By TV6 News Team, Clint McLeod and Vinny La Via
Published: May. 16, 2024 at 6:42 AM EDT|Updated: May. 16, 2024 at 11:23 PM EDT
UPPER PENINSULA, Mich. (WLUC & AP) - President Joe Biden’s campaign is focusing on Michigan women over the coming days, with First Lady Jill Biden’s statewide tour of the key battleground state beginning Thursday afternoon in Marquette.
She spoke to a standing-room-only crowd with a female majority at Ore Dock Brewing Company on Thursday afternoon. The First Lady said health care concerns are the biggest issue on November’s ballot for women.
“We are the first generation in half a century, like Doug [Emhoff] said, to give our daughters a country with fewer rights than we had. From book bans, voting laws gutted, and court decisions that strip away our most basic freedoms,” Biden said.
The campaign stop is part of the “Women for Biden-Harris” effort, a nationwide program to organize and mobilize female voters to give Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris a second White House term. Biden’s wife, Jill, is leading the effort that was launched in February.
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff joined the First Lady in Marquette. The two arrived at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday. The First Lady and Second Gentleman then spoke at 3:00 p.m. at a political event in Marquette at Ore Dock Brewing Company. Emhoff said reproductive rights are at the forefront of his mind during this election.
“This is a Trump-caused Crisis,” Emhoff said. “The way I think about it is this; I have an 83-year-old mother and I have a 24-year-old daughter. How is it possible that we will have a world where my 83-year-old mother will have more rights than my 24-year-old daughter? That is completely wrong, and it is unacceptable, and we must change it.”
Women were a crucial part of the coalition that elected Biden in 2020 and his campaign aims to recapture that with the reinvigorated effort. Michigan is considered a battleground state once again in the race for president. Donald Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and then lost the state four years later by nearly 154,000 votes to Biden.
TV6 asked Marquette Police Chief Ryan Grim if Marquette residents should expect traffic delays on Thursday afternoon because of the visit. Grim said he couldn’t discuss specifics but there won’t be too much traffic disruption in the city.
RELATED: Democrats hope abortion issue will offset doubts about Biden in Michigan
In Marquette, Second Gentleman Emhoff began with a speech that urged voters to cast their ballots for President Biden because he is pushing for good-paying jobs and affordable health care and wants to fight to retake abortion rights.
Emhoff said women voters will be key to re-electing President Biden and Kamala Harris, particularly in Michigan, a key battleground state for November’s presidential election.
Emhoff said that the Biden administration has advanced women’s rights, claiming that:
- Since President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office, the unemployment rate for women in the U.S. is the lowest it has been in 70 years.
- The Biden administration is narrowing the pay gap.
- The Biden administration is making ‘historic’ investments in child care and the Violence Against Women Act.
- The Biden administration is lowering prescription drug costs and health care premiums and fighting for reproductive rights.
Emhoff called the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson, “a full-blown health care crisis.”
The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision effectively overturned the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which gave pregnant women the ability to choose whether or not to get an abortion. Michigan voters responded by passing Proposal 3 in November 2022, which enshrines abortion rights in the state constitution.
“Those freedoms could go away here in Michigan if Trump wins,” Emhoff said.
Emhoff praised women leaders in Michigan, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who he said have fought for abortion rights.
“You’re lucky here in Michigan, you’ve got some incredible leaders here,” Emhoff added.
Emhoff closed his speech by slamming Former President Donald Trump for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, the January 6 U.S. Capitol Attack and more.
“Unlike every other president up to that point, he refused to accept the fact that we beat him... and he lost,” Emhoff said.
RELATED: First Lady Jill Biden’s visit met with protests
Andrea Pernsteiner, owner of Ore Dock Brewing Company, said she hopes for a future where women don’t feel afraid to make their voices heard.
“I want my kids to live in a world where they feel safe,” Persteiner began. “Where they can say how they feel and not feel afraid.”
During her speech, First Lady Jill Biden said she is concerned with the changes she is seeing across the U.S. that she added are limiting the rights of Americans.
“Book bans, voting laws gutted, court decisions that strip away our most basic freedoms,” First Lady Biden explained.
First Lady Biden echoed the importance of Michigan voters organizing and heading to the polls come election time. The First Lady thanked voters for flipping Michigan for President Biden in 2020.
“You talked to your friends and your neighbors, you called people you never met and you reminded them to vote,” First Lady Biden began. “You put on masks and hopped on Zooms, you raised money and changed minds, you gave everything you had to make Joe Biden president and Kamala Harris vice president and you won.”
First Lady Biden also claimed that President Biden places women at the forefront of his administration’s agenda.
“President Biden is fighting for a national law that would restore Roe’s protections, he is defending reproductive rights and yes, that means protecting IVF and access to contraception,” First Lady Biden explained.
The First Lady ended her speech by calling on voters to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
“We’re going to talk to your friends about why this election is so important, tell them what is at stake,” First Lady Biden explained. “We’re going to meet this moment as if our rights are at stake because they are. As if our democracy is on the line because it is. We will decide our future.”
First Lady Biden also slammed Former President Trump’s treatment of women, saying, “he has spent a lifetime tearing us down and devaluing our existence,” and “wants to punish women who are seeking reproductive health care.”
After the Marquette visit, the First Lady and Second Gentleman spoke at a community event with the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.
The event in Bay Mills Township began with an introduction from Bryan Newland, a resident of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the United States assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs.
“[President Joe Biden], Vice President Harris, Dr. [Jill] Biden and Mr. [Douglas] Emhoff have proven with their actions that they are committed to lifting up Indian country and Indian people,” Newland explained.
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Chair Austin Lowes said he is thankful for the visit from the First Lady and the Second Gentleman. Lowes added that the Biden administration has done much to support the Sault Tribe.
“The Sault Tribe is very grateful for the support that we have received from the Biden administration,” Lowes explained. “This includes $235 million in ARPA funds that we used to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. It includes $20 million in grant funding that we received for road construction, multi-purpose paths, bike paths, trails, sidewalks, ADA ramps, crosswalks and lighting projects. Last but not least, we are also thankful for the $28 million we have received through the reconnect program, which will improve rural broadband connectivity in tribal lands.”
First Gentleman Emhoff continued the event by speaking about how the federal government can bring economic prosperity to Indian country. Emhoff added that the Biden administration has invested almost $45 billion into Indian country.
“When President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, they acknowledged the duty to safeguard and strengthen the bonds between our nations,” Emhoff noted. “They also vowed to build a future in which every Indian person can realize their aspirations and every native community can be a place of opportunity.”
Emhoff added that the Biden administration is also, “fighting to address the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people and will continue to do that.”
Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle took the podium to acknowledge the hardships members of the Bay Mills Indian Community have historically gone through and how they have never given up hope that things will improve.
“Despite hardships, they did not complain nor did they falter,” Gravelle said. “Because they knew that they were rich. Rich in community, family, culture and most importantly we were rich in our love for one another. It is through our love that we continue to find the strength to overcome any obstacle and continue to succeed.”
Gravelle also thanked the Biden administration for the more than $120 million it has given to the Bay Mills Indian Community.
First Lady Jill Biden wrapped up the event by applauding the ways in which the Bay Mills Indian Community looks out for one another. The First Lady promised the Biden administration will continue to look out for them.
“You show up for each other and for your communities, First Lady Biden said. “The president and I want to show up for you. Joe [Biden] made a commitment to Indian country and he is delivering on his promises. His administration has made the largest-ever federal investment in Native communities.”
On Friday, the First Lady and Second Gentleman will join a community listening session about health care with members of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Then the two will tour the Soo Locks before heading to Lower Michigan for more campaign events.
RELATED: Biden, Trump set for two televised debates
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