Five Democratic governors hit East Lansing in Blue Wall Bus Tour stop

FRIDAY, Oct. 18 — Five Democratic governors assembled in the MSU Union last night to rally student voters as part of the Harris-Walz campaign’s Blue Wall Bus Tour.

Only three of them — Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Wisconsin’s Tony Evers — were slated to appear. But Maryland’s Wes Moore and Massachusetts’ Maura Healey said the stakes were too high to not lend their voices to the cause.

“This is like the Avengers right here,” Moore said. “And y'all should not worry. Maryland is going to go blue. People are saying, so why are you out here in Michigan? Because this election matters more than you know. We need you to be our voice, because what happens on Nov. 5 is going to affect each and every one of us for generations.”

The Blue Wall Bus tour began Monday in Wisconsin before rolling into Michigan on Wednesday for a stop in Kalamazoo. Yesterday, the governors hit Flint, Midland and Saginaw before concluding their day in East Lansing, where more than 100 showed up. They’re set to appear in Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Jackson today before continuing on to Pennsylvania.

Shapiro, who was a finalist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick, quoted Benjamin Franklin when he was asked what kind of government the United States has: “A Republic, if we can keep it.”

“Those five words — that is our charge. It's our responsibility, and it's what our ancestors and those who came before us had taken on as their responsibility, to meet the moment, to right the wrongs, to seek a society with more justice, more fairness, more equity and more freedom,” Shapiro said.

“The task falls to all of you, and you have an outsized role in because Michigan, like Wisconsin, like Pennsylvania, are the swingiest of all swing states in the nation — politically speaking, of course,” he added to laughs.

With 18 days until the election, Evers reiterated the importance of ensuring that the three midwestern states vote Democratic

“There is no question what the results will be in the state of New York, Illinois or California. That means that 322 million people are counting on you. It's going to be who wins these three states. I'm really glad that the other states are doing well, but we have to get this done. This is absolutely critical,” he said.

The student vote will be crucial, the governors said. Moore, elected in 2022 as Maryland’s first African American governor, noted that his own campaign hinged heavily on high turnouts from college students.

“We started our campaigning on college campuses. Eventually, the crowd started getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It was college students in America that made sure we won that race, and it will be college students who will make sure that Kamala Harris becomes the next president,” Moore said.

Healey called the five-governor appearance “unusual.”

“I was attorney general, as was Governor Shapiro, during the Trump years. Time and time again, that man came for so many people, and he tried to undermine and strip rights and freedoms from all of us in one form or another,” Healey said. “Everything is on the line here, because the way he speaks, the way he wants to weaponize, the way he wants to retaliate, the way he wants to withhold funding. Say nothing of the misinformation and the chaos. We're all at risk here.”

She urged students to go home and get out the vote.

“When you leave here, go text, go make a call, send an email, post something. Anybody you grew up with, a family member, go engage and tell them this matters. They don't have to agree with everything. But they have to know what’s at stake,” Healey said, challenging the crowd to encourage at least three people they know to vote for Harris.

After asking the crowd if they were “caffeinated, hydrated and motivated,” Whitmer said the election was an opportunity to prove that “American leadership matters.”

“Don't write anyone off, wear them down if you have to. Let's get it done so that on Nov. 6, we can celebrate that Michigan showed up — that Michigan showed the world we care,” Whitmer said.

Rudy Eaton and Sanna Sippola, two freshman political science students at MSU, said they didn’t know any governors other than Whitmer would be there.

“I thought it was awesome. Getting to hear all of the governors speak is something that you don’t get to hear often,” Eaton said.

Both are looking to get into political careers.

“Being able to hear the stories of the governors and how they got into it is a big motivator for me,” Eaton said.

Sippola said the MSU student body has been “very helpful” in the cause, with Eaton adding that the student Democratic club had already registered more than 2,000 new voters.

“They’re very active and passionate,” he said.