The last time Ann Haener-Maghran visited Waterford Township, Summit Place Mall was bustling. On Friday the 62-year-old Grosse Ile resident made the trip with friends to stand in line at the Oakland Expo Center, one of the newer buildings on the former mall’s site.

They came to see Kamala Harris, the Democrat running for president, with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. The two, like Republican opponents Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, are making multiple trips to Michigan in the run-up to the Nov. 5 general election.

The invite-only event capped a full day for Harris that started in Grand Rapids and continued in Lansing. Later this month, she’ll campaign in Michigan with former first lady Michelle Obama and former president Barak Obama.

Haener-Maghran has sent postcards and made phone calls on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.

“There’s a lot on the line,” she said. “Whatever I can do to help Kamala Harris get elected, I will do … We should all exercise our right to vote. I’ve never missed an election, small or large … However you vote, just vote.”

Others had very specific reasons for supporting the campaign.

Novi resident Marika Peeples, 49, said it’s the first time she’s volunteered for a campaign. The election is important for everyone, regardless of their age and race, she said.

“We’ve seen how it was with (Trump) and we do not want to go back to that,” she said. “I believe it may be worse than what we lived through.”

Peeples is concerned about protecting bodily autonomy and the right to abortion.

“I’m not trying to have kids, but for my nieces — young ladies coming up in this world. They should have the same rights that I grew up with,” she said, adding that immigration is another key issue, “because except for Native Americans, we’ve all come from immigrants.”

Davisburg resident Jon Donegan, 63, said the U.S. is one of the few places on Earth “where we have the privilege of hopefully honestly electing the officials that represent us.”

He’s not a campaign volunteer, he said, because he’s still working full time, but he wanted to see Harris speak Friday evening.

Detroiter Leon Benson, 49, arrived with a friend, Marvin Cotton Jr., 44, from Birmingham.

Benson spent 24 years in an Indiana prison before being exonerated from a murder conviction when investigators discovered suppressed evidence that pointed to a different man as the killer. Today he works as a re-entry specialist for people leaving prison. He said he believes Harris will move criminal justice reform forward and has already seen changes by the Biden administration.

But he has a greater reason for supporting Harris, he said, quoting Tupac Shakur lyrics: “ … ‘we all came from a woman / Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman …’ Vote,” he said. “One of the biggest things about that for me as a Black man — It’s so important for me to support women’s empowerment. The other candidate I just cannot get down with that political rhetoric … and I don’t know why Donald Trump keeps shooting down Michigan. It’s really sad.”

Cotton said he’s heard recent stories that more Black men like himself are voting for Donald Trump.

“That’s not true,” he said. “I know that’s what the Donald Trump campaign wants Black men to believe. There’s no way Black men are going to support an open racist like Donald Trump. It’s not gonna happen.”

Marcus Johnson, 20, from Southfield, was also in line to Harris speak.

His comments during a Channel 4 town hall after the vice-presidential debate earlier this month went viral and he’s since appeared more than once on MSNBC. He scolded Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance over comments that Harris needed to take action now. Johnson pointed out that vice presidents don’t have executive powers — that’s reserved for the president.

He said he’s become a minor celebrity with his fellow Oakland University students. He wants people to vote, no matter what.

“Outside of the fact that it’s everyone’s civic duty, we should do it to honor our ancestors who fought for us to have the right to vote, and for the generations after us who don’t have that right, just yet,” he said. “Vote so we don’t have to fight the battles our parents and grandparents have already won.”

West Bloomfield residents Geena Nisula, 44, and her daughter, Nora, 9, arrived wearing matching T-shirts that read “Kamala, Aunty for the people.”

“I kind of waffled about coming here today but my daughter really wanted to see Harris speak, so I pulled her out of school,” she said. “I really think it’s important for her to see a strong woman up there and see what leadership really looks like, especially in a woman.”

Pontiac resident Dan Lombardo, 64, stood outside the rally with no plans to go inside — he didn’t want to give up the large cardboard sign he held stating “CEASEFIRE.” Lombardo is part of the Uncommitted National Movement that is pressuring the Biden administration and the Harris-Walz campaign to work harder for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. He said he’ll vote for Harris but he wants to see her do more for peace.

“If you grew up in the ‘60s like I did when they had Miss America pageants and when they’d ask contestants what they wanted, they’d always say, ‘I want world peace.’ Here is it 50 years later and we don’t have it,” he said, adding that regardless who is elected, he’ll continue working toward peace.