SOUTHFIELD, Mich -- Sen. Kamala Harris spent part of Election Day in Metro Detroit as the Biden campaign sends its final messages to the American voting public in an effort to win the White House.
Michigan is an all-important battleground state in the campaign because Donald Trump narrowly won there by less than 11,000 votes in 2016, and Democrats want to be sure they bring out voters who may not have cast ballots four years ago. 2.9 million people in the state have already voted, according to MLive.com.
Harris addressed the crowd at the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in Southfield, Mich., just outside Detroit, on the four-year anniversary of her election to the U.S. Senate. 

“Today is the day that the path to the White House runs through this hood,” Harris exclaimed. She said that she was done talking about “the guy currently in the White House.” Instead she pivoted toward “the opportunity that is in front of us right now.”
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She said Joe Biden’s platform on coronavirus, health care and racial justice was the better option for voters who have faced four years of being neglected under the Trump administration.
“We have a choice in front of us,” said Harris. “The power’s in our hands. Think about the long overdue reckoning on racial injustice in America and Joe, being a student of American history has the courage to speak the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ “

The Democratic vice presidential candidate was joined by Michigan Democrats Rep. Brenda Lawrence and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, along with Sen. Gary Peters, who is facing a challenge from businessman John James, a Black Republican, in what has been called a tossup race.
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Sarah Stempky-Kime of Birmingham, MI, an Detroit suburb, a mother of three, attended the rally with her two sons ages 5 and 1 year. The younger child had brain surgery earlier this year due to epilepsy. She said that the Biden-Harris ticket’s position on health care favored her boy.

“He will forever have a pre-existing condition and I think it’s so important that we protect pre-existing conditions,” said Stempky-Kime who also has a daughter.
Harris also emphasized the turnaround that Biden pledges to make on the coronavirus pandemic, particularly relating to communities of color.
"He understands that on COVID, African Americans and Latinos are three times as likely to contract it and twice as likely to die from it and we need to address that,” Harris said. “We need to address Black maternal mortality because Black women are three and four times as likely to die from childbirth trauma."
Harris urged voters to exercise their right to vote on Tuesday (Nov. 3) and to call family and friends, ensuring they did the same. She told the crowd to cast their ballots in honor of heroes like the late Congressman John Lewis and for the future generations who will ask “where were you at that moment.”
“And what we will be able to tell them is so much more than just how we felt,” she continued before leaving for other campaign events in the area. “What we will tell them is what we did.”