EAST LANSING, Michigan — Two days from Election Day, Kamala Harris made four stops in battleground Michigan on Sunday without uttering Donald Trump’s name as she urged voters not to be fooled by the GOP nominee’s disdain for the electoral system which he falsely claims is rigged against him.

The vice president said he was confident of the next vote count and urged voters, “especially people who haven’t voted yet, not to fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t count.” .

At a Michigan State University rally, Harris got an encouraging response when he asked who had already voted and then offered the students another job — to encourage their friends to vote in a state that allows voter registration on election day.

And instead of her usual speeches about Trump being unstable, unhinged and seeking unchecked power, Harris sought to contrast her upbeat tone with the darker message of her unnamed Republican opponent.

It was all in the service of trying to boost her standing in one of the Midwest’s “blue wall” Democratic states, seen as her best potential path to an Electoral College majority.

“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division,” she said in an oblique reference to Trump. “I’m done with this. We are exhausted by it. America is ready for a new beginning, ready for a new way forward where we see our fellow Americans not as an enemy but as a neighbor.”

Harris also avoided mentioning Trump directly during her 11-minute morning speech at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. But her comments still served as a stark juxtaposition to the Republican nominee.

“There are those who seek to deepen division, sow hatred, spread fear and cause mayhem,” she said. She spoke as Trump was in Pennsylvania, calling the US a “failed nation” and saying he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after the 2020 election, which he denies losing to Democrat Joe Biden.

While Trump referred to Harris’ party as “demonic,” Harris quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and told his friendly audience that he was ready to “pave a new way forward.”

Addressing what was a crowd of students in East Lansing, Harris promised to seek consensus.

“I don’t think people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “I’ll actually give them a seat at the table because that’s what strong leaders do.”

That was enough for Alexis Plonka, a young woman from the state of Michigan who will vote in her first presidential election. Plonka, who said he has family members who support Trump, applauded the vice president for not directly referencing the former president.

“I think one of the things that really turns people away from Trump is that he’s so against people who disagree with him and he’s not willing to work with them,” she said.

The approach reflects the wide net Harris has cast since taking over the mantle of the Democratic Party in July after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid. By calling Trump unfit and unfit for office, she has drawn supporters from progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York to former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Still, Harris is looking to tap into Democrats’ core constituencies — including young voters like those she reached out to in Michigan — in part by highlighting her support for abortion rights and Trump’s role in ending a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. One of the loudest cheers she received in East Lansing Sunday night came when she said the government shouldn’t be telling women what to do with their bodies.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday afternoon, Harris dismissed Trump’s characterizations of the US election, allegations that former President. raised again while campaigning in Pennsylvania. Harris said his latest comments were “intended to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.” Those “good systems” were in place in 2020, Harris said, and he “lost.”

Harris used his last swing in Michigan to acknowledge progressives and members of the state’s significant Arab-American population who are angry with the Biden administration for continuing the US alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu government presses its war against Hamas in Gaza.

“We have been very clear that the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unacceptable,” Harris told reporters.

In East Lansing, she addressed the issue immediately after beginning her remarks: “As president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring the hostages home, to end the suffering from Gaza, to ensure that Israel is safe and to ensure that the Palestinian People can realize their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination.”

Some East Lansing students voiced their opposition Sunday with audible calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. At least one participant was escorted out after those cease-fire calls.

After attending the Detroit church, Harris greeted customers and had lunch at Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles, where he picked up greens at the Detroit restaurant owned by former Detroit Lions player Ron Bartell, a Detroit native . Later, Harris stopped by the Elam Barber Shop, a black-owned business in Pontiac, where he took part in a moderated conversation with local leaders and people of color.

When she returned to Detroit at the end of the day, Harris hopped on a Zoom call from the airport tarmac with “Win With Black Women,” the group that swung into action for her the night she first joined the race. Harris thanked the women for their organizing work and urged them to make a final push to “mobilize our Facebook groups, family group discussions and everyone we know” to get out the vote.

Michigan, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are central to Harris’ fortunes. Barack Obama swept the region in 2008 and 2012. But Trump flipped Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016, drawing considerable criticism from Democrats who said nominee Hillary Clinton took the states for granted. Biden returned all three to the Democratic column in 2020.

Losing any of the three would put pressure on Harris to pick up wins among the four Sun Belt battleground states: North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

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Barrow reported from Washington.