The campaign trail for Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz led to Michigan Stadium Saturday.
Walz, the Minnesota governor, was there to watch the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team play the Michigan Wolverines.
He and his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, hope to do better in Michigan this election, however, than the Gophers did at the Big House. The Wolverines won the game, 27 to 24.
To do that, U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI 6) recommended spending more time getting to know voters. Dingell met Walz at Willow Run Airport, outside Ypsilanti, where his plane landed Saturday morning.
“I think people need to get to know Kamala Harris. She needs to be real. She needs to be herself. They need to get into the union halls, they need to be talking to the workers. When people see who and what they’re really fighting for and we do the contrast, that’s how we win,” Dingell told reporters at the airport.
Dingell stressed she felt neither the Walz-Harris campaign nor their Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, is winning Michigan at this point in the race.
Polls have long shown the state as a tight race, with both campaigns struggling to take a lead outside of the margin of error.
At the airport, however, Walz received an enthusiastic greeting from a Democratic University of Michigan student group that had a school bus painted with the words, “PUT, ME IN, COACH!” -- an apparent reference to Walz's background as a football coach at Mankato West High School in Minnesota.
Students for Harris-Walz at Michigan co-president Audrey Clayton said she believes social and economic policies that the Democratic presidential ticket supports would best help young people get ahead.
“Upholding our rights, upholding our democracy, including reproductive rights, the rights to marry who we love. All of that is on the table and that’s what we’re voting on,” Clayton said.
Aside from meeting supporters and officials, including Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe, and state Representative Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor), at the airport, Walz also appeared at a tailgate and met with some coaching staff, players, and cheerleaders inside the stadium.
The Walz visit comes a day after Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, rallied supporters in West Michigan and metro Detroit.
