This reporting is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Efforts to get out the early vote are underway across Michigan.
In Traverse City, First Lady Jill Biden and First Lady of Minnesota Gwen Walz were in town Monday to motivate canvassers who will go knock on doors.
“Ultimately, this election will profoundly affect women — our ability to make health care decisions, to buy homes and to put food on our tables and to live in a country where we celebrate that our differences are precious and our similarities are infinite,” Biden said, speaking to a packed room of over 100 supporters in the Grand Traverse Commons.
Walz stressed the importance of connecting with people in person to get them to vote.
“It is crunch time,” she said. “Election day is just eight days away.”
Walz also touched on Project 2025, a sweeping policy blueprint put together by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican presidency.
The plan, which is over 900 pages, aims to drastically restructure the federal government. Some of its controversial recommendations include shrinking or dismantling federal agencies, like the Department of Education, centralizing presidential power, further restricting access to abortion, and undercutting some of the country’s most important climate and environmental policies.
Democrats call it “Trump’s Project 2025,” but former President Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from it. (PolitiFact fact checked some Democrats' claims back in August.) Still, a recent New York Times analysis found that many of Project 2025's authors have ties to his previous administration and his inner circle, adding to previous reporting on these connections.
Both major party campaigns are working hard to get people to the polls ahead of Election Day. At a Friday rally in Traverse City for former President Trump, speakers urged the crowd to cast their ballots as soon as possible.
Early voting in Michigan continues through Sunday. Election Day is Nov. 5.
The Bay Area Transportation Authority is offering free rides on its normal routes on Election Day, something it's done since 2018.
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