On Friday, Oct. 18, 29-year-old Britt Epley came to Riverside Park along with 6,000 other West Michigan residents to show support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who is making her first campaign stop in Grand Rapids as the official nominee just 17 days prior to the election.
Just two months ago Epley decided to leave Nashville, Tennessee in hopes of finding a more accepting environment. She shared that as a queer woman the red politics of Tennessee often left her feeling unsafe.
“The government and politics (brought me to Michigan),” she said. “…It’s hard to not have rights in a red state, and that’s why it is so important for blue state people to keep them in mind because while we have rights here, they don’t, so we have to vote for our friends there, too.”
Rally attendee and first-time voter Addison Saido, 18, is heading into this election feeling “really good” about her options. She shared that she showed up in support of Harris because she’s “really passionate about women’s rights.”
Likewise, 60-year-old Kerri DeZwaan voted for a Democrat for the first time with Joe Biden in the last election cycle. Her experiences as an Asian-American have led to “a very confident backing of Kamala Harris.”
“I grew up in a very conservative Christian family, and it was equated that if you are a Christian, you are a Republican, we just did it because it was what we were supposed to do,” she said. “As I’ve grown older and kind of found my own voice I really had to reevaluate what that meant and what it really meant for me to say that I’m going to follow Jesus. When I looked at demeanor, when I looked at character, the choice was clear to me.”
DeZwann shared that she received racial targeting during COVID, including people who would stop her and ask her about her heritage, saying “You’re not Chinese? Are you?” When Trump echoed that same rhetoric, she realized what she wanted in a politician and didn’t feel he fit the bill.
Rozlynn George, 26, is also keeping her history in mind for this election.
“I’m so excited for this and just this part of history because of all the people that couldn’t vote in my lineage. Our history of the women, the Black folks, all the different races and ethnicities,” George said. “ … It’s just huge, it’s monumental.”
George shared she feels hopeful because of Harris’ expressed interest in the middle class and student debt relief.
Gary Gibson, 56, is excited to see “younger blood” in this election. He supported what she stood for as a senator, mentioning “how she would go after insurance companies and other big corporations getting away with crap.”
For many people in attendance, such as 19-year-old Zach Westcott, reproductive rights drive their support of Harris.
“(The) big thing for me is probably abortion,” he said. “I think that that’s something that’s very serious, and I think that taking away that right is just something that I don’t think we can go back on.”
Mother and daughter Erica Reynolds, 55, and Kim Walski, 34, are also in support of a woman’s right to choose and shared that they believe Harris to be the best candidate for Grand Rapids as a whole.
“I believe that she has a sense of people in community and coming together and in a general way,” Reynolds said. “I support that sort of mentality rather than dividing people and spewing hate and nonsense.”
Democrats at Grand Rapids Community College president Collin Helak came to show his support for the current vice president as well. Helak also believes that Harris will be good for cities such as Grand Rapids due to her legal background.
“Her progress as an attorney and as a prosecutor have made it really clear that she has an accute legal sense,” said Helak. “Cities like Grand Rapids that have struggled with over-incarceration and harsh policing. I think she might be able to do something about where Biden dropped the ball pretty substantially.”
A grievance among many voters regarding both political parties is the handling of the war in Gaza. Helak sympathized with this and also provided perspective.
“I understand the frustration with the Israel-Palestine (conflict), I feel it myself, I protested many times before,” he said. “I just feel that like, we have to understand that Palestine is the biggest issue right now, but it is not the only big issue. There could be two to three Supreme Court justices that retire within the next four years and we need Kamala at the helm.”
For more information on how to make your voice heard in this election, check out our guide.
