This reporting is made possible in part through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
With under 100 hours left until polls close on Election Day, a line of people hoping to see Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz stretched from the entrance of the Park Place Hotel & Convention Center in Traverse City.
Walz was on a final tour of what he calls “pep talks” in Michigan on Friday.
He urged a crowd gathered in a big hotel ballroom to convince their undecided neighbors to help elect Kamala Harris as the next president.
The campaign stop comes as recent polls show Vice President Kamala Harris slightly leading former President Donald Trump in Michigan.
Walz cast doubt on Trump’s economic record saying much of it was influenced by his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during the end of his time in office.
“He put neighbors into ‘Hunger Games’ against each other just to find toilet paper,” Walz said. “So, if you're a millionaire, a billionaire, you might think back fondly because you got a tax cut. The rest of us got squat.”
In a post to Truth Social on Friday, Trump said Harris is responsible for over 46,000 lost manufacturing jobs in October — a reaction to a jobs report out Friday that was below expectations.
Several analysts pointed to hurricanes in the south and an ongoing labor strike at Boeing as reasons for slow job growth.
Walz also made many references to Project 2025, a conservative think tank initiative which some former Trump officials helped craft.
The plan aims to drastically restructure the federal government. Some of its controversial recommendations include shrinking or dismantling federal agencies, like the Department of Education, centralizing presidential power, further restricting access to abortion, and undercutting some of the country’s most important climate and environmental policies.
Democrats call it “Trump’s Project 2025,” but former President Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from it. (PolitiFact checked some Democrats' claims back in August.)
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At the rally, Walz told supporters Trump would use the plan to make it harder to access abortions.
“Here's what we see now, women turned away from emergency rooms, miscarriaging in parking lots, whether they like it or not, survivors of rape being forced to carry those pregnancies to terms, whether they like it or not, and fertility clinics have turned couples away at the door, whether they like it or not,” Walz said.
Walz’s repeated use of “like it or not” was a response to Trump’s statement the day before that his administration would protect women, “whether the women like it or not.”
On the campaign trail, Trump has said he would not support a nationwide abortion ban but he did support a federal ban at 20 weeks of pregnancy when he ran in 2016.
Both major party campaigns are working hard to get people to the polls ahead of Election Day, especially in swing states like Michigan. Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have both made stops in Traverse City while first ladies Jill Biden and Gwen Walz were in town earlier this week.
While northern Michigan is often seen as a Republican stronghold, Democrats are looking to gain ground by winning local elections like the race for the 103rd State House District between incumbent Betsy Coffia and Republican challenger Lisa Trombley.
“What happens when the polls close on Election Day won't just shape the next four years, but the next few generations,” Walz said.
As of Friday, over 35% of Michigan voters or over 2.5 million people have cast their ballots, according to data from the Secretary of State. Early voting remains open.
Other issues
Many people waiting in line and attending the event had already voted. They talked about reproductive rights, health care and democracy.
Duane Dodge, from Peshawbestown, said that along with women's rights, tribal sovereignty is an important issue for him this election.
“Things like the Keystone pipeline, making sure that doesn't get booted back up, and, of course, keeping women's rights and just make sure that everybody has equal opportunities and rights here in the country,” said Dodge, who is a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
James Walker and Elitza Nicolaou are members of the National Nurses United union, which endorsed Harris.
“I'm a nurse. I see the effects of health care or lack of access to health care, is on my patients, that's on the ballot. Personal autonomy is on the ballot,” Walker said.
Helping out the middle class is also important to him: “My parents didn't graduate from college or high school. I come from a low-middle class family. I know what it's like to have to tape your shoes because you can't afford to buy new shoes. I know what it's like to get by.”
Nicolaou said reproductive rights are a key issue for her, along with workers’ rights.
“I grew up in Lansing, and I watched my parents’ restaurant fail because we lost the GM plant,” she said. She sees voting as a way to support unions. “I'm a union steward at Munson [Medical Center]. I've been honored to carry that torch forward.”
Awaiting the start of the rally, Manistee County Democrats Chair John Helge cited issues like housing and child care, but also had more specific things on his mind.
In his county, there are plans for a coal plant to transition to using woody biomass, paired with carbon capture. Helge hoped there would be federal funding for projects like that under the next administration.
Line 5 and climate
As hundreds of people lined State Street in Traverse City waiting to get in before Friday’s event, a small group held up signs protesting Line 5, the Enbridge-owned pipeline that transports oil and natural gas liquids from Wisconsin through Michigan to Canada.
The demonstration was put on by the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, a Traverse City-based nonprofit.
Ashley Rudzinski, the climate and environment program director for Groundwork, said they wanted to see a potential Harris-Walz administration “set some higher standards than we've seen in the past, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and that especially pertains to Line 5 here.”
Asked where he stood on Line 5 in an interview with Up North Live after the event, Walz said it was possible to balance good-paying jobs, the price of energy, and environmental protections, adding at the end “recognizing that climate change is real.”
Walz has talked about climate directly during other points in the campaign, like during the vice presidential debate last month.
His track record isn’t one-note; for instance, as governor of Minnesota, he passed legislation that requires utilities to use 100% carbon-free energy by 2040. But under his leadership Enbridge also expanded its Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota.
Regardless of the administration, Rudzinski said they wanted to see federal action on Line 5, and will continue to request that the next president revoke the presidential permit for the pipeline.
In an email on Friday night, Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said the company looks forward to “continuing to work with elected officials and policymakers at the local, state and federal levels.”
Election Day is Nov. 5. Absentee voting in Michigan is underway, and early in-person voting in our region ends Sunday. Learn more on how to vote in Michigan.
Editor’s note: Enbridge is among Interlochen Public Radio’s financial supporters. Like all financial supporters, the company has no role in decisions about our news coverage, which are made independently by the IPR newsroom.
