THE WASHINGTON POST: Michelle Obama implores men to support Kamala Harris to protect women’s health

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Former First Lady Michelle Obama delivered an impassioned plea Saturday to voters, particularly men, about the risks that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump poses to women’s health, warning that lives young and old are at stake this election.

“I’m asking y’all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously,” she said. “Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue of what we’re going through.”

In remarks that were both sweeping and intimate, Obama sought to move the conversation beyond just reproductive rights, arguing that all Americans will suffer if Trump is reelected. In doing so, she talked about the challenges women may encounter at various stages - “an unexpected lump, an abnormal Pap smear or mammogram, an infection, a blockage” - to underscore her argument to defeat him.

“A vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth,” she said. “So fellas,” she added, “before you cast your votes, ask yourselves, what side of history do you want to be on?”

In her long-awaited appearance on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, Obama captivated a crowd of more than 7,000 people. She entered Wings Event Center to thunderous applause and yet silenced her audience at times with the very personal nature of her appeal. She detailed the ways women are suffering because Roe v. Wade was overturned and warned about what else could be at stake.

“We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love,” she said. “Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment, and we are more than just baby-making vessels.”

She also made clear to women that even if the men in their lives do not support Harris, they can and should make a different decision. “Your vote is a private matter - regardless of the political views of your partner,” she said. “You get to use your judgment and cast your vote.”

Obama’s focus on male voters comes as polls show a wide gender gap in support for Harris and Trump. A New York Times-Siena College poll published Friday found Harris leading Trump among women - 54 per cent to 42 per cent - and Trump leading Harris among men - 55 per cent to 41 per cent.

Former president Barack Obama admonished Black men earlier this month during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, questioning the role sexism was playing in their hesitancy to back the vice president.

Many of those in attendance Saturday afternoon specifically cited the former first lady, one of the party’s most popular figures, as their reason for turning out and packing the arena. She reminded voters of how much she hates politics, a prime reason she hasn’t campaigned for Harris since the speech she gave in August that electrified the party’s national convention.

“I haven’t done this in such a long time,” she said.

Michelle Obama capped a three-day swing by Harris with some of the Democratic Party’s stars and supporters - with Barack Obama and rock legend Bruce Springsteen outside Atlanta on Thursday, then with Beyoncé in Houston on Friday.

In Michigan, Michelle Obama cautioned voters who were considering supporting a third-party candidate. Democrats there are particularly concerned as Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, makes a play for Arab American and Muslim American voters disillusioned by the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

“To anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum,” she said. “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.”

Obama also questioned voters who she argued are holding Harris to a higher standard than Trump. She went hard at that point, seeking to remind voters of his record - “the incompetence and the corruption, the chaos that was the cornerstone of his entire four years in office,” she said.

“I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” she said.

She assailed Trump for “his obvious mental decline,” his felony convictions, the media interviews he’s ducked and his appointment of the three Supreme Court justices who in 2022 helped to overturn Roe.

Despite her popularity, Obama has no other announced campaign stops with Harris. But her aides are in contact with the Harris campaign about adding events before Election Day, according to a person familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. On Tuesday, she will appear at a rally in Atlanta for When We All Vote, her nonpartisan organization that aims to increase voter participation.

Debbie Jamison, 65, of Kalamazoo, gushed about seeing Harris and Obama together. “Who would have thought 10 years ago that a Black woman would have a chance to be president,” she said.

But Jamison said she is nervous about Harris winning, saying her identity “works for us and against us.”

“A lot of people don’t respect women of color. I think that’s one of the biggest hurdles for this country to overcome,” she said. “If Michelle was running for president, I think we’d be in there, but I don’t think people know Kamala that well.

Obama’s focus on women’s health comes as the Harris campaign makes that central to the vice president’s closing argument. Before the rally, Harris stopped by a local doctor’s office to meet with health care providers and medical students. For about 20 minutes, they discussed reproductive rights and the challenges they have faced since Roe fell.

Harris had detoured from the battleground states Friday to rally in Houston, an event explicitly focused on abortion rights - with a boost from Beyoncé, who told the crowd there she was on the stage not as a celebrity or politician but “as a mother.” Campaign aides said the trip to Texas was to draw attention to the state’s near-total abortion ban as a warning to Americans in other states about what their lives could look like if Trump is reelected.

“Though we are in Texas tonight, for anyone watching from another state, if you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California or any state where voters or legislators have protected reproductive freedom, please know: No one is protected,” Harris said. “Because a Donald Trump national ban will outlaw abortion in every single state.”

In Kalamazoo, voters lauded Obama’s all-encompassing approach to discussing women’s health - and the impacts on men.

“I loved that she talked to the men in the audience about what reproductive rights mean to them,” said Sheri Millard, 62, of Portage, Michigan. “They’re the ones whose wives are going to die bleeding out in the car if doctors don’t treat them.”

For Linda Weingartz, a 64-year-old retired nurse from Hastings, Michigan, the stakes could not be higher - which the rally only reaffirmed. She plans to vote for Harris on Sunday.

“I just hope and pray that she wins,” she said. “Our democracy depends on it.”

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