LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held their first rallying drives with Democrats across the Midwest as vice presidential candidates on Wednesday. politically divided The region is crucial to their efforts to win the White House within three months.
The journey, which began in Wisconsin and will move on to Michigan, is aimed at bolstering support from the young, diverse and pro-labor voters that helped President Joe Biden win the election in 2020. But that coalition showed signs of weakening over the summer, especially in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of the Democratic race. Democratic division Regarding Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
With Biden dropping out of the race and Harris officially becoming the Democratic nominee, Arab American communities and major labor union leaders say they are encouraged by the choice of running mate. A little bit of tensionThis suggested to some community leaders that Ms. Harris had heard concerns about another potential vice presidential candidate, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, that he had gone too far in his support for Israel.
“The party recognizes that it has to rebuild its coalition,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Mich. “The selection of Walz is a show of good faith.”
Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat seeking a third term, appeared with Harris at a campaign event in suburban Milwaukee last month and said in a fundraising email Tuesday morning that she was “thrilled to see a fellow Midwesterner among the top candidates.”
Donald Trump was similarly focused on appealing to Midwestern voters. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance Vance has selected the Harris-Waltz duo as his running mate, and he is scheduled to speak in the same state on Wednesday.
The Republican was scheduled to start his day in Shelby Township, Michigan, before traveling to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where Democratic candidates were scheduled to attend a rally with indie folk band Bon Iver.
Vance’s comments in Michigan were intended to pin the blame for rising crime on Harris, both as an attempt to attack her on an issue that motivates Republicans, and as a response to Walz, who, in a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, highlighted the rise in violent crime during Trump’s term in office.
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“Kamala Harris should be removed from her job, not promoted,” Vance said, arguing the former prosecutor was not on the side of police.
Republicans have tried to portray Harris and Waltz as too liberal for the Midwest, with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin saying on a conference call that Waltz was “part of the radical, crazy left, just like Vice President Harris.”
Michigan leaders say Democratic enthusiasm has grown since Harris announced her candidacy.
This could be crucial in Detroit, where the population is nearly 80% black. I’ve been warning you for months. Administration officials have warned that voter apathy in cities that are typically party strongholds could hurt the administration. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, said the enthusiasm in the city right now is “staggering.” He likened it to President Barack Obama’s first presidential election in 2008, when voters lined up to help elect the nation’s first black president.
But some Michigan Democratic leaders worried that picking the wrong running mate could blunt momentum and disintegrate a coalition that only recently came together. It began to unify.
Arab American leaders Significant impact With a large presence in the Detroit metropolitan area, Michigan has been vocal in its opposition to Shapiro because of his past comments about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
These leaders specifically pointed to comments Shapiro made about protests on college campuses earlier this year, which they felt unfairly compared the actions of student protesters to those of white supremacists. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but remains a staunch supporter of Israel.
“Criticizing someone’s position on Israeli policy is in no way anti-Semitic,” Hammoud said. “It’s simply called stewardship and accountability.”
In addition to publicly voicing these concerns, leaders have also privately conveyed their feelings to the White House and Harris’ team.
Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader in Michigan’s large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week. Perez was in the state on official business, and he and other Government officials travel to Japan He went there with Biden to repair ties with the community.
Siblani said he spoke with Perez for more than an hour on July 29 and told him he would “stop” any further discussions if Harris chose Shapiro, a message he also shared with other Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan.
Backlash from Arab Americans and labor union leaders “isn’t the only reason she didn’t pick Shapiro, but it’s one of the big reasons,” Siblani said.
“Not choosing Shapiro is a very good step. It opens the door a little bit for us,” Siblani said, stressing with Hammoud that any meaningful dialogue must include policy discussions.
Jeremy Moss, a Jewish senator from Michigan, was excited about the possibility of Shapiro being the running mate, but was “uneasy” with the criticism he received, as he believed many of the candidates vetted shared similar views on Israel. He didn’t think the criticism influenced Harris’ decision, saying, “Harris is choosing people based on the long game, who she can work with for four to eight years.”
Still, Moss said he was pleased that the Harris-Waltz pairing was not divisive and that a sense of unity among Democrats was “palpable on the ground.”
The United Auto Workers, the nation’s largest autoworkers union, also closely watched the vice presidential selection.
They are To support Ms. Harris will immediately replace Mr. Biden, and UAW President Sean Fain has said publicly that Ms. Harris has the right to choose her running mate, but he also said the union, which has 370,000 members and a large presence in Michigan and other Midwestern states, does not support Mr. Shapiro, who previously worked with Pennsylvania Republicans to expand vouchers, which funnel public tax dollars to private schools.
Fein, along with the other candidates, gave specific praise to Walz in an interview with The Associated Press on Aug. 2, calling the Minnesota governor a “brilliant, sharp-witted man.” In a statement Tuesday, Fein said Walz would be a “great vice president” and that he has “standing for the working class in every way.”
Dingell, a Democrat with deep ties to Dearborn who has mediated discussions between Biden administration officials and leaders of Michigan’s core constituency, echoed that sentiment Tuesday. She said the selection of Walz will add excitement to Wednesday’s rally in Detroit.
“Here comes someone from the Midwest, from the Midwest who really understands our issues,” Dingell said. “He’s going to be her partner. She won’t have to look over her shoulder every two minutes. He’s going to be a total true partner.”
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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Meg Kinnard in Shelby Township, Michigan, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Isabella Vollmert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
