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In Michigan, Harris campaign sees path to victory going through the suburbs
Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign sees her path to victory in Michigan going through the suburban vote, a historically Republican voting bloc that has shifted left in recent elections, and one the campaign is confident it can flip.
In a memo first obtained by CBS News, the Harris-Walz campaign said it can win the Midwestern state’s 15 Electoral College votes by capitalizing on former President Donald Trump’s “unprecedented weakness” among women and White, college-educated voters.
President Biden narrowly beat Trump by two points among suburban voters nationwide in 2020, CBS News’ exit poll showed. But Trump had a slight edge in the Michigan suburbs, according to a CNN exit poll of the state.
The Harris campaign argues that suburban voters have drifted away from Trump since then, and said the primary reason is the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the national right to an abortion and returning the issue to the states.
“A real strength”
GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Wyant, a senior Harris campaign adviser in Michigan, said the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint and Harris’ economic proposals have also shifted suburban voters toward the vice president.
“What’s emerged as such an opportunity is the suburban voters that we’ve seen, who are very reliable regular voters, who have really run away from Donald Trump in the last four years,” he said.
“That is a real strength for this campaign that I have not seen in the past,” added Wyant, a veteran of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns.
Harris will campaign in the suburbs of Grand Rapids and Detroit on Friday, her seventh trip to the state as a candidate. Wyant said campaign officials “feel great” about the amount of time she’s in the state, and expect to frequently see her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, in the closing days of the race.
Walz campaigned in Macomb County north of Detroit last Friday, where Trump won by eight points. The Republican nominee has also placed a premium on the state, making at least six trips there since Harris became a candidate. Both Harris and Trump will be campaigning in the Detroit area on Friday.
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
A New York Times/Siena poll in September found that Harris led Trump by five points among suburban voters in Michigan. Among women voters, Trump lagged behind Harris by 22 points. And a September CBS News poll showed Harris up nine points with women voters in the state, and leading by seven points with White college-educated voters.
“The reason women rights have been taken away from them is because of Donald Trump,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters. “And that’s why women, in particular across suburban areas, vote overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris.”
Some Michigan Republicans are skeptical of Democrats’ confidence, particularly when it comes to the impact of abortion on the race.
In 2022, Michigan voters passed Proposal 3, which created a right to abortion in the state’s constitutiondue to a big push by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who cruised to re-election. It passed with 55.8% of the vote.
Michigan State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, a Republican who represents a GOP-leaning district north of Grand Rapids, argued that Prop 3’s passage means abortion rights are not as salient of an issue for suburban voters as Democratic campaigns might think.
“It worked for them in 2022. But the reality is abortion was settled in 2022, so it’s not an issue,” he said.
Black voters remain crucial
High turnout among Black voters in cities like Detroit and Flint are also crucial to Harris’ strategy in Michigan. In recent days, Harris has doubled down on mobilizing these voters through a new set of policies geared toward Black men, as well as a publicity blitz that has included an interview with influential radio host Charlamagne tha God.
Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Her campaign expects to “meet 2020 levels of support” with Black voters, and cites high return rates of mail-in ballots among Black voters in Detroit’s Wayne County as the reason why. The campaign’s ground game has seven of their 52 offices in the state’s most populous county, and has partnered with local influencers and groups to specifically reach younger, harder-to-reach Black voters.
Nearly 800,000 absentee ballots have been returned statewide as of Thursday, according to Michigan’s secretary of state.
An October CBS News poll of the battleground states showed Harris’ support among Black voters mirroring Mr. Biden’s support in 2020 exit polls, though a slightly higher number of Black men are backing Trump compared to Black women.
“The real concern is what are we going to do to make sure everybody feels included,” said Detroit Rev. Charles Williams II, who is worried about “what the polling is suggesting around Black men.”
Wyant pointed to more than 20 events focused on Black engagement so far in October as a sign of the campaign’s approach, and said they have been working on reaching Black voters for months.
“We recognize there are some voters that may be late deciders on this. That’s why we’re intensely engaging and making sure that we, as a campaign here and nationally, are finding ways to meet people where they’re at,” he said.
The Trump campaign’s outlook in Michigan
The Harris campaign maintains a numerical advantage over Trump on the ground game with staffers (375) and volunteers (more than 42,000 since Harris became the nominee). The Democratic nominee has more than 50 offices in the state, with several in the rural counties in the western and central part of the state, as the campaign tries to cut into Trump’s margins.
A Trump campaign spokesperson said they have dozens of campaign offices spread out across the state, with more than 100 paid staff and 6,000 local precinct captains.
The Trump campaign sees inflation and immigration as key issues in the suburbs, and have focused their outreach program on “low-propensity: voters — those who may only turn out during presidential election years or are otherwise disengaged with politics.
“While Kamala Harris continues to lie to American voters about her record and refuses to answer for it, Team Trump is doubling down on our efforts to reach voters where they are,” said Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s communications director for Michigan.
Rank-and-file union voters are also a group where the Trump campaign feels confident they can peel off Democratic support, citing local polling by the Teamsters suggesting a disconnect between members and leadership. Trump has also repeatedly used rhetoric against electric vehicle policies, in an attempt to appeal to auto-industry workers.
“If I don’t win, you will have no auto industry within two to three years. China is going to take over all of your business because of the electric car,” Trump said at a September rally in Flint, MI.
“I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris rebutted at her own rally in Flint in October.
While the national Teamsters board declined to endorse a candidate, the head of the Michigan Teamsters, Kevin Moore, has backed Harris. Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers, has also been a frequent surrogate for the Harris campaign.
The impact of Arab-American and Muslim voters
One variable that could impact the coalition Harris is looking to build is the Arab-American and Muslim community, particularly Lebanese and Palestinian voters who have been vocal against the Biden-Harris administration for not doing more to stop deadly Israeli military strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.
Michigan towns with heavy Arab-American and Muslim populations, such as Dearborn and Hamtramck, are in the suburbs of Detroit.
In February, more than 101,000 Democratic voters chose “uncommitted” in the state’s primary, largely in protest of the White House’s response to the war in Gaza. Mr. Biden won Michigan in the 2020 general election by 154,188 votes.
The “uncommitted” movement declined to endorse Harris in September, but also told supporters to not vote for a third-party candidate, citing concerns that doing so would help Trump win.
“People have a right to be hurt. They have a right to be angry, what’s going on in Gaza and now catching fire all around the Middle East is intolerable,” said Mikail Stewart-Saadiq, a Detroit imam who has publicly backed Harris.
Harris met with members of the “uncommitted” group after an August rally in Detroit, and met with other Arab-American and Muslim leaders in the area after an October rally in Flint, MI.
Last week, the Harris campaign also deployed Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress and the former attorney general of Minnesota, to Michigan. They also tout the support of three councilmen from Hamtramck, though the mayor of the majority-Muslim town is supporting Trump.
“We had to have some important leaders that are supporting us publicly and then also find ways to engage in the community more directly and in private manners,” Wyant said.
Ed O’Keefe and
contributed to this report.
Russia on Sunday launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine, described by officials as the largest over the past months, targeting energy infrastructure and killing civilians.
The attack came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the cold winter.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched a total of 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine. Various types of drones were deployed, he said, including Iranian-made Shaheds as well as cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian defenses shot down 140 air targets, Zelenskyy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children,” Zelenskyy said.
Two others were killed in the Odesa region, where the attack damaged energy infrastructure and disrupted power and water supplies, said local Gov. Oleh Kiper.
OLEKSANDR GIMANOV/AFP via Getty Images
The combined drone and missile attack was the most powerful in three months, according to the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration Serhii Popko.
Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine’s power infrastructure since Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts. Ukrainian officials have routinely urged Western allies to bolster the country’s air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs.
Explosions were heard across Ukraine on Sunday, including in the capital Kyiv, the key southern port of Odesa, as well as the country’s west and central regions, according to local reports.
The operational command of Poland’s armed forces wrote on X that Polish and allied aircraft, including fighter jets, have been mobilized in Polish airspace because of the “massive” Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine. The steps were aimed at providing safety in Poland’s border areas, it said.
One person was injured after the roof of a five-story residential building caught fire in Kyiv’s historic center, according to Popko.
A thermal power plant operated by private energy company DTEK was “seriously damaged,” the company said.
They don’t play “Hail to the Chief” when President Bill Clinton shows up anymore, but there is an equally welcome sound he still hears all the time. “We love you!” shouts one bystander in Harlem.
Here, a walk through the streets with Clinton feels a lot like a victory lap. The former president set up shop here shortly after he left office. Back then, he was only 54, newly unemployed, but determined to use his influence, contacts and know-how to make a difference as a private citizen.
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He even said so in his final address to the nation: “In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of President of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen.”
In the 24 years since he made that speech, Citizen Clinton has accomplished enough to fill several lifetimes – and the pages of a new book: “Citizen: My Life After the White House” (to be published Tuesday by Knopf).
Knopf
Asked what he was most proud of that he’d done in your time out of the White House, Clinton replied, “I think the thing I’m most proud of is that I proved that you can make a big difference as a private citizen.”
By any measure, he’s done that. Through his Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, which partners business leaders with nonprofits, he’s helped fund projects worldwide – to name a few, a program to help combat HIV/AIDS in South Africa, and a massive clean water project in Rwanda. Closer to home, his foundation helped with everything from the energy-saving retrofit of the Empire State Building in New York, to fighting drug overdoses in the heartland, to an upgrade of street lights in Los Angeles. They also helped fund construction jobs to rebuild crumbling infrastructure.
“We raised $16 billion from union pension funds to put people to work,” he said. “It was the biggest in the country at the time. That’s what I’m proud of, ’cause I think people are happy when they do things that actually make things better.”
The president also hit the road for the Harris-Walz ticket in the final weeks of the campaign, and says he was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, by the result.
I asked, “Do you think part of the issue is that America is just not ready for a female president?”
“Maybe,” Clinton replied. “I think in some ways we’ve moved to the right as a reaction to all the turmoil. And I think if Hillary had been nominated in 2008, she would’ve walked in, just like Obama did.”
“Has the country changed?”
“Well, I think all these cultural battles that we’re fighting make it harder in some ways for a woman to run.”
“So, you think it has more to do with party than gender?”
“No,” he said. “Although I think it would probably be easier for a conservative Republican woman to win.”
“Than a Democrat woman?”
“Uh-huh. Because, I mean, that’s what Maggie Thatcher did,” said Clinton. “But I still think we’ll have a female president pretty soon.”
“How soon? Within your lifetime?”
“Oh yeah. Well, I don’t know how long I’m gonna live. You’re askin’ an old man that question!” he laughed. “I hope I’m around for the next time. But now it’s President Trump’s turn in the barrel. It depends on what he does and how it plays.”
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We spoke this past week as the president-elect was in the process of naming his new cabinet, shaking up Washington, D.C., and beyond.
I asked, “Are the guardrails off?”
“Well, there’s no obvious guardrail,” Clinton replied. “The Senate’s shown some indigestion about some of these suggested appointments. We’ll see what happens there. You know, somewhere along the way, [Trump will] have to think about whether, at this chapter of his life, he still thinks the most important thing is to have unquestionable domination, ’cause that’s not what a democracy is about.”
“So you’re saying President Trump might have a change of heart?”
“He might. I was raised in the Baptist Church. I believe in deathbed conversions! I think you can’t give it up,” Clinton said. “But I think the rest of us just have to be diligent, watch the signs, and be willing to stand up for what we think is right, even if they take a piece outta our hide.”
In his book, the president writes candidly about his health issues, including his battle with weight. But he couldn’t resist stopping into the famed soul food restaurant Sylvia’s, if only for a cup of coffee.
I asked, “If you were eating here, what would you get?”
“In the middle of the afternoon? I would get some piece of pie.”
“I know you talk about this in your book. You have to watch your diet a little bit now?”
“A lot,” Clinton said. “It’s unbelievable how low your metabolism gets.”
If he’s candid about his health, he’s just as open about past controversies. Clinton writes about Monica Lewinsky, applauding her recent work on bullying.
Why make a point of doing that? He said, “Because I thought I needed to say something about it, and I wanted to be as helpful as I could to let her turn the page. I think she should be given a chance to build a life that is about her and the future, and not, you know, being whiplashed into an old story.”
So, while he’s mindful of the past, Bill Clinton keeps moving forward, making connections big and small, still trying – and often succeeding – in his bid to change the world.
“I don’t mind it when people jump on me; I just talk to ’em,” he said. “And I don’t turn ’em all. You don’t have to turn everybody; you just got to get enough.
“We just all need to loosen up and get back in the game. … There’s one other thing, and I say this in the book many times: We all keep score. You’ve been doing this for a long time. You’re keeping score in your mind about this interview compared to 15 others you’ve done. And I think the way I keep score is: Are people better off when you quit than when you started? Do children have a brighter future? And are we coming together instead of being torn apart? So, for me, it’s enough if I can answer yes to those three things.
“I know there are no permanent victories or defeats in politics,” said Clinton. “And I have no interest in being an armchair quarterback except to help my team perform better. And I think they have enormous talent. So, I wish ’em all well, and I’ll try to help. But meanwhile, I’m gonna just suit up and do what I’m doing.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Citizen: My Life After the White House” by Bill Clinton
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Ed Givnish.
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