Bring in the closer: Michelle Obama lends her popularity to Kamala Harris

DETROIT – Michelle Obama will urge voters to get off the sidelines and cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday in a rare campaign appearance that coincides with the first day of early voting across Michigan.

Obama will boost Harris in Kalamazoo, a city in the western part of the critical state and an area where the VP’s campaign needs a groundswell of support from the Democratic Party base.

“She is by far our most effective messenger, most effective closer, and I think going up against Donald Trump, what you want is somebody like Michelle Obama that's going to elevate the conversation,” said Ashley Etienne, a former communications director to Harris and special assistant to Barack Obama during his White House years.

It is Michelle Obama’s first rally of the election cycle, and the only one she’s currently scheduled to appear at with Harris, who’s in a dead heat with Trump in the Nov. 5 election.

She’ll also speak at a star studded rally in Atlanta on Tuesday that is being put on by her nonprofit, nonpartisan When We All Vote – an initiative that seeks to educate, register and engage young people and voters of color.

Michelle Obama seen as key motivator

Obama is among her party’s most popular contemporary figures, and Democrats see the former first lady, who prefers to stay out of partisan politics, as uniquely positioned to motivate politically disengaged Americans.

“Michelle Obama is probably even more popular than Barack Obama,” said Democratic strategist Ashley Allison, an Obama White House alum. “Who wouldn't want Michelle Obama at this point.”

Harris’ campaign is turning to the former first lady for help just as the voters who could decide this election begin tuning into the conversation.

Obama’s push to Democrats at their summer convention to “do something” to help Harris was seen as one of the nationally televised gathering’s most powerful primetime moments. Obama also mocked Trump in the speech for referring to “Black jobs” during his June debate against President Joe Biden.

In her convention speech in the 2016 election, Obama rallied Democrats around the command “when they go low, we go high” as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton campaigned against Trump.

She has since said that the phrase does not mean doing nothing. “It’s about making your work count and your voice heard in a way that’s authentic to you and constructive for others,” she said.

Obama appeared at multiple rallies for Clinton, including one with her in the final weeks of the race in Winston-Salem. Clinton won the popular vote that year but lost the election to Trump after failing to secure the votes needed to win the Electoral College.

The former first lady opted not to campaign in person in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden defeated Trump, who succeeded her husband in office, in that election.

Dead heat in Michigan

Obama’s appearance in Michigan comes during a crucial stretch of the campaign.

Biden beat Trump by nearly 27,000 votes in Kalamazoo. He improved significantly on Democrats’ vote totals there from four years prior, helping him to flip the state.

The vice president is tied with Trump in Michigan, with a little more than a week to go until Election Day.

“This is the time when they bring in the closer, and that’s what she is,” one person familiar with the discussions said.

Harris was in Detroit last weekend to kick off early voting in the city. Obama’s husband, former President Barack Obama, campaigned in Detroit on Tuesday alongside the rapper Eminem.

He campaigned with Harris on Thursday at a rally in Atlanta with Bruce Springsteen that drew a crowd of 23,000 people, making it Harris’ largest campaign rally to date.

Barack Obama has been a critical surrogate for Harris on the campaign trail in the final weeks of the campaign. He has been barnstorming the country since mid-October, stumping for Harris in Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Tucson and Madison.

The Obamas endorsed Harris in late July after she became the likely Democratic nominee following Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the race. Michelle Obama has since advocated for Harris in social media posts.

Throughout the year and prior to Harris topping the ticket, Obama was working with her nonprofit, which she founded in 2018, to register new voters.

First-time voter push in Georgia

Kyle Lierman, the chief executive officer of Civic Nation, the umbrella group for Obama’s nonprofit initiative, said the organization chose Georgia for its Tuesday event for its historical importance. The state was integral to the success of the civil rights movement.

Obama is aiming to use her platform in Georgia to get first-timer voters’ attention, he said.

“It’s obviously important for her to pick her spots in terms of when and where she shows up and how she shows up to make sure that it is resonant across the country,” said Lierman, who helped Obama launch the voter registration initiative.

The event will feature entertainers such as Ciara, Kerry Washington and Shonda Rhimes.

Obama announced on Thursday that she’d already cast her ballot by mail. She is registered in Chicago.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bring in the closer: Michelle Obama to rally voters for Kamala Harris