Overview:
- Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a packed gym at Western International High School in Detroit, promising investments in the middle class and education.
- She highlighted the severe environmental and health challenges facing Detroit communities and reaffirmed her commitment to environmental justice.
-The event marked the beginning of early voting in Michigan, with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan urging voters to utilize the 16-day voting period.
- The crowd, energized by Detroit native Lizzo, who spoke before Harris, showed strong support.
In a six-minute speech before a large crowd at Western International High School gym on Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris talked about the “grit” and “excellence” of Detroiters and her pledge to invest in the middle class and education.
Harris, donning a black t-shirt bearing the words “Detroit vs. Everybody,” kicked off early voting alongside Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, acknowledging the disproportionate impact environmental and health hazards play in Detroit communities, adding that Harris is a candidate who will say the words “environmental justice.”
“She knows that too many people in Detroit lose power and have their basement flood when it rains just a little bit,” Gilchrist said. “But she also knows we have a role to play in defining this clean energy future.”
Jasmin Maciel-Gutierrez, a civics teacher at Western High School, joked about deserving a VIP teacher area at the rally, pointing to her classroom window from the line outside the gym. She came to the Harris rally with her mother and her seven-year-old brother.
“I’m here representing my parents and all the undocumented community that we have here not only in Southwest but across the nation,” Maciel-Gutierrez told Planet Detroit.
Maciel-Gutierrez said her top three issues are gun control, specifically in schools, immigration, and “the genocides happening across the world.”
She said seeing Harris with her mother was an emotional experience.
“My mom was crying on her way here. It’s a privilege to have this type of opportunity,” Maciel-Gutierrez said. “I wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for my parents because my mom was the one begging me to go to school and get scholarships. This is my way of paying back to them.”
She also wanted her little brother to see this event and know that “he’s important, and that he counts in this country, and that he’s powerful.”
Sheri Dirkse, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Munger Elementary-Middle School, said she supports Harris for her policies on abortion rights, transgender care and education. She wants to make sure her daughters “don’t have to worry about their bodies.” She also has a transgender son and wants him to feel safe.
Dirkse said she was called to teaching as a profession to fight the inequities she saw in education in Southwest Detroit.
“My students think because they have accents, or their parents came from other countries, and their skin is more melanated, that they might not deserve as much,” Dirkse said.
She would love to see more STEM initiatives in Southwest, especially offered for female students, she said, adding they’re a severely underrepresented group.
“For Detroiters, it’s a tradition to go to the polls,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “Now to be able to have another 16 days, you can have that same experience no matter what is most convenient.”
Lizzo, a Detroit native, rallied the crowd before Harris came on to speak. She spun former president Donald Trump’s “diss” of Detroit – where he forewarned the entire country would become “a mess” like Detroit under Harris’s leadership – into pride.
“Well, I say proud like Detroit. I say resilient like Detroit,” Lizzo said. “This is the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. So put some respect on Detroit’s name.”
After the rally, many Harris supporters walked across the street to Clark Park to vote early. The center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until November 3.
Latinos con Harris-Walz and the One Campaign invite early voters for their Party at the Polls event on October 27 and November 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Clark Park polling location with music, food, and merch.
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