WATCH: Harris campaigns in Grand Rapids as she and Trump battle for swing state of Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both sought support from Arab American voters Friday as they campaigned in Michigan, trying to lock down support in a battleground state that could decide the presidential race next month.

Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above.

Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election, and the diverse voting blocs are key to winning the state. Both Trump and Harris, his Democratic rival, made a push for union workers and Black voters as they worked every angle for support.

“It’s an election for president. It’s not supposed to be a cake walk for anyone. There are very important issues at play,” Harris said.

David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Harris, said Friday on CNN that he believed all of the swing states were still in play, but the key was zeroing in on voting blocs.

“We’re going to treat every cohort like they’re a swing voter,” he said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”

Trump has been trying to capitalize on frustration with Harris over the U.S. backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

Both Biden and Harris have said the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed this week by Israelis, is an opportunity to stop the violence.

“My message remains, first of all, we have got to end this war,” Harris said. “And I think what has happened now, with the killing of Sinwar,” which creates an opening to halt the fighting and bring the hostages home.

But the Democrat has been greeted by demonstrators protesting U.S. support of Israel in the conflict. During a closed-door meeting Thursday with students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she was confronted by one, based on a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group on social media.

According to the video, as Harris was telling students she was invested in them, a protester interrupted her saying, “And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?”

The demonstrator was eventually escorted out by university police, as he continued recording.

At Harris’ first event of the day, scores of supporters gathered in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, on a carpet of fallen orange leaves under cloudless skies. The county leaned Republican for many years, and was won by Trump by 3 percent in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020, and it has increasingly voted Democratic recently.

A phalanx of Democratic governors — Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Wes Moore of Maryland, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York — took the stage before Harris.

Whitmer tore into Trump, calling him “a petty man who tells dangerous lies, and he’s always looking for someone else to blame.”

Harris stepped out to huge cheers as she ran through the differences between herself and Trump, cautioning that electing him would be dangerous for the nation, and slamming him as anti-union.

“The election is here. The election is here right now,” she said as she urged everyone to vote. “Your vote is your voice. Your voice is your power in a democracy.”

Harris travels next to Lansing, where she will speak at a United Auto Workers union hall and promote the White House’s record of supporting domestic car manufacturing. Her final event of the day is a rally in Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.

Price reported from Detroit and Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Grand Rapids, Colleen Long in Washington and Scott Bauer in Milwaukee contributed to this report.