Kamala Harris faces uphill battle in Michigan with key voter groups wavering

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The 2024 presidential election will hinge on swing states, particularly Pennsylvania. However, Michigan has emerged as a critical battleground for Vice President Kamala Harris where she’s facing tough challenges among working-class, Black, and Arab-American voters.

Her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, was in the state Friday, appealing to working-class voters.

Kamala Harris has helped furthest resurgence of American manufacturing, especially here in Michigan. As vice president, she invested in working people and today there are more factories getting built, more auto and construction jobs, and more American energy being produced than any day when Donald Trump was president.

It's a voting bloc she seems to be struggling with, especially after losing out on endorsements from the International Association of Fire Fighters and Teamsters; some say this is a notion that union voters are swinging to the right.

The state's large Black population could also be a problem for Harris in Michigan as polls indicate weaker support from Black men than previous Democratic candidates.

“You're thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you," former President Barack Obama said Thursday in Pennsylvania while stomping for Harris. “That's not acceptable.”

Obama is expected in Michigan and other swing states in the coming days.

Experts point to a rustbelt path to victory for Harris, which means she would have to win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. If Donald Trump wins Michigan, that is 15 electoral votes gone she would have to make up by winning one or several battleground states.

Harris also needs to win over Michigan's large Arab-American community, many of whom are still upset with the Biden Administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas War.

Democrats blame Green Party presidential nominee, Jill Stein for helping Trump win Michigan in 2016. She is now threatening to pull votes from Harris.

“It means more to them to lose this - to, to continue the genocide than to actually try to win this election," Stein said Wednesday.

Trump also working to win Michigan, but he's getting called out for criticizing Detroit while speaking to the city's business community.

"I don't think anything that we're talking about today is high on her list. The whole country is gonna be like, you wanna know the truth? It'll be like Detroit, our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president," Trump said Thursday.

Well, we're a developing nation too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit's a developing ... Detroit's a developing area. Hell of a lot more than most places in China.

“My opponent, Donald Trump, yet again, has trashed another great American city when he was in Detroit, which is just a further piece of evidence on a very long list of why he is unfit to be President of the United States," Harris responded Thursday in Las Vegas.

Harris will be in Detroit on Tuesday for a town hall with the Breakfast Club's Charlamagne Tha God to win over more Black male voters.

The last time a Republican won Michigan before 2016 was in 1988. With Michigan now a toss-up, Harris's supporters are anxious to avoid repeating the 2016 outcome with Hillary Clinton.