CNN
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump clashed in Michigan on Friday, both storming the state as they face a tough battle for what could be a crucial 15 Electoral College votes.

The two met in vote-rich Oakland County, northwest of Detroit – where an increasingly educated, diverse population and the suburban uprising against Trump have shifted the political landscape in Democrats’ favor in recent years.

Harris told a crowd in Waterford Township that Trump was “full of big promises but always fails to deliver on them” and called him “one of the biggest manufacturing job losers in American history.”

She reiterated her support for unions and said she would push the federal government and private companies to hire more workers without college degrees.

It was a blue-collar pitch that Harris also made on Friday in Grand Rapids, a western Michigan city in Kent County that flipped from Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020, and in Lansing, where she criticized Trump’s record in manufacturing and told union members that the former president was “not a friend of labor.”

Before concluding his evening with a rally in Detroit, Trump also stopped in Oakland County to attend a roundtable in Auburn Hills. He said he would boost American automobile production by imposing high tariffs on imported vehicles.

“I think the word inch is more beautiful than love,” Trump said.

Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin form the “blue wall” – three battlegrounds on the Great Lakes that decided the 2016 election in favor of Trump and gave the White House to Biden again four years later.

Although Michigan went for Biden by about 154,000 votes, it also gave Trump a historic victory in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton by fewer than 11,000 votes, breaking a Democratic winning streak dating back to 1992.

According to the secretary of state’s office, more than 944,000 early ballots have already been cast in Michigan – 13% of the state’s active registered voters.

Both campaigns are targeting specific groups of potential voters in Michigan, including union members, black voters, moderate suburban voters and Arab Americans who are dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Trump visited a campaign office on Friday in Hamtramck, which has a large Muslim and Arab-American population. He stood alongside the city’s mayor, Amer Ghalib, who recently endorsed the former president.

Trump, who has vowed to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants if re-elected, was once asked by the mayor: “One thing that the Democrats keep sending to our community to intimidate them, that you come and deport them, even though some of They are second and third generation immigrants. That’s why I want you to respond to these allegations and hear what you say to our community. What would you tell them?”

“Fake news,” the former president replied.

Trump previously told reporters that he planned to speak soon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he said was doing a “good job.” He said Biden was “trying to hold him back, and he should probably do the opposite.”

Hours later in Waterford Township, Harris acknowledged it was a “very difficult” year for members of the Arab American community.

She praised the support of “Arab-American leaders” and named Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe as recognizing that Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon have worried members of the large Arab-American and Muslim communities that are theirs Proud roots in the Detroit area are “deep and profound.”

Harris also reiterated her belief that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could provide an opportunity to restart negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas.

“Sinwar’s death can and must be a turning point. Everyone must seize this opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, bring the hostages home and end the suffering once and for all,” she said. “And I continue to believe that diplomacy is the answer to creating lasting stability on the Israel-Lebanon border.”

Earlier in the day, the vice president spoke to union members in Lansing, where she played clips in which Trump disparaged autoworkers’ work, attacked United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and said he “used to hate paying overtime.” , when he oversaw his work companies before entering politics.

Trump has wooed auto workers in Michigan with a promise to impose steep tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico and China. He has also proposed making interest on car loans tax deductible.

The Harris campaign’s decision to highlight Trump’s own words comes at a time when Democrats are trying to bridge a divide between union leaders, who broadly support Harris and align closely with their party on labor policy issues, and its members, who are in In some cases, they align more closely with Republicans on cultural issues.

“Listen to his words,” Harris said after the 35-second video was played to the audience. “He says that autoworkers’ jobs are basically child’s play and that kids can do it.”

“He has his club and I tell you, unionists are not part of his club. Let’s get this straight. No matter what he does at his rallies,” she added. “To compare it to the work of a child? If we know here that your work is complex. You do it with great care. You work hard. They are highly qualified. You are highly trained and the best autoworker in the world is you.”

Trump’s visit to Detroit marked his first return to the Motor City since he insulted it at a Detroit Economic Club event last week. In those remarks, Trump compared Detroit, the state’s largest city, to a “developing country” and warned that if Harris wins on Nov. 5, “the whole country will be like Detroit.”

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Fight Like Hell PAC launched a radio spot Friday highlighting Trump’s denigration of Detroit.

“Donald Trump recently came to Detroit and talked nonsense about our city. He called Detroit a failure and a mess. We know he is wrong. Detroiters are not giving up on each other and their city, something Donald Trump will never understand,” Whitmer says in the 30-second spot.

Upon his return to the city on Friday, Trump told the crowd that Election Day “will be the day of liberation in America.”

Trump said that he thought Detroit had “so much potential” but that Democrats had “wreaked havoc here” and undermined the long-promised comeback.

“I declare to the people of this state that by the end of my term, the entire world will be talking about the Michigan Miracle and the breathtaking rebirth of Detroit,” he said.

CNN’s Ali Main and Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.