Vice President Kamala Harris made a splash with her T-shirt in Detroit on Saturday.
The words “Detroit vs. Everybody” were written on the black shirt she wore under a gray blazer as she addressed hundreds of campaign volunteers in the Western International High School gymnasium. The outfit was a clear nod to former President Donald J. Trump, who last week disparaged Detroit, one of the nation’s largest black cities, portraying it as a harbinger of decline for America’s future under Ms. Harris. It was a reaction.
In brief remarks to the audience on the first day of early voting in the city, Ms. Harris implored her supporters to reject Mr. Trump’s divisiveness and insults.
“We support the idea that the true measure of a leader’s strength is not who he defeats, but who he lifts up,” she said, adding that her campaign is a kind of “grit” He said he was looking for “grit.” The excellence of “the people of Detroit.”
“He spends all his time talking about himself and mythical characters and not talking about workers and you and uplifting you,” Harris added.
Trump attacked Detroit during remarks at an economic forum in the city on October 10, earning widespread scorn from Democrats and fodder for Harris’ campaign ads. “If she were your president, our entire country would look like Detroit,” he had warned about Harris.
Black voters, especially black men, were less enthusiastic about Harris than Democratic candidates in the last election, and Trump is trying to take advantage of that. The Harris campaign has recently stepped up its outreach to black voters, unveiling an economic policy agenda designed specifically for black men. Turnout in Detroit could determine the race in Michigan, one of the nation’s top swing states, where polls show a close race.
More than 1 million Michigan voters have already returned absentee ballots, according to state officials. Both candidates are urging their supporters to vote early and are competing for the few remaining undecided voters.
More Americans are voting before Election Day, allowing campaigns to focus on reaching hard-to-reach voters. But Mr. Trump has falsely accused mail-in voting of facilitating election fraud, complicating his party’s aid efforts.
Mr. Trump campaigned in the Democratic-leaning Detroit area on Friday, drawing attention from blue-collar workers concerned about the economy and Arab and Muslim American voters who have expressed anger at Mr. Biden. They tried to strip him of his support. the regime’s support for Israel in the Gaza war;
In an apparent attempt to overcome criticism of the city, Mr. Trump, in turn, claimed that his proposal would create an economic boom there, while Mr. Harris’ tax proposal, by contrast, would create an “economic Armageddon.” He suggested that it would bring.
Trump also visited Hamtramck, Michigan, just north of Detroit, which has a large Muslim and Arab-American population and whose Democratic mayor endorsed Trump last month. Trump told his supporters there that he wanted to quickly achieve peace in the Middle East. Still, he praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war, saying he had “done a good job.”
On Saturday, he rallied with supporters in Pennsylvania, another battleground state that will determine the outcome of the election. With less than three weeks until the election, both candidates and their allies are scrambling to win votes in battleground states.
Trump has reserved particular criticism for his false claims of voter fraud in cities with large black populations, including Atlanta, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. In an interview with commentator Roland Martin this week, Ms. Harris suggested that race was an implicit factor in Mr. Trump’s choice to talk about these cities.
“If you just look at where the stars are in the sky, don’t just look at it as a coincidence,” Harris said. “Look at the constellations. What do they show?”
In her campaign, she began using the power of celebrity to mobilize supporters. In Detroit, Lizzo, a popular singer from the city, also joined the group. On Saturday night, she will hold a rally in Atlanta with R&B star Usher.
Speaking before Harris at a rally in Detroit, Lizzo also took issue with Trump’s attacks on the city.
“They say if Kamala wins, the whole country will become like Detroit,” she said. “Well, I say I’m proud like a Detroiter. I say resilient like a Detroiter. This is the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. So I salute the Detroit name. Please represent.”
Michael Gold contributed reporting from Detroit.
