Harris enlists Michelle Obama to help rebuild momentum in final stretch

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Michelle Obama made her first appearance on the campaign trail in support of Kamala Harris on Saturday, as the Democratic vice-president tried to recapture momentum with a direct pitch to women in the final days of the US presidential campaign.

The former First Lady, who has largely shied away from electoral politics since her husband, Barack Obama, left the White House, told thousands of rally-goers in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that the stakes were too high for her to stay on the sidelines.

“Y’all know I hate politics. But I hate to see folks taken advantage of even more,” Obama said. “So I wanted to do everything in my power to remind the country that I love that there is too much we stand to lose if we get this one wrong.”

Obama is the latest in a series of big names to stump for Harris in recent days as the vice-president looks to drum up enthusiasm amid a historically tight race against Republican opponent Donald Trump.

The Financial Times poll tracker shows Harris and Trump virtually tied in the seven swing states that are likely to determine who wins the White House, including Michigan.

Harris shared the stage on Friday night in Houston, Texas, with pop icon Beyoncé for a rally that was attended by some 30,000 supporters. One day earlier, Harris rallied with Barack Obama and rock star Bruce Springsteen in Atlanta, Georgia, before a crowd of 23,000.

While Michelle Obama, a lawyer by training, has never held elected office, she consistently ranks in public polling among the most liked public figures in the US, particularly among women.

The former First Lady’s 40-minute speech in Kalamazoo — a college town in southern Michigan — on Saturday made a direct appeal to female voters and the men in their lives. She spoke at length about Harris’s commitment to reproductive rights and Trump’s role in the overturning of Roe vs Wade, which paved the way for increasingly hardline abortion laws in dozens of states across the country.

Public opinion polling has suggested a gaping gender divide in the US electorate, with women overwhelmingly more likely to back Harris, and men significantly more likely to vote for Trump.

“[Harris] is showing us what a sane, stable leader looks like. She is not losing her train of thought or stumbling over words, and she is doing it all with vigour and with grace,” Obama said on Saturday.

“That is because Kamala Harris is a grown-up, and Lord knows we need a grown-up in the White House.”

The former First Lady also accused the media and voters — and men in particular — of holding the vice-president to a “higher standard” than Trump or other politicians.

“Don’t get me wrong. Voters have every right to ask hard questions of any candidate seeking office. But can someone tell me why we are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent?” she asked.

“We expect her to be intelligent and articulate, to have a clear set of policies, to never show too much anger, to prove time and time again that she belongs. But for Trump, we expect nothing at all.”

Trump also campaigned in Michigan — a state he won over Hillary Clinton by a razor-thin margin in 2016 but lost narrowly to Joe Biden in 2020 — on the first day of early voting on Saturday, with an appeal to Muslim voters in the Detroit suburbs.

Polling suggests Democrats have lost support from Arab-Americans — who make up a small but potentially decisive sliver of the electorate in Michigan in particular — over the Biden administration’s support for Israel.

Trump was joined on stage in the Detroit suburb of Novi by several Muslim faith leaders, and the mayor of Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who was born in Lebanon.

“We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace — he promises peace, not war,” local imam Belal Alzuhairi told the crowd.

“We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine. The bloodshed has to stop all over the world, and I think this man can make that happen. I personally believe that God saved his life twice for a reason.”