“First of all, the $500 million grant came along with some really ridiculous strings and no protections for American jobs not getting shipped to foreign countries because a lot of not just the cars themselves, but the battery components, the minerals, this stuff is all produced in China. And so when we write massive checks on American taxpayer expense to these companies, a lot of times what we’re doing is selling American middle-class jobs to the Communist Chinese, and we ought to be doing exactly the opposite,” said Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio.

“We ought to be rebuilding the American middle class and investing in our own workers, not shipping our tax dollars off to electric vehicles made in China.”

More: Vance won’t commit to $500M federal grant for building EVs at Michigan auto plant

‘Flint is still alive’

Earlier in the day, Harris spoke inside a Redford Township fire station for 18 minutes before rallying supporters inside Flint’s Dort Financial Center in the evening. The arena had numerous members of the United Auto Workers in attendance.

UAW President Shawn Fain, in comments ahead of Harris’ address, noted the history of the labor union in Flint, the home of the 1936 sitdown strike at GM’s Fisher Body No. 1. He said the strike “marked the beginning of a new era” for the working class, one he argued would be threatened under a Trump presidency.

“We’re here today because the American dream that was born in Flint is still alive,” Fain said.

Fain also criticized Trump’s “audacity” to campaign in Flint, where he made a stop on Sept. 17, “a city that was poisoned by his party.” Flint was under state emergency management in 2014, during the tenure of Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder, when a change in the city’s water supply and a lack of proper corrosion control caused lead to leech from service lines and into the city’s water.

When he campaigned in Michigan 2016, Trump blamed the contaminated drinking water on unnamed “incompetent politicians.”

During her Flint speech, Harris criticized Vance’s response, arguing workers “deserve a president” who won’t put EV jobs at risk. She also slammed Trump’s failure to fight against the offshoring of manufacturing to China, including EV innovation and production.

“Donald Trump sat on the sidelines and let China dominate,” Harris said. “And then he talks down to American workers, saying we can’t compete with Chinese workers.”

On Sept. 17, in the same Flint event center where Harris spoke Friday, Trump railed against government efforts to promote or invest in electric vehicles, contending that China is positioned to “dominate” EVs.

China will take over “all of your business” because of electric vehicles, Trump told a crowd in the Dort Financial Center. The Republican argued the U.S. has gasoline, while China has the materials needed for EVs.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration has said the conversion of GM’s Lansing Grand River Plant to assembling EVs would save 650 jobs and create 50 new positions. The grant was announced in July.

The Detroit automaker has signaled the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would come from the new battery plant it is constructing in nearby Delta Township, west of Lansing.

“President Trump has been clear that he’ll support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars and electric vehicles,” said Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s spokeswoman in Michigan. “There’s only one candidate who wants to tell you what type of car Michiganders can drive, build and sell — and that’s Kamala Harris.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, speaking before Harris at the rally in Flint, criticized Trump’s record on manufacturing as well as Vance’s failure to pledge the Trump administration would continue federal funding for the Lansing GM plant.

“The Trump-Vance ticket is giving the middle finger to workers here in Michigan,” Whitmer said.

Harris in Redford Township: Trump is ‘existential threat’ to labor movement

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris addresses an audience of first responders, making a stop at the Redford Fire Department.

Harris also panned Trump for promising, before he was elected president in 2016, that no assembly plants would shut down on his watch. Michigan lost three plants in Michigan — GM’s Warren transmission and Stellantis’ Conner Avenue Assembly Plant and its Mount Elliott tool and die plant, both in Detroit.

But Stellantis also converted two engine plants on Detroit’s east side into a new Jeep assembly plant while Trump was president — the first new vehicle assembly plant to open in the Motor City in nearly 30 years.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley slammed Harris’ economic policies in a statement following her remarks in Flint. He touted GM and Ford Motor Co. investments in Michigan manufacturing plants that were made while Trump was president.

“Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal EV mandates would destroy 37,000 auto jobs in Michigan alone, and in Harris’ America Last economy, gas prices hit record highs and inflation is up 20 percent,” Whatley said.

The 37,000 projected job losses figure comes from a recent study by the America First Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-area think tank founded by several former Trump administration officials. Other studies have offered a more optimistic outlook about the impact of the transition to more battery electric vehicles that don’t have as many parts as gas engine powertrains.

The Harris campaign has denied supporting an EV mandate, but Republicans have pointed to more stringent tailpipe emission standards issued under the Biden administration as proof that Harris is pushing auto companies toward building greener vehicles.

“Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris said Friday.

‘A disaster for Lansing’

At a press conference Friday morning at the United Auto Workers Local 652 in Lansing, Democratic Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said he was “angry” and “pissed off” after hearing of Vance’s comments about the Lansing GM plant, arguing the lack of commitment from the GOP vice presidential nominee threatened 650 local, union jobs.

“In one fell swoop, JD Vance put that all at risk,” Schor said. “He showed that a second Trump term would be a disaster for Lansing, for Michigan and for our country.”

Former state Sen. Curtis Hertel, an East Lansing Democrat running in the 7th Congressional District, criticized his Republican opponent, former state Sen. Tom Barrett of Charlotte, for his silence on the issue. Hertel argued the grant is key to centering the future of the EV industry in the U.S. and not in China, while the United States still has the opportunity to do so.

“I don’t care what kind of car you drive,” Hertel said. “I care that it’s made here in Michigan.”

UAW International Vice President Mike Booth said the inclination to change paths on the federal investment is “poor policy.”

“United Auto Workers will not support a candidate who will not support good, union-paying jobs,” Booth said.

Melissa Bowen, a UAW Local 598 member who works at GM’s Flint Assembly, said projects like the one meant to convert the Lansing assembly plant into an electric vehicle plant are crucial for local workers and the economy. Bowen arrived hours early Friday for Harris’ Flint rally to support the Democratic candidate, whom she described as a “pro-labor” leader.

“It should go toward the EV plants,” Bowen said of the federal funding. “Especially because with a lot of them, we have the prior commitment that they will be union EV shops. That is just so important to our local economy to have good union-paying jobs.”

April Kelley, another UAW Local 598 employee at GM’s Flint plant who attended Harris’ Flint rally, said the types of federal investments being made in Lansing reflect a commitment by the Biden administration to the “middle class” and keeping jobs in the U.S.

“EV is the thing of the future,” Kelly said. “We have to move forward. And if we have a president who’s investing in our future, it’s a win for us.”

Friday’s rally in Flint came about a week after election administrators started sending out 1.8 million absentee ballots to voters across Michigan. Statewide early in-person voting begins Oct. 26.

“Folks, the election is here, and we need to energize, organize and mobilize,” Harris said.

NBA legend Magic Johnson urged Black men to vote during his remarks ahead of Harris taking the stage in Flint, arguing the Black community did not fare well under the Trump administration.

“Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things to the Black community that he did not deliver on,” Johnson said. 

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

cmauger@detroitnews.com