With four days to go until the election, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz spent the day crisscrossing the critical “blue wall” state of Michigan, where he met with Black community leaders and spoke to union members in Detroit and rallied supporters in Flint.
Speaking in Flint on Friday afternoon, the Minnesota governor declared that “momentum is on our side” while urging supporters to spend the next four days working to help elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House.
“We're down to about 100 hours on this thing, this next 100 or so hours and the work we do, will shape not just the next four years, but the next generation,” Walz said.
After giving what he deemed a “pep talk” – a reference to his high school football coach roots, which the Harris campaign has leaned into as it looks to reach men and close the apparent gender gap in the election – Walz framed the choice on Tuesday as about the future of democracy.
“Going forward, if we win this thing, there's going to be a time when – and I know the young people find this hard to believe – you're going to be older, you're going to be sitting in that rocking chair on the porch, rocking, and a little one's going to come up you, and they say, tell us about the time in 2024 where we save democracy,” he said. “What did you do? They're going to ask you, what did you do in 2024 and your answer is going to be every damn thing I could.”
In both Flint and at a United Auto Workers solidarity house in Detroit, Walz sought to appeal to those still undecided and considering casting a ballot for former President Donald Trump due to his policies over demeanor.
“Now, you've heard this from folks, I know you have: ‘Well, I really don't like Donald Trump personally, the things he does,’” Walz said. “But then they follow up: ‘But things were good when he was president, the economy was good.”
“Little fuzzy in how they remember things,” Walz continued.
He went on to slam the former president for his record on domestic manufacturing, support for labor and job losses – something that was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic during the end of his time in office.
The Minnesota governor criticized Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, who has become a major surrogate for the former president, as well as his plan to impose across-the-board tariffs on imported goods from overseas in a bid to incentivize manufacturing to return to the U.S. Walz used the criticism to reference the age of the 78-year-old former president, who became the oldest U.S. presidential nominee when 81-year-old President Joe Biden dropped out of the race this summer.
“Donald Trump appears to be unable to understand that when you slap a tariff on goods, the people pay for it,” Walz said. “You would have thought in his nearly 80 years on the planet, he could have learned what a damn tariff was and how it worked.”
In Flint, Walz was joined by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a key surrogate for the Harris campaign in the battleground state.
“We deserve a president who embodies the values we try to pass on to our children,” Whitmer said in remarks ahead of Walz. “You work hard, you tell the truth and you get s*** done.”
“We don’t need a con artist, a bully in the White House,” she added of Trump.
Walz started the day with a roundtable in Detroit in which he sought insight in the final stretch of the campaign from Black political advisers and business leaders. The Minnesota governor referred to Trump’s vision for the country as “dark,” “divisive,” and “devoid of any plans.”
One leader told Walz about speaking with a young man who wouldn’t vote for Trump but did not want to vote for Harris either because of his experience with the criminal justice system and the fact that she was a prosecutor and attorney general.
“It’s encouraging to me to see him that engaged,” Walz responded. “Because I’ve said I’m worried about the cynicism of this, of them checking out thinking both sides are the same.”
Walz went on to talk about Harris’ “broad career” of both aiming to reform the criminal justice system at the same time as she worked to make sure communities were safe.
“You think we got him?” Walz asked at the end of the exchange, regarding the young voter.
“I think so,” the leader responded.
Another attendee, Charity, who was introduced as running the Michigan Black Business Alliance, asked the governor to hear more about Harris’ plan for tax deductions for small businesses.
Walz was also set to address a crowd in Traverse in the evening.