ANN ARBOR, Michigan – Politicians and athletes have won battlegrounds in the ballot box and gridiron over the years.
Their goals are simple: gain swaths of land for victory come November.
Saturday featured both as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, visited the “Big House” at the University of Michigan to court voters. He also had the opportunity to root for his home state’s University of Minnesota, in a rivalry contest that drew more than 100,000 football fans.
While traditional tailgates still reigned supreme, Walz stopped at some organized by College Democrats and the Michigan Democratic Party. As his motorcade pulled into the stadium, supporters chanted, “Coach,” while behind them laid the remains of a pancake breakfast organizing effort and games of beer pong with campaign signs promoting Vice President Kamala Harris posted to the tables.
The visit coincided with the launch of the “Athletes for Harris” initiative, which included endorsements from 15 NFL Hall of Fame members and an ad buy for football games like Saturday’s between Michigan and Minnesota. Walz was also in Michigan to prepare for Tuesday’s vice presidential debate against Republican nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance.
The governor arrived at a small airport outside Ann Arbor early in the morning. The University of Michigan’s College Democrats chapter and a delegation of local leaders, including Representative Debbie Dingell, greeted Walz as members of a marching band played to mark his arrival — even as rain began to pour down.
While Walz did not make any formal remarks, Dingell spoke with Annenberg Media to emphasize the importance of the youth vote ahead of his visit to the university.
“We’ve got to turn them out,” Dingell said. “[Students] want to make sure they have a job when they graduate. They’re worried about housing. They’re worried about the environment.”
Gen Z (voters between the ages of 18 and 29) cast more than 860,000 votes in Michigan in the 2020 presidential election, according to data from the Michigan Department of State. The final margin between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was just over 150,000 votes.
Eric Veal, 20, a student studying political science, appeared with Walz at the airport and later attended the football game.
Veal said at the game that he had spoken with the governor about issues important to students, including education, which is particularly important to him since his mother, an elementary school teacher, is an educator like Walz. He added that Walz’s visit to Ann Arbor was an important step for the campaign to begin its student outreach.
“Voters are excited to see the fresh energy on the campaign trail,” Veal said. “Students are backing Kamala’s message of ‘We’re not going back.’”
Gabe Shaw, 18, a first-time voter and business student, echoed Veal’s message and said that he felt students needed more attention from campaigns heading into the election’s final weeks.
“I think it’s definitely a big demographic that needs to be reached,” said Shaw, who grew up in Ohio. “A lot of students don’t know, so getting that information to them and getting that out there is going to make this election.”
Walz spent most of the game in a suite watching with his family but spent the hours before kickoff interacting with supporters at tailgates, some themed for campus organizing and voter registration. Before kickoff, Walz met with Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck and University of Michigan officials, and posed with Minnesota cheerleaders and their mascot, “Goldy Gopher.”
Over 1,000 miles south, Trump enjoyed a raucous reception at the University of Alabama’s rivalry game against the University of Georgia. The former president had been in Michigan the day before for a rally in Grand Rapids and a town hall in Warren.
Victoria LaCivita, a Michigan spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said Saturday that the Minnesota football team and the Minnesota governor will not be victorious in the “Great Lakes State.”
“The Wolverines are going to send Minnesota’s Golden Gophers packing — the same way Michiganders are going to send Tim Walz back to Minnesota this November,” she said.
The Wolverines defeated the Golden Gophers 27-24 in a close contest that saw Minnesota score 21 points in a fourth-quarter comeback attempt.
Michigan students were not the only football fans who made the trip to the game Saturday afternoon. Minnesotans also trekked through the rain to watch the Golden Gophers take on the Wolverines, and their governor’s appearance drew a mixed reaction.
Jill Fischer, 58, a project manager from Minneapolis and a Trump supporter, said she did not believe that the governor had handled the COVID-19 pandemic properly in the state. Walz oversaw pandemic assistance programs that were later found to have more than $250 million in fraud, one of the most prominent cases in the country, according to ABC News.
“When hard times hit, he hid,” Fischer said, referring to her perception that the governor made few public appearances during the pandemic.
Public polling for Walz’s leadership in the aftermath of the pandemic remains mixed. According to a September poll from the APM Research Lab, 52% of Minnesotans approved of Walz’s handling of the pandemic — the same margin of his reelection win in 2022.
Fischer said she also grew upset with Walz’s leadership, citing his choice to spend the state’s $18 billion budget surplus last year on paid family and sick leave, free school meals for all and gun control measures instead of providing tax cuts for Minnesotans.
Dan Smith, 52, a banker from St. Paul, Minnesota, said he was the only person in his traveling party to support Harris and Walz, adding that football fans tend to lean conservative. A Harris Poll/Sportico poll from last year found that around 56% of NFL fans and 58% of college football fans identified as conservatives, the latter being the most of any professional or college sports league.
He said his support for Walz came down to him being a “nice guy” and stopping a potential second Trump presidency. However, he said he was weary of the strategy of attending football games to gain support.
“I think that was part of his appeal on the ticket,” Smith said. “But how much is that actually going to work?”
Walz’s trip to Ann Arbor was not his first time to a college campus since becoming the vice presidential nominee — he has held events with students from Arizona State University, Michigan State University and Georgia Tech. The Harris campaign has been buying ads in student newspapers as well.
While more than 100,000 fans attended the game, one former coach from Michigan said it appeared students’ in-person support for the Wolverines was low.
He told Annenberg Media it seemed the rain led thousands of students to stay home instead of supporting their school against their rivals to the west — a result he said he hopes they won’t repeat in November.
“On a day like this, you can’t fill up the student section,” said the coach, who didn’t want to be identified by name or sport. “What if it’s bad weather on Election Day?”
Yana Savitsky contributed to this report.