DETROIT, Michigan — The key electoral battleground of Michigan took center stage yet again on Wednesday as the top tickets for both major political parties made stops on the state's east side.
Wednesday morning, it was a visit from Ohio Senator and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
"I'd ask you to support the candidate who has shown that he can deliver security in our streets," Vance said as he addressed community members outside a local police station in Shelby Township. "We just have to give him the opportunity to govern, and that's President Donald J. Trump."
While there, Vance, who also traveled to Wisconsin earlier in the day, focused his visit on the topic of immigration.
"We ought to give [Trump] a second term in office, and all of our communities will be safer and better and more prosperous because of it," Vance said. "So, thank you all for what you do, despite the policies of Kamala Harris. But I promise you, in just six months, the cavalry is coming. You're going to have a federal government who makes your life easier, not harder, but only if the American people support us and get us over the finish line this election."
Just hours later in nearby Detroit, the state also played host to Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"So, Michigan, here's the thing - so much, so much, so much is on the line in this election," Harris told the crowd. "And we got to remember, you know, we knew we know who [Trump] is and what he was about in '16 and in '20."
As part of the stop that came amidst a swing state blitz for the Democratic ticket that began Tuesday in Philadelphia and swung through Wisconsin earlier on Wednesday, Harris was accompanied by her newly-chosen running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, after breaking news of the selection on Tuesday.
Walz, a veteran and former teacher before obtaining the rank of congressman and later governor in Minnesota, appealed to what he hoped to paint as shared Midwestern roots.
"I was born in a small town of 400 people in Nebraska, and community was the way of life," Walz said. "My mom and dad taught me, you showed generosity to your neighbors and you work for a common good amongst them."
Walz's entrance into the race poses perhaps the biggest unknown for the Harris campaign that has managed to gain quick steam since President Joe Biden's exit from the race late last month.
With his favorable and unfavorable rating anywhere from only in the teens to just single digits, multiple recent polls recent have suggested that an overwhelming majority of voters don't know enough about the Minnesota governor to yet form an opinion.
His blank-slate national persona bursting onto the national ticket is likely to make this a key time for either party as they battle to mold his public image to voters.