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- By Levi Rickert
Native Vote 2024. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz continued their campaign bus tour in rural Georgia, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff made a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The second gentleman, making his first campaign appearance since last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, described his wife, the current vice president of the United States and the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, to the audience of 250 as the “joyful warrior, who is tough as they come; who already is a world leader.”
He recounted several topics of Harris’ nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, including citing how she told the convention that throughout her long career, she has only had one client: the people.
“As attorney general of California, her approach was if it’s not fair, there have to be consequences. So, if opportunistic companies take advantage of a crisis to rip off customers, she's going to find them and she’s going to stop them. This is not ideological. If someone is ripping us off, it's gotta stop and she’s going to stop. It’s not ideological, it's practical,” Emhoff said.
“Fairness is good for the economy. When she took on the big banks, it was because people were getting ripped off, plain and simple, losing their homes, and there needed to be a solution for that,” he continued.
Emhoff emphasized the Biden-Harris administration getting the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act through Congress that brought money and jobs to Michigan.
“Michigan ranks number one in the country for investments from the Infrastructure Reduction Act. More than $26 billion in new federal investments and over 21,000 good paying jobs. It’s supporting entrepreneurs, helping manufacturers expand, growing the pie and investing in the middle class. This is all important, and this is everything that she's talking about. But just as in business, these goals are only practical if they come with trust and character in this election, and on those measures, there is no contest trust in character on one side: Kamala and Tim; not so much on the other,” Emhoff said.
Before Emhoff spoke, Gina Raimondo, the former Governor of Rhode Island and current U.S. Department of Commerce, spoke. The audience was told she was there only in her personal capacity, not in her official capacity.
Raimondo says she married a man from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 24 years ago and loves getting to Michigan when she can. She said she came to the rally to support Kamala Harris’ candidacy because she admires her as a public servant.
“She was called to public service because she wanted to fight for people without a voice. She wanted to stick up for people who needed an advocate. She did that and she’s doing that, and she will do that as your president,” Raimondo said.
In addition, Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat who represents Michigan’s 3rd congressional district and Michigan State Rep. Phil Skaggs, from the 80th state district, spoke about the need to work hard if Democrats want to win in November.
Emhoff left Grand Rapids for Ketchum, Idaho where he will attend a fundraiser.
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