Vice President Kamala Harris is sending the only Gen Z member of Congress to Detroit for a youth-focused campaign event aimed at social media influencers and content creators.
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and Council President Mary Sheffield will meet voters Thursday at Cred Cafe in Detroit. Attendees will receive exclusive T-shirts designed in collaboration with Detroit vs Everybody, a Black-owned clothing retailer.
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The “Creators for Harris-Walz” event underscores the role young voters will play in determining the 2024 presidential election, according to a statement from the Harris-Walz campaign. It’s aimed at connecting with Detroit’s most influential content creators, social media influencers and youth voters aged 18-35.
“Rep. Maxwell Frost’s visit to Detroit isn’t just about rallying the base; it’s about empowering a generation ready to lead,” Michigan Democratic Coordinated Campaign Deputy Communications Director Mario Morrow Jr. said in a statement. “Vice President Harris has fought for young people—building an economy with real opportunities, forgiving student loan debt, and defending reproductive rights. In contrast, Donald Trump’s record is anti-climate, anti-health care, and anti-youth. We’re making sure voters know that a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is a vote for their future.”
Frost is headlining events across the country after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in August. Frost was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, a student-led gun control advocacy group. He visited universities in Arizona and North Carolina this week.
Sheffield, a millennial who was the youngest person elected to the council when she first took office, has been a prominent surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign at Detroit events.
The campaign hired Eva Scott as Michigan youth engagement director in April, several months earlier than Democratic campaigns filled the position in 2016 and 2020.
Other speakers include Detroit native Taylor Hale, winner of the 24th season of the reality television series “Big Brother,” sports influencer Terrance Grantham and Jalen Crawford, co-owner of Cred Cafe.
President Joe Biden visited Cred Cafe, a Black-owned coffee shop and speakeasy, during a May campaign stop before dropping out of the race. Mayor Mike Duggan is scheduled to appear at a Friday campaign event with local housing advocates in Detroit.
The vice president will make a Detroit appearance on Monday for a Labor Day event, her presidential campaign confirmed.
Details of the event were not released, but unions — whose members are a key voting bloc — hold an annual parade through Detroit on Labor Day morning, a tradition that goes back to 1915.
Democratic politicians have been a fixture at the event.
Trump was in Detroit on Monday, and he’ll be back in Michigan on Thursday for a campaign event in Potterville. Harris last visited Michigan in early August, when she held a large rally at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus and then spoke to United Auto Workers union members in Wayne.