Trump and Harris court Arab American voters in Michigan's decisive showdown

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in an all-out scramble for Arab American votes in Michigan, knowing that this pivotal battleground could tip the scales of the entire election.

The Republican nominee visited a new campaign office in Hamtramck on Friday, a Muslim-majority city, and was joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed Trump. Meanwhile, three city council members in the same town have endorsed Harris.

"His visit today is to show respect and appreciation to our community," said Ghalib, who presented Trump with a framed certificate of appreciation.

Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election, and the diverse voting blocs are key to winning the state. Both Trump and Harris, his Democratic rival, made a push for union workers and Black voters as they worked every angle for support.

'Zeroing in on voting blocs'

"It's an election for president. It’s not supposed to be a cake walk for anyone. There are very important issues at play," Harris said.

David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Harris, said on Friday that he believed all of the swing states were still in play, but the key was zeroing in on voting blocs.

"We’re going to treat every cohort like they're a swing voter,” he said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”

Trump has been trying to capitalise on frustration with Harris over the US backing of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.

His allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in Michigan, which has a sizable population of Arab Americans, particularly in and around Detroit. Asked about the Hamtramck mayor’s endorsement, Trump said: "I mean, frankly, it’s an honour. I’ve got a lot of endorsements, Arab Americans, from a lot of people.”

Trump said he didn’t think the Arab American community would vote for Harris "because she doesn’t know what she's doing."

At the campaign office, Trump said he was also getting support from unions and that the head of the United Auto Workers — who has endorsed Harris — doesn’t have a clue.

"I’ve saved Michigan," he said, telling the crowds he would bring back more manufacturing. "We’ll end up having those plants built over here instead of in other countries."

Harris meanwhile has been greeted by demonstrators protesting US support of Israel in the conflict. During a closed-door meeting on Thursday with students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she was confronted by one, based on a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group on social media.

'Billions of dollars in genocide?'

According to the video, as Harris was telling students she was invested in them, a protester interrupted her saying, "And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?"

The demonstrator was eventually escorted out by university police, as he continued recording.

At Harris' first event of the day, scores of supporters gathered in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, on a carpet of fallen orange leaves under cloudless skies. The county leaned Republican for many years, and was won by Trump by 3 percent in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020, and it has increasingly voted Democratic recently.

A phalanx of Democratic governors — Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Wes Moore of Maryland, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York — took the stage before Harris.

Harris stepped out to huge cheers as she ran through the differences between herself and Trump, cautioning that electing him would be dangerous for the nation, and slamming him as anti-union.

Harris travels next to Lansing, where she will speak at a United Auto Workers union hall and promote the White House's record of supporting domestic car manufacturing. Her final event of the day is a rally in Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.

Trump had his own events in Oakland County and Detroit.