Former President Donald Trump will hold a town hall event in the heavily Democratic city of Flint, Michigan, on Tuesday, September 17, as he seeks to flip the Great Lakes State back to red in November.
The town hall is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and moderated by Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, according to the Trump campaign.
“After Michigan voters have been forced to suffer three and a half years of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s dangerously liberal policies, President Trump will meet with Michiganders to listen to their concerns and share his vision to make America affordable again,” Team Trump said in a statement.
“The auto industry is the backbone of Michigan’s economy, and Kamala Harris’ actions have only shown that she will destroy it,” the statement added. “If Kamala Harris has her way with a gas-powered car ban, Michigan will lose, at a minimum, 40,000 jobs. It’s painfully clear that Michiganders cannot afford four more years of Kamala Harris, and voters in the Great Lakes State are eager to hear how President Trump will lower inflation and protect the auto industry.”
BREAKING: President Trump to hold Flint, Michigan town hall next Tuesday at 7PM ET. pic.twitter.com/qIMJIdLm27
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 12, 2024
The Biden-Harris administration issued a rule earlier this year requiring auto manufacturers to produce more electric vehicles and tightened regulations on tail-pipe emissions, which target gas-powered vehicles. The Kamala Harris campaign attempted to distance the vice president from the administration’s policies, saying last month that she “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.” During her first major interview as the Democratic nominee, however, Harris doubled down on her commitment to addressing the “climate crisis.”
“The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she told CNN’s Dana Bash. “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”
Flint, known as “Vehicle City” for its boom during the height of the auto industry in Michigan, is now a heavily Democratic area whose population has declined for decades. When Flint was at the center of a water crisis nearly a decade ago, Trump traveled to the city to tour the water plant. Trump’s motorcade in 2016 was met by angry Flint residents who told him to “go home.”
Trump lost Genesee County, where Flint is the largest city, to both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 by nearly 10 points. Michigan is a vital battleground state for Trump and Vice President Harris in the 2024 election. Polls currently show Harris barely leading Trump by less than one point in the state, according to the RealClearPolitics average.