Harris brings Maggie Rogers on board to fire up college-age voters in competitive Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris worked to cheer on college-age fans Monday at a rally and concert at Michigan's Battlefield featuring a singer-songwriter Maggie Rogerswho told the crowd that something like voting is “bigger than fear” at a time when “the future is so uncertain.”

Michigan had that Highest youth voter turnout in the country in 2022with long queues in front of the polling stations on the university campus. Democrats hope to rekindle that enthusiasm this year with rallies like Harris's in Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, with Rogers.

“You can vote early now through Sunday, November 3rd, and we need your early vote, Michigan, because we only have eight days left,” the Democratic presidential candidate said at an outdoor rally in 50-degree temperatures. “Just eight days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.”

“And we will win,” she said. “We have an opportunity to turn the page and chart a new and joyful path forward.”

Thousands flocked to Burns Park for the event with Rogers singing “Love You for a Long Time” and some of her other hits. The event also reunited Harris with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The two had not appeared together since a Campaign bus tour of Georgia in August.

Between sets, Rogers said the headlines she saw on her phone were “terrifying.”

“The future feels so uncertain and I don’t always know what to do with that feeling,” she said. Rogers said action is greater than fear. “Voting is the key to the future.”

As she began her speech, Harris was interrupted by over a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. When I heard the chants: “Israel is bombing, Kamala is paying, how many children did you kill today?” She said: “Hey guys, I hear you.”

“When it comes to Gaza, we all want this war to end as quickly as possible and the hostages released, and I will do everything in my power to make that happen,” Harris said. The group was escorted out of the event shortly after their chants were drowned out by counter chants such as “Kamala.”

Michigan has become the epicenter of activism against Harris and the Democrats because of its large Arab-American population and progressive cities like Ann Arbor due to the Harris-Democrat war Israel and Hamas.

Throughout her speech, Harris sought to draw contrasts between herself and Republican nominee Donald Trump, describing him as unstable and unstable and criticizing him on women's reproductive rights and other issues.

In previous stops in the Michigan cities of Saginaw and Warren, Harris courted working-class voters and highlighted the administration's efforts to bring more factory jobs to the state and her support for unions.

“I’m here, I’m here for you,” she told workers after touring an International Union of Painters and Allied Trades training facility in Warren. She said Trump doesn't care about working people and the middle class, pointing in particular to the way he has filled the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor laws in the United States, with anti-union figures. which is often criticized against Trump by union members. She also criticized Trump for praising Elon Musk, the businessman and owner of the social media platform X, for talking about layoffs striking workers.

In Saginaw, she toured a semiconductor factory to illustrate how federal funding for computer chip makers could create factory jobs in Michigan. She visited days after Trump criticized it bipartisan law 2022 That provides money to the federal government and said it would rather just raise tariffs.

The Commerce Department said last week Hemlock semiconductor would receive up to $325 million in direct support to build a new factory that will produce, among other things, high-purity polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels. The new facility would create 180 factory jobs in Michigan.

As of August, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion to support 23 projects in 15 states that would create 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. This funding helped attract private capital and would allow the United States to produce 30% of the world's most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration took over from Trump.

Nevertheless, Trump attacked politics in one Interview on Friday evening recorded for “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a popular podcast.

“We've allocated billions of dollars for rich companies to come in, borrow the money and build chip companies here, and they're not going to give us good companies anyway,” the Republican candidate said on the podcast. In fact, the money went to industry leaders like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung, Micron, Intel and GlobalFoundries to open factories in the United States

___

Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Dan Merica in Washington and Joey Cappelletti in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.