economy, abortion

During campaign stops in Michigan, Harris questioned Trump’s character while emphasizing abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that struck down national protections.

Despite serving as vice president for the past four years, Harris has sought to portray herself as the change candidate ready to close the book on Trump’s period of political discord. He has received support from some notable Michigan Republicans, including former U.S. Reps. Fred Upton and Dave Trott.

Trump, meanwhile, has spent considerable time criticizing the economy under Democrats, including inflation that rose in 2021 and 2022 but has since decreased.

He copied Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” — and framed the election as a referendum on Harris’ work as vice president under Biden.

As he has in previous campaigns, Trump has also railed against undocumented immigrants and argued that Democrats are not doing enough to protect Michigan’s auto industry from foreign competition.

Trump’s campaign also took a big gamble: Shifting resources from traditional voting efforts to a new “election integrity” program.

This was done largely to reassure Trump’s most loyal supporters that he was worth participating in the election, despite Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

A heavy focus on lawsuits has meant that a significant portion of the Republican field game has been outsourced to groups like the Elon Musk-funded America PAC and Turning Point Action.

A number of dark money groups funded by Musk, the world’s richest man, have also funded ad campaigns aimed at damaging Harris by portraying her as pro-Israel in Muslim parts of Michigan and pro-Palestinian in Jewish parts of the state.

Reporters Nushrat Rahman, Mike Wilkinson and Robin Erb contributed