Harris and Trump differ on style and substance while wooing Michigan union workers

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at UAW Local 652 in Lansing, Oct. 18, 2024 | Angela Demas

Before Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a couple hundred union members in Lansing Friday evening, she was introduced by Benjamin Frantz, who described his journey going from a “poor kid to Local 652 president.” 

He leads the union local that has a lot on the line this election, as it represents workers at General Motors’ Lansing Grand River Plant that netted a $500 million federal grant from the Biden administration to transition to electric vehicle production to keep the plant open and save 650 jobs. But former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, won’t say if their administration would uphold the funding. 

“I am a union autoworker, but I am an American first,” Frantz said. “… That’s why it is my honor and it is my privilege to announce to you all someone who believes in workers’ rights, who believes in the reason I wake up, believes in the reason that you guys are here.”

About an hour later in Detroit, Brian Pannebecker took the stage at Huntington Place where former Trump was holding a rally for thousands of supporters. The Macomb County founder of Auto Workers for Trump has been a fixture at Trump’s Michigan events since 2016, but the group has drawn controversy as some rallygoers sporting its shirts have admitted they’re not autoworkers. 

Benjamin Frantz, President of UAW Local 652, hugs Vice President Kamala Harris at UAW Local 652 in Lansing, Oct. 18, 2024 | Angela Demas

On Friday night, Pannebecker waxed nostalgic about the industry’s history in Michigan and gas-powered vehicles lined up for the Woodward Dream Cruise. 

“Now if Kamala Harris and Tampon Tim were to find their way into the White House, you can kiss all that goodbye,” he said, using a derogatory nickname for Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, before launching into an interlude about conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

“But the UAW — if Kamala Harris were to get elected, our livelihoods’ gone; our industry is gone. She wants to eliminate it,” Pannebecker said.

The approaches from the two men couldn’t have been more different: Frantz delivered an emotional speech, punctuated by his personal story, while Pannebecker went on the attack and revved up the crowd. 

But interestingly, it was Harris — not Trump — who was the focus of both leaders’ remarks. That mirrors much of the analysis of the presidential race in these final two weeks that has centered on what the vice president needs to do to win over enough voters in key blocs, like Black men, Latinos and Arab Americans. 

And in Michigan — perhaps more than in any other state — Democrats are worried about Harris shedding critical labor support, especially as big unions like the Teamsters and the International Association of Fire Fighters have opted not to endorse in the presidential race.

“Dems’ slippage with unions is occuring with the most male unions, because Dem slippage is most intense with non-college males overall,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic consultant and CEO of Lansing-based Grassroots Midwest. 

There’s also concern among Democrats that racism and misogyny are playing a role here, as Harris, who is Black and Indian American, would be the first female president. It’s not a coincidence that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — who’s endured her fair share of sexism, like being called “batsh-t crazy” by a Republican former Senate majority leader — has been stressing Harris’ strength while on the campaign trail.  

“Why wouldn’t we choose the leader who’s tough, tested and a total badass?” Whitmer said at the Democratic National Convention in August. “I know who I want as our commander-in-chief. America, let’s choose Kamala Harris.”

Brian Pannebecker speaks ahead of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Detroit on Oct. 18, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

Message discipline and differences

In order to win over workers, the two presidential nominees pitched vastly different messages last week while stumping in Michigan, the birthplace of the UAW. While Harris has portrayed herself as the “underdog,” Trump has sought to convey an aura of inevitability. 

Michigan remains a critical battleground for both campaigns. Trump pulled out a shocking win in 2016 by less than 11,000 votes over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also notched victories in the other “Blue Wall” states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But all three states flipped blue in 2020, with Biden taking Michigan by more than 154,000 votes. 

As she began her speech at Local 652, Harris tried to tap into the state’s deep-seated pride in the labor movement.

“For generations, here in Lansing and across our country, union members have helped lead the fight for fair pay, better benefits, and safe working conditions. And every person in our nation has benefited from that work,” she said.

“… Unions have always fought to make our nation more equal, fair, and free, and in this election, everything that we have fought for is on the line.”

Harris then promised to invest in manufacturing and expand job opportunities for those without college degrees. She touted the Biden administration shoring up the Detroit Carpenters Pension Fund, impacting more than 22,500 union workers and retirees in Michigan, with the campaign stressing the administration has protected pensions for over 1.1 million workers nationally and over 80,000 in Michigan.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Detroit on Oct. 18, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

But Hemond said the Democrats’ approach of trumpeting policy plans and victories often falls short with voters.

“Policy can only get you so far with voters who don’t follow policy closely, and in general, 21st century Dems do a poor job speaking to voters without degrees,” he told the Michigan Advance. “Dems have to convince these men that they belong in the Dem coalition.”

Trump, on the other hand, typically talks more generally about the economy and stresses why workers like him. At a stop in Hamtramck Friday, he boasted of UAW members backing him because he understands how to create jobs. 

“So many of them … support me because I’m going to bring back the auto jobs,” Trump said.

“I’ve saved Michigan,” he added. 

During a manufacturing roundtable in Auburn Hills later on Friday, Trump praised controversial Teamsters President Sean O’Brien — who met with him in January at his Mar-a-Lago estate and later spoke to the Republican National Convention — as a “great guy.” 

Trump doesn’t go into detail about his manufacturing plans, but he does promise it will lead to an economic revival across America.

“We want people to build plants in the United States, employ our people, that’s what we want and if you do that, it’s a whole different story and ideally they’ll build it right here in Detroit and we’ll get Detroit moving and others will come also,” Trump said at his rally at Huntington Place. “So vote Trump and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing jobs from Mexico to Michigan, from Shanghai to Sterling Heights and from Beijing to right here in Detroit and other cities all across America. Because a strong auto industry will make all of Detroit richer.”

The former president does speak about one policy regularly: tariffs. He’s proposed a 10% or 20% tariff on all imported goods and a 60% tariff on goods imported from China, which Harris and some economists have panned as a tax hike on consumers.

But in Auburn Hills, Trump told attendees, “I think it’s more beautiful than love, the word tariff.”

Both presidential hopefuls have had choice words about one another while traversing Michigan, although Trump’s have been sharper, telling reporters on Friday that Harris is “not a smart person.” 

A week earlier while speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump announced, “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.” Harris has sought to turn the attack around, releasing a scathing Michigan ad and showing up in a “Detroit vs. Everybody” shirt at an early voting event Saturday with Lizzo.

Harris usually sticks to policy contrasts with her opponent. At her Lansing stop Friday, she paused her remarks several times, as she’s been doing lately, to show clips of Trump’s speeches, like when he said he “used to hate to pay overtime” and ripped on autoworkers’ skills, musing that “you could have a child do it.”

“Donald Trump thinks the work you do is child’s play,” Harris said, drawing boos from the crowd. “That your value as workers is virtually meaningless. When we here all know the work you do is complex. And you do it with great care. You are highly skilled. Highly trained. And the best autoworkers in the world.” 

And Harris spoke directly to members of Local 652, warning that their jobs at the GM plant could be on the chopping block if Trump gets back into office.

“Trump’s running mate called your jobs ‘table scraps,” Harris said, referring to Vance’s comments this month about the $500 million federal grant. “Well, I will always have your back, and will fight to keep your jobs right here in Lansing.”

Vance has sought to defend Trump’s record on the auto industry, but he has not promised to keep the federal funding in place for the Lansing plant.

“So neither me nor President Trump has ever said that we want to take any money that’s going to Michigan autoworkers out of the state of Michigan,” Vance said on Oct. 8 in Detroit. “We certainly want to invest in Michigan auto workers as much as possible.”

As Harris emphasizes what Democrats have delivered to working-class voters while Trump wages a personality-driven campaign seeking to appeal to them on a visceral level, it’s not clear what approach will win out — or even if union workers’ votes will prove decisive in Michigan. There are any number of fault lines this election, including abortion rights, inflation and the war in Gaza.  

But if there’s one thing you can count on in late October in the Mitten State, it’s that Democrats will panic about election strategy. Jeff Timmer, a former Michigan GOP executive director who’s now an adviser with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, has watched this dance for decades. But he sees a silver lining for Democrats this year.

“Trump has made inroads [with union voters] but the Dems are bedwetting for certain,” he told the Advance. “Harris’ inroads into college white [voters] outpaces Trump blue-collar gains.”