DETROIT, USA - With just days to go until Election Day, both candidates are entering the final stretch of their campaigns. Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are holding split rallies in key states, including Michigan, where voters are most concerned about the economy and immigration.
Michigan, located along the so-called Rust Belt where heavy industry is concentrated, has 15 Electoral College votes and, along with battlegrounds Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is among the three "blue wall" states that Democrats cannot afford to lose in the presidential election.
Recent polls have shown that Harris and Trump are within striking distance in the Great Lake State. Thursday's poll by the Washington Post gave the current vice president a 1 percentage point lead with 47 % support among likely voters compared to the former president's 46 %.
The decline of the automobile industry, which has been an economic mainstay of the state in the past, and the protracted high inflation following the COVID pandemic have left many Michigan residents highly dissatisfied with the economic programs of both parties, although some still have their preferences.
Chelsea Wilson, an African-American waitress in a downtown Detroit restaurant, described herself as an undecided voter with a 50 percent chance of voting for either candidate and a 50 percent chance of not voting at all.
"What I'm saying has nothing to do with the color of my skin," Wilson said, adding that neither of the two candidates has done anything that would bring tangible benefits to the middle class, to which Wilson said she belongs.
While Jordan Wilson, an administrative assistant at the University of Michigan who cast an absentee ballot for Harris, praised the Democrat for proposing tighter regulation of large corporations to combat price gouging.
Tony, a laid-off auto worker who attended Trump's rally in Detroit, said the former president at least gave him slimmer hope that life could be better compared to the last four years of Democratic rule.
Tony, once a Democratic voter, accused the Biden and Harris administrations of doing nothing for auto workers like him. He said the decline of the American auto industry has gone "too far" and that even Trump can't "fix" anything.
But "what are the Democrats doing? They're in power now. Why can't they fix it?" Tony said. "This guy, maybe he'll do something, maybe he won't, but at least we have that maybe." he added, referring to Trump.
Immigration is another issue that divides Michigan voters and could affect their voting decisions.
While Trump's fixation on building a border wall and his discriminatory statements have inflamed xenophobic sentiment, the Biden and Harris administrations' prescription - a self-proclaimed "more humane" approach - has not stemmed the flow of migrants along the southern border, making immigration an even more contentious issue this election cycle.
Alayna Fogle, another University of Michigan administrative employee who voted for Harris, said she believes conservative ideas do not align with her values on immigration because they lack respect and protection for minority rights, including the rights of immigrants.
For Ruthie Gherasimova, a Trump rally attendee and the daughter of an immigrant family from Romania, but Trump's border policy is good in that it will keep America safe. "Secure borders, I guess that's my political view on the matter, sure." She said.
James Towera veteran and retiree from Detroit, disapproves of Trump's border wall, which he called "big mistake". As for the Biden and Harris administrations, "I never understood exactly what the reasons were for their deportation," He said.
"We need to get people who are willing to come here and become a protective part of the communities without bringing more crime," He added.
Xinhua/ gnews - RoZ
PHOTO - Xinhua/Liu Yanan, Lisa Gray
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