Kamala Harris used a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday to seize on the news that Donald Trump canceled media interviews to question whether she has the stamina for a second presidential term if elected in November.
“If you can't handle the rigors of campaigning, are you qualified to do the job?” The 59-year-old Democratic Party vice president spoke to rally attendees about the 78-year-old man. Triumph.
He said: “Trump is unfit for office.”
Harris and her Republican opponent in Michigan began the weekend trying to build support in a battleground state that could decide the Nov. 5 race. Polls suggest the final days of the campaign have arrived for both candidates in Michigan and their fellow “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“This is where the election will be decided,” Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Shalton told an audience on Friday.
At the meeting, some Harris supporters took a hopeful tone. “It's time for a woman to lead,” said Jennifer Lake, who brought her daughter Adeline Butts to the rally for a chance to “make history.”
Butts, who will be of voting age for the first time this election, described the cost of living, tuition rates and housing affordability as her top concerns. Bill Bray, another rally attendee, who came from Adrian, Michigan, said he hoped Harris would improve economic opportunities for people like him more than Trump.
Bray grew up in a “poor neighborhood,” but credits the benefits of his previous military service and his long career at Ford Motor Company. He said he wanted others to have the opportunity to follow the same path.
“Trump doesn't understand equality,” said Bray, a Vietnam War veteran who accused the former president of blocking the military draft that sent him into the same conflict.
Bray said he supports stronger federal gun control after seeing “what guns do to people” and doesn't trust Trump, who has broad support from the gun industry, to take up the issue. Serious.
Other participants said abortion access was at the forefront of their minds. Harris campaigned to protect abortion access, while three Trump appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court helped eliminate federal abortion rights in 2022.
“It'll be nice to be back in control of my body and then I'll think about listening to the other side,” Kim Osborne said.
Lauren Rockell said she wants to see Harris fight to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade that Trump's Supreme Court appointments helped eliminate.
“People are dying” as a result of abortion restrictions enacted in many states, Rockell said. “It's horrible.”
To them, Harris said, “it's time to turn the page” on Trump.
Gretchen Whitmer Harris, Michigan's Democratic governor, spoke before taking the stage. He was joined by four other Democratic state governors.
His presence and that of other governors “shows how important you are, Michigan,” Whitmer said. Helping send Harris to the White House “would move our country forward,” he told the crowd.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., also spoke before Harris, noting that the more she thinks about the policies proposed by Trump supporters, the more “scary and frightening” they become. The former president has sought to distance himself from the far-right Heritage Foundation, whose 2025 plan calls for mass layoffs of government employees and floats the idea of an outright ban on abortion during a second Trump presidency.
But he has struggled to make it work effectively under Trump's aide, Foundation President JD Wansheritage, who wrote the foreword to a book. And, echoing Stabenow, many attendees said they were scared and afraid of what it would mean for Trump to return to the Oval Office.
The Democratic candidate's message resonated with Richard Bondstra, who described himself as a “former Republican.” Bandstra said he came to the rally to hear a message of hope and, in his opinion, the most important issue of the race: fighting to preserve American democracy.
