In the home stretch of the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris will join the former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama on the trail for major get-out-the-vote events in battleground states Georgia and Michigan.
This will be the first time that Democratic presidential nominee Harris has hit the trail with either President Barack Obama or Michelle Obama in the campaign, and Michelle Obama’s first time on the trail for the Harris-Walz campaign.
Campaign advisers see these major joint events as massive opportunities to harness voter enthusiasm to get out the vote before Election Day.
Oct. 26 is the first day of early voting statewide in Michigan, and Michelle Obama and Vice President Harris will seek to mobilize voters to cast their ballots as soon as that day. A Georgia visit will happen two days earlier on Oct. 24 with Barack Obama and Harris. Early voting has also begun in Georgia, and President Obama and Harris will encourage supporters to go vote. Barack Obama will also be in Michigan on Oct. 22 independently campaigning for Harris.
These major surrogate rallies also serve to capture grassroots enthusiasm and turn it into significant volunteer engagement to turn out the vote. For example, people signed up for nearly 1,000 volunteer shifts at President Obama’s recent Pittsburgh rally.
Michelle Obama’s Democratic convention speech in Chicago stressed the critical importance of signing up to “do something” like volunteer in this campaign.
“It’s up to us to remember what Kamala’s mother told her: ‘Don’t just sit around and complain. Do something.’ So if they lie about her—and they will—we’ve got to do something. If we see a bad poll—and we will—we’ve got to put down that phone and do something. If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we gotta pick ourselves up, throw water on our face, and what? Do something,” Michelle Obama said.
President Obama has been crisscrossing the battleground states, with his first event recently in Pittsburgh, and more to come in the coming days in Tucson, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Madison.
President Obama’s Michigan visit will be Tuesday, Oct. 22, where he will be speaking to voters about the importance of early voting and electing Harris for president.
Harris and the Obamas’ friendship goes back 20 years to when President Obama and Vice President Harris met on the campaign trail as he was running for Senate.
She was an early supporter of his 2008 presidential campaign and even knocked doors for him in Iowa ahead of the caucus.
Vice President nominee Tim Walz also will be in Michigan this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19-20. Saturday night, Governor Tim Walz will arrive in Freeland, and on Sunday, he will attend a church service at Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw.
In addition to the Obamas and her running mate, others will be in Michigan this weekend campaigning for Harris-Walz, too. On Sunday, Oct. 20, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Grand Rapids and Detroit to encourage supporters to vote early for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.
In Grand Rapids, businessman Mark Cuban will join the Second Gentleman to highlight Vice President Kamala Harris’ vision for investing in small businesses and encourage supporters to vote early for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.
In Detroit, the Second Gentleman will deliver remarks at a Get Out the Jewish Vote campaign event encouraging supporters to vote early for Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, and Michigan Democrats.
Prior to her Michigan visit with Michelle Obama, Harris will make her second trip to Michigan this week on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18-19, and her seventh visit to the Mitten State since launching her campaign this summer. She will make several stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing, across Oakland County, and Detroit. Harris was in Detroit Tuesday, Oct. 15, for an interview with Charlamagne Tha God.