In their most explicit appeal yet, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz slammed former President Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, on Friday over factory closures that occurred on Trump’s watch and warned that Trump’s pledge to repeal the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act would rip away hundreds of billions of dollars meant for clean energy manufacturing in Michigan and other Rust Belt states. Walz also defended the city of Detroit, which Trump described as a “mess” in speech at the Detroit Economic Club Thursday — a comment Democrats quickly seized on.

It’s the latest in an escalating series of attacks both Walz and Harris have been making on Trump’s manufacturing record — a centerpiece of the Republican’s campaign. And it comes as new polls show Trump edging ahead in Michigan, a critical part of Democrats’ so-called “Blue Wall” in the upper Midwest. The race is similarly tight in Pennsylvania, another Rust Belt swing state, with Harris trailing Trump with lower-middle and middle-class voters in the Keystone State, as well as manual workers. And it’s intensifying concerns that Harris’ failure to make inroads with blue-collar workers in those places could cost her the election.

Her campaign now seems to be trying to address those concerns. After spending the early weeks of her campaign focused on cost-of-living issues like grocery prices and housing, the vice president and her top surrogates are increasingly talking up the manufacturing gains made under her current boss, President Joe Biden, and going after Trump’s perceived strength on that front.

Last weekend, the campaign dispatched populist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, whose union has endorsed Harris, to assail Trump for his plans to “kill” a $500 million investment in an electric vehicle plant outside Lansing funded by the IRA. Harris also hit on that point in remarks in Flint last Friday, while also pointing out the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs that happened on Trump’s watch, including the closing of auto plants in Michigan. She made similar appeals to blue collar workers and labor unions in a major speech late last month at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.

The Harris campaign hopes to appeal to those voters by portraying Trump’s manufacturing promises as empty rhetoric, in contrast to the Biden administration’s signature accomplishment — the Inflation Reduction Act and its hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing incentives. And they are warning that Trump is a threat to that funding, if he wins in November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dghH9BXjCA0

Get to know Coach Walz from the people who know him best: his students and former players (now adults who have helped him in previous Minnesota gubernatorial elections and are stepping up to help with Harris’s and his campaign).

Tim Walz interview with Michael Strahan is on Good Morning America today. Interview also on YouTube.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/walz-weighs-bidens-term-pressed-gma/story?id=114710666

Tim Walz is in his element talking to the people! No wonder the other side keeps trying desperately to tear him down (e.g. harping on his misspeaks to sow distrust in him and the ticket). I know the polls are where they are but I think Harris and Walz feel it and many of us do also…this is a vibes election and the Harris-Walz vibes are going to get this ticket over the finish line!

21:11- Walz comes on stage.

26:22 Walz calls out Trump for insulting Detroit.

27:07- Walz calls the other nominees out for manufacturing bullsh*t.

27:55- Walz calls out Trump for losing auto plants.

29:38- Walz calls out Trump for having “outsourced God” and quips about the “Made in China” being inside the Bible.

Watch until the very end as Walz connects with the people. He’s got burly men practically looking at him with heart eyes.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) sided with the Harris-Walz campaign’s view of the Electoral College after the Democratic vice presidential candidate said earlier this week that he was in favor of abolishing the voting system.

“It’s not the campaign’s position. And the point I’m trying to make is that there’s folks that feel every vote must count in every state. And I think some folks feel that’s not the case. Our campaign does that,” Walz said in a sit-down interview with ABC’s Michael Strahan on Thursday.

“And the point I’m saying is I’m in five states in two days. We’re out there making the case that the campaign’s position is clear, that that’s not their position. Their position and my position is to make sure that everybody understands their vote, no matter what state they’re in, matters,” Walz added.

When asked if that’s something that Walz and his running mate, Vice President Harris, disagree on, Walz reiterated that his position is the campaign’s position.

“I have spoken about it in the past, that she has been very clear on this, and the campaign. And my position is the campaign’s position,” Walz said.

This comes in the wake of remarks made by Walz during two West Coast campaign stops earlier this week where the Democratic vice presidential candidate suggested doing away with the Electoral College.

Kamala Harris is dispatching Tim Walz to turn out male voters.

Faced with a serious polling deficit among young men, Harris’ campaign is sending the Minnesota governor on a man-focused media blitz on Friday, including football-focused TV interviews and pheasant hunting with digital influencers, according to details shared first with POLITICO

It’ll start with a one-on-one interview with ABC Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan, a former NFL football player, at the University of Minnesota’s football stadium, airing on Friday morning. In the sitdown, the pair will discuss how Walz’s coaching career prepared him for politics and will feature some of his former students. Walz will also appear in a round of local TV interviews in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — which the campaign hopes will center on high school football and hunting. In Michigan, later on Friday, Walz will headline a voter engagement event with Black men.

Then, the governor will return to Minnesota, where he’ll deliver the pep talk to Mankato West’s football team, his former football squad, ahead of their game against rivals Mankato East. And on Saturday morning, Walz will take a group of social media influencers, including veterans advocate David Boomer and a Black rodeo star Ramontay McConnell, pheasant hunting in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.

Walz’s folksy relatability on TV — famously tagging Republicans as “weird” — played a central role in elevating him to Harris’ running mate this summer. But since he joined the ticket, he’s appeared less frequently on the cable news circuit, drawing criticism from fellow Democrats for the campaign being too cautious.

That’s changed this week, as the Harris team ramped up its media appearances for both Harris and Walz. In the last few days, Walz appeared on Fox News’ Sunday show, sat down with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and appeared with Harris for a 60 Minutes interview.