In less than a month, voters across Michigan will choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Democrats in northeast Michigan's Alcona County say Harris’ entrance has created a groundswell of interest in, of all places, Harrisville, the county's seat.
Alcona County is alphabetically first among all counties in the state of Michigan, a point of local pride. The first of 83 is a rural county with a large agriculture base. Over a third of its population is over 65, making it one of the oldest counties in America.
It’s voted for Republicans in every presidential election since 1996. Republicans have only lost here five times going back to 1884. Local Democrats say, despite that, Kamala Harris’s entrance into the race has generated excitement in the county of about 10,000.
“In the past when I was putting up Democratic signs, people would honk and stuff and then they'd either go thumbs down or worse yet…give you another signal," said Bob Kennedy, a member of the county Democratic party and a former candidate for statehouse. "The other day when we did the, the big Kamala sign, it was thumbs up, yay, cheering. And even, two or three people stopped and said, hey, where can I get a yard sign?”
“We were getting anywhere from five to eight people at our monthly county Democratic meetings prior to President Biden stepping out of the race. And then after that attendance immediately went up to 35. And now our regular meetings have anywhere from 25 to 35 people,” he said.
Those numbers may seem small, but they are a boon to a local Democratic party that was on the brink of financial collapse. That’s according to the county party treasurer, Kennedy's wife, Margy Kutzera.
“It was like, we were bare bones and then we started on an upswing last year and, you know, we took in like for the whole year donations of $600.”
She says a swell of support showed up when Kamala jumped in.
“Is the end of the third quarter and we received $3,000 in donations. We have like 70 plus members, actual members who have paid a fee to join. And our email distribution is over 200.”
Kennedy said local Democrats think Harris communicates well and has a better chance of winning.
“With a majority of progressives and women here in the county, it's very refreshing to see somebody like her talk about the, the important issues, reproductive choice is very important to Democrats here in Alcona County…the overall enthusiasm just increased because I think they thought she had a better chance against Trump than Biden did,”
Kutzera says Harris and running mate Tim Walz appeal to working class issues.
“I think Kamala and Walz, they represent us, they represent our state. You know, it's a union state. People work hard.”
The support for Harris was most visible at one of the area’s most treasured traditions, parades.
People from across Alcona and surrounding counties chanted, “welcome to Harrisville,” a reference to the Vice President and the county seat. Several dozen people carried signs with the same message, and signs featuring Kamala’s face and name.
Local members and friends built an 8-foot float that marched in a Harrisville Labor Day parade and popular Posen Potato Festival.
The float was designed by architect Peter MacDonald, who grew up in Oscoda. He talked to WCMU from his boat in the Harbor of Harrisville.
“It's quintessential Americana, the parade. Anything that happens in this town is well attended because there's nothing out happening in this town,” he said with a laugh.
The float was made handmade out of plywood by him and a few volunteers. It got a positive reception and won an award in the “Most Patriotic” category at the Posen Potato festival.
“We always have managed to come together in this experiment called democracy. And I wanted to emphasize that. And so, in addition to big, large three dimensional, 'we the people' spelled out, I added mirrors that were angled in such a way that on each side of the float so that they would reflect the people lining the parade route. Evoking the idea that no matter who you are, you're part of this amalgamation, this experiment called America,” MacDonald said.
Kutzera said the positive reception to the float was unheard of. “I was at the very front of the parade and behind me, I could hear this wave of roars of people excited. I don't think that's ever happened in all the years and all the parades I have been to here in our little county,” she said.
Still, despite all the Alcona Democratic Party's optimism, the county will likely back Harris’ opponent Donald Trump. Trump routed Biden in the county in 2020 winning with over 68% of the vote.
Gary Wnuk of Mitchell Township is a local conservative. He says Alcona’s agricultural sector has been hit hard by rising costs.
“You got the price of fertilizer going up, the price of gas goes up, the price of this goes up. Next thing you know, the price of your vegetables go up,” Wnuk said.
Wnuk added that he’s backing Constitution Party candidate Randall Terry. He said as a pro-life voter he didn’t support Trump’s stance that abortion-access laws should be left to state governments. Still, he said people in Alcona County are outward in their support for Trump.
“They're very vocal about it. I mean, you don't have to go too far to find a lot of Trump signs or, you know, them saying that's who they're voting for.”
LeRoy Perrin is a retired HVAC contractor from Harrisville. He says Alcona’s Republicans aren’t happy with the state of the country and its leadership.
“The economy. We're looking at the open border situation. Golly, we're looking at...[being] embroiled in all these wars now," Perrin said. "The world's going to heck in a handbasket.”
On the issue of abortion, Perrin said he supported Trump’s stance of letting states decide.
“That's where it should have been all along. You know, there should never have been a federal mandate for that. That should definitely be up to the states,” Perrin said.
Ultimately, Perrin said he was confident Trump would win.
“I'm pretty confident," he said. I think a lot of eyes have been open in these last four years.”
While the Alcona Democrats are aware that they face an uphill battle in getting Kamala Harris to win their county, Kennedy said even marginal improvements for the Democrats in Alcona County would be a big boost for the Vice President’s chances in Michigan.
“We don't expect to go from 30 or 35% Dems to, to a majority necessarily," Kennedy said. "But we certainly are looking at a 40% number as quite realistic this year, which would be a huge, a huge improvement.”
Over 500,000 Michiganders have already voted early in this election, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.
