, revolved around Harris' plans to lower costs and help small businesses and first-time homebuyers as well as her arguments that Trump, who is running for reelection after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020, would put in place tariffs that amount to a national sales tax and implement other parts of an agenda that at least one research group in Washington says could hasten a cut to Social Security benefits.

Harris said that while she considers Trump an "unserious person," she added that "the consequences of his becoming president again are brutally serious."

"So much is on the line in this election," she said. "This is not 2016 or 2020. We can all see that Donald Trump is more unstable and more unhinged and now he wants unchecked power. This time, there will be no one there to stop him."

A few thousand people filled a large open space in Burns Park, an Ann Arbor neighborhood park close to downtown and U-M, as a warm and sunny fall day turned into a chilly evening as the sun set before Harris took the stage. Joining Harris at the park was Maryland singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, whose hit songs include "Alaska" and "Light On."

Harris drew loud cheers from the large crowd, many of whom waved maize and blue placards reading "Vote" and interrupted Harris with chants of "Kamala."

Harris and Trump have been frequent visitors to Michigan with only about a week of campaigning left. Monday was the 15th day Harris spent in Michigan this year, though she made four visits before launching her presidential campaign in August. Trump's rally in Michigan on Saturday marked his 15th day campaigning in the state this year.

It was the first Harris rally in Ann Arbor, long a Democratic stronghold in the key battleground state of Michigan. Polls show a near deadlock between Trump and Harris, both in Michigan and across the U.S.

Responding to Harris' visit to Michigan on Monday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said Harris was trying to "gaslight" people about her "dangerously liberal agenda" and noted that most Michigan voters believe Trump is "better suited to tackle the economy."

Trump campaign spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita played on the title of one of the songs Rogers sang, "Light On," in criticizing Harris, saying if she were elected "Michiganders won't be able to afford to keep the Lights On."

Many of those waiting in line to see Harris in Ann Arbor on Monday said they strongly support the vice president's candidacy but they don't feel confident she will win the election.

Ann Arbor residents Mitchell Silverman, a retired software developer, and his wife, Deborah Panush, a retired educator, admitted they don't feel confident about the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, but they said they don't feel Harris could have or should have campaigned any differently than she has.

"Terrified," said Silverman when asked how confident he is that Harris will win, adding that he felt better about the outcome in advance of the 2020 election than he does this year.

The Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol is a major reason Silverman said he feels differently this time.

"I don't understand how Jan. 6 could happen and 47% of America thinks that this is still a good idea to do it again," he said.

Still, "I'm hopeful because time and again history has shown that there is opportunity to surprise," Silverman said. "If you're the right age, you realize that you never expected the Berlin Wall to fall, and it did, without a shot being fired.

"I never expected to see a Black president in my lifetime, and I saw that, too."

Panush, who had never seen Harris speak in person and was excited to do so Monday, said: "Being hopeful beats the alternative," which she said is despair.

Neither Silverman nor Panush felt that Harris should have done more to show that she would be a departure from President Joe Biden.

As vice president, "her job is to be the loyal second," so it wouldn't make sense for her to turn around and appear critical of Biden, Silverman said.

Ann Arbor social worker Claudia Piper said her greatest worry is a Trump victory followed by him dying in office and Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, ascending to the presidency. She fears that if that happens, women could lose not only reproductive rights, but the right to vote, and the U.S. could become what she called a Christian fascist state.

Piper said that while doing volunteer work on the U-M campus in the last few days, she has encountered several young white men who gleefully express their support for Trump and are derisive of Harris' candidacy.

"I haven't seen that kind of rage before, and I've been doing political stuff since I was 12 years old," Piper said.

Ann Arbor resident Candace Bramson, a research physician with a pharmaceutical company, said she follows politics closely and watched the convention speech Harris delivered, her debate with Trump, and has followed many other public addresses she has made.

"I think a lot of it is probably going to be the same, but I'm still just excited to see her in person," Bramson said.

She said she is "pretty nervous" about the outcome of the election.

"I've been watching the polls, and they're deadlocked," she said. "I'm just hoping there's a polling error, or they haven't accounted for turnout."

She said everyone in her social circle is very engaged in the election and many have already voted.

Bramson said she doesn't feel Harris should be doing more to show she would be a departure from Biden.

"He's done great things," such as passing a historic climate bill through the Inflation Reduction Act, Bramson said. "I don't know why people are so critical of Biden."

Earlier in the day, Harris made a stop at a company outside Saginaw that produces materials for semiconductors, which last week was awarded up to $325 million in funding through a Biden administration bill, known as the CHIPS and Science Act, to boost domestic supply chains and help manufacturing. At Hemlock Semiconductor, where Harris met with workers and delivered brief remarks, she referenced Trump's criticism of the bipartisan bill and said when Trump was president "he sold advanced chips to China that helped them with their agenda to modernize their military."

"That's not ... what's in the best interest of America's security and prosperity," she said, according to a press pool report of the event, which was not broadcast.

Harris on Monday also spent about 20 minutes touring a labor union training facility in Warren where apprentices learn a range of skills such as glass fitting and industrial painting. She spoke briefly to a small crowd of supporters at the end of the tour, touted her support for unions and blasted Trump as a foe to labor. When one man said she would win the upcoming election, Harris gave him a high five. “Save our country from him,” another man in attendance told Harris, prompting others in the room to nod their heads in agreement.

While Harris touted federal investments in manufacturing jobs, there’s more at stake this November than the current White House’s efforts to create good-paying union jobs, she said. “One of us is going to be elected, and one of us is going to be sitting in the Oval Office on January 20 and it’s a choice on many levels, including whether you want Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office stewing over his enemies list or what we’re going to do together ... focus on American workers and American families,” Harris said.

She expressed confidence that she’ll defeat Trump. “We are going to win,” she said to applause.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: In Ann Arbor, Kamala Harris urges younger generation to vote