In Michigan, Jeffries calls on voters to ‘show up and stand up and speak up’ for what is right

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, speaks at a campaign event for Michigan state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, left, in Flint, Mich., on Oct. 30, 2024. McDonald Rivet is running to succeed U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, center, who is retiring at the end of his current term. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

As candidates begin to deliver their closing arguments to voters ahead of election day, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) joined Democrats in Michigan’s 7th and 8th Congressional Districts to encourage voters and volunteers to keep pushing toward a win. 

As both parties vie for control of the U.S. House, the 7th and 8th Districts have marked key battlegrounds in the fight for the majority as both seats sit open. Republicans currently have a narrow majority in the chamber.

In the 7th, former state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing) is facing former state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte). The district is currently held by U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), who is running for U.S. Senate against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake), leaving her seat up for grabs. 

With one week until Election Day, Republicans rally for Barrett in Southeast Michigan

State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) is battling against former Prosecutor Paul Junge, who unsuccessfully ran against U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) in the 8th District in 2022. Junge also lost to Slotkin in 2020 before congressional districts were redrawn. In 2023, Kildee announced he would retire, making the 8th District a top priority for Democrats and Republicans alike this year. 

Jeffries kicked off his visit to the state alongside Hertel at the United Association Local 333 where Hertel launched his campaign in July 2023. 

While speaking with supporters, Hertel reflected on his time serving in the minority in the state Senate from 2015 through 2022, alongside Democrats accomplishments during his time as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s legislative director. 

“I came into the state Senate about nine years ago in probably the worst place for Democrats in our history. There were 11 Democrats in the state Senate. We were the super-minority. … Many people thought we were a joke, but I got to be the campaign chair for that caucus and what we did is we took people’s blood, sweat, cheers, money and luck, because that’s what wins. campaigns. Pretty great candidates got on the ground, and we won a majority for the first time in 40 years here in Michigan,” Hertel said.

With Democrats taking control of the House and Senate in 2023 and retaining control of the governorship, Michigan Democrats advanced a number of pent-up policy priorities, including expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), repealing the retirement tax, ending the state’s 1931 ban on abortion, becoming the first state to do away with its Right to Work Laws and restoring prevailing wage. 

Hertel also pointed to the institution of universal background checks, safe firearm storage requirements and emergency risk protection orders — otherwise known as red flag laws — as a deeply personal victory, as his son was in the student union during the mass shooting at Michigan State University in February 2023. 

“We had so many times where gun violence took young peoples’ lives and nothing was done. The story we have to tell in Michigan is that those students got up the next day, went to the Capitol. They went to work to go fight for change and change happened because of that,” Hertel said. 

That kind of change is what this election is about, Hertel said, slamming U.S. House Republicans for passing the fewest number of bills in decades this past year, advancing 27 bills in total. 

“Republicans are about chaos and nonsense and sound and fury and not about actually solving problems for people. What we need is reasonable humans. I want Democrats to be in the majority, but I also want reasonable humans to be in the majority, to actually work together, solve problems and actually get things done for America,” Hertel said, later telling reporters he was interested in joining the Problem Solvers Caucus if elected. 

The caucus is made up of 62 Members of Congress — evenly split between Republicans and Democrats — committed to advancing bipartisan solutions in Congress.

Jeffries contrasted Hertel’s vision for lawmaking — with Hertel labeling himself as “Team Reasonable” in reference to previous comments Jeffries made slamming House Republicans — with House Republicans’ “Team Extreme.” 

“You can’t point to a single thing that House Republicans have done this Congress to make life better for the people of Michigan and the American people. Not a single thing. The most unproductive Congress in modern American history, the only time things have happened because Democrats in the minority have stepped up to govern as if we were in the majority,” Jeffries said. 

Alongside working to find bipartisan solutions, Jeffries said Democrats must push back against “MAGA extremism” — evoking an abbreviated version of former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great again” — warning about the future of the Affordable Care Act amid U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s promise of a “massive overhaul” for the policy. 

“If Roe vs. Wade can fall, then anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. The Affordable Care Act can fall. Democracy itself as we know it can fall, that’s why stakes are so high,” Jeffries said. 

As he made his closing remarks, Jeffries echoed advice he had received from the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), saying that when things look the toughest, “You just gotta show up and speak up and stand up for what you know is right and help America get to the other side of a difficult moment.”

“In these closing days here in the seventh congressional district, here in Michigan, here in America, as long as we show up and stand up and speak up for what we know is right, then I’m convinced, as we sometimes say in Washington, that we will win the day,” Jeffries said. “And win the week and win the month, win the year, win the hearts and minds of the American people. Win the election, send Curtis Hertel to the United States Congress, elect Elisssa Slotkin, hold the Senate, elect Kamala Harris as the 47th president of the United States of America and once again make it to the other side.”

While Jeffries has toured the nation in support of Democratic candidates, House Republican leadership has also made stops in support of Republicans running in vital districts, with Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joining Barrett, Junge and U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.) for a string of events across the state on Tuesday. James represents Michigan’s 10th Congressional District and is up against former Judge Carl Marlinga.

Johnson has also shown up in support of Barrett, Junge and James, rallying with each candidate in another series of campaign stops. 

Trump recently set off alarm bells among Democrats when he suggested at his Madison Square Garden rally on Saturday that he and Johnson have “a little secret” for after Election Day.

“I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right?” Trump said, addressing Johnson during a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. “Our little secret is having a big impact. He and I have a little secret — we will tell you what it is when the race is over.”

While changes made to the Electoral Count Act passed after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol tightened safeguards around the election certification process, Democrats have speculated that Johnson could help organize lawsuits challenging election results, reject electors from certain states or refuse to seat new Democratic members of the House.

Johnson, in a statement to The New York Times, said, “By definition, a secret is not to be shared – and I don’t intend to share this one.”

But Jeffries said in Flint on Wednesday that he believes the “little secret” is that Republicans would repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s become clear that the secret is that House Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make sure that people who have pre-existing conditions in terms of their health no longer have the health care that they need to actually be able to live a life of dignity and respect,” Jeffries said.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to keep the focus on communicating a positive, forward looking message that brings people together, and we’ll leave the conspiracy theories and divisiveness and the hateful rhetoric to the extreme MAGA Republicans,” Johnson said.

In the event that no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, the U.S. House would decide the president in a process granting each state’s delegation one vote. A candidate would need to win the vote of at least 26 states’ delegations to be named president.

Democrats currently hold a majority of the seats in Michigan’s delegation to the U.S. House, with seven Democratic members and six Republicans.

Hertel and McDonald Rivet would both have to defend their districts for Democrats in order to maintain that majority.

McDonald Rivet said that the seat she is running for is “seat 218” for the U.S. House, referencing the Cook Political Report’s analysis.

“That means that this is the seat, this is the city, this is the community that will determine control of the U.S. House,” McDonald Rivet said. 

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson said that he is “usually not a one-issue person, but Jan. 6 is a deal breaker for America.”

“I’ve seen a lot of death in my career. A lot of families broken and destroyed. This is what God’s called me to do. This is my field,” Swanson said. “But when you sign up to be a congressional leader in Washington, D.C., it is not your job to run for your life.”

Jeffries said that he “agrees with his observation as to the severity of what Jan. 6 represented.”

“We’ve got to make sure that we have a Congress that actually will certify this election this time,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries recounted being stuck in the U.S. House chamber with Kildee on Jan. 6, joking that he was waiting for someone to come get him out after watching Capitol Police escort then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and then-Majority Whip Jim Clyburn out of the chamber.

“As I’m waiting there, I say to myself, ‘Well, it’s a good thing I’m from Brooklyn,’” Jeffries said. “Just like in Brooklyn, here in Flint, we’ve got to be prepared to fight and defend our democracy.”

Advance Contributor Andrew Roth contributed to this report.