Appearing together in the hometown of Michigan’s largest university, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sought Tuesday to burnish their credibility with young voters and reassure Democrats who have grown nervous about the apparent stalemate in the race to oust Donald Trump from the White House dragged on.

Much of the rhetoric at the evening rally in Ann Arbor, a city known for the University of Michigan and its nearly 53,000 students, was aimed directly at first-time voters, traditionally a treasure trove of votes for Democrats. Speaking in a city park south of the university campus, Harris comforted a generation in which many see their challenges as existential.

“I want to specifically address all the young leaders and all the students who are here today,” Harris said. “So, I love your generation. I really do, and one of the things about it is that you’re right to be impatient for change.”

“You are impatient for change because, you see, all you know is the climate crisis and therefore you are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. You, you young leaders who grew up with active shooter drills and are now fighting to keep our schools safe. You, who now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers, are committed to reproductive freedom, and for you I know that these questions at stake are not theoretical. This is not political for you. It’s your lived experience, and I see you, and I see your strength.”

It was a similar tone from Maggie Rogers, the 30-year-old Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who served as the rally’s warm-up act and was one of several music stars the Harris campaign has booked for its recent events.

“As I stand here with you today, I can no longer ignore the headlines I see on my phone. “I have to face the reality of what’s going to happen in the next eight days and to be honest, it’s frightening,” Rogers said.

“These are such wild and unprecedented times, and the energy feels so high, and the future feels so uncertain, and I don’t always know what to do with that feeling, but there’s something inside me that’s bigger is than fear, and This is action, you are all here today, right now, voting – voting is the key to the future.”

Early voting began in Michigan two days ago, and both Walz and Harris encouraged young people to cast their ballots. Whether that happens could prove crucial to Democrats’ victories in a swing state where polls show no clear front-runner.

Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which make up the trio of Democratic states in the “Blue Wall” along the Great Lakes, have been counting on Democrats to put their candidates in the White House for decades.

That confidence was dashed in 2016 when Trump narrowly won all three countries in his surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, only for Biden to narrowly win them back again four years later. The margins are expected to be narrow this year — polls have shown Harris and Trump tied or narrowly ahead in every state, as well as in the four battleground states in the Sun Belt.

Recognizing the tension, Walz told the crowd, “If you’re feeling scared, nervous or worried, we have the solution for you: Go out and vote for Kamala Harris.” I know, I did it with my son last Wednesday, who voted the first time, and it works.”

Among blue wall states, Michigan gave Biden the widest margin of victory in 2020, and its Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is among the party’s rising stars, briefly considered his successor until Harris stepped in. But Biden’s support for Israel after the Oct. 7 attack and subsequent invasions in Gaza and Lebanon have alienated the large community of Arab Americans and Muslims around Detroit who were otherwise expected to support Democrats.

Harris has spoken little differently than Biden on the conflict, indicating that she supports a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas on October 7. But her campaign found time at the Ann Arbor rally to hear from Assad Turfe, the highest-ranking Arab-American official in the Detroit area, who said his community should support the vice president.

“Vice President Harris has called for a ceasefire that brings the hostages home, allows displaced families in Lebanon to return to their villages and gives the Palestinian people the dignity and self-determination they deserve.” If she wins, she will continue to do everything “What she can do to bring relief to innocent civilians and ensure lasting peace for the region,” said Turfe, Wayne County Deputy Executive.

“We know what Trump thinks of Muslims and Arab Americans and how he treats us,” Turfe continued, mentioning Trump’s ban on people from Muslim-majority countries entering the United States during his presidency, as well as his recent comments in support of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

“If he gets another chance to occupy the Oval Office, he will only bring more chaos and more suffering.”

But that wasn’t enough to prevent about a dozen people, mostly young people, from interrupting Harris’ speech, chanting “Stop the genocide” and waving placards reading “Give up Harris.” The vice president, who experienced this again and again during the campaign, responded as she often did: “We all want this war to end as quickly as possible and the hostages to be released, and I will do everything in my power to make it happen. “So.”

For Haley Litman, a psychology student at the University of Michigan who attended Harris’ speech, the war in Gaza is an important issue. But she said withholding her vote from the vice president wouldn’t solve anything.

“There were definitely protests on both sides and that is a problem for me. However, I think Kamala’s election provides us with an opportunity to address this issue. If we elected Trump, I don’t think there would be a chance to address this problem,” she said.