Sumi Somaskanda
Chief presenter, reporting from Michigan

Image source, Sumi Somaskanda / BBC

As Kamala Harris and Tim Walz hold a rally in Wisconsin, supporters were lined up to see the Vice President and her running mate here in Detroit.

The rally will take place in an airport hangar and will feature Michigan members of Congress as well as Governor Gretchen Whitmer - a key surrogate for the Democrats.

Another primetime speaker will be Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers Union, who has endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a key sign of support from Detroit’s mighty auto industry.

We see a sea of yellow shirts - all members of the United Food & Commercial Workers union who have come to voice their support for Harris and Walz.

One union member told us he sees the Harris-Walz ticket as standing for “hope and lightness” and a step into the future, not a retreat into the past that he believes Donald Trump would represent.

Democrats are keen to rack up support among the country’s biggest unions, especially after Teamsters President Sean O’Brien took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, signaling a possible shift in labor ties.

JD Vance's event has finished up and we are now pivoting to the Harris-Walz rally.

Tim Walz has just walked on stage and is starting to speak.

You can click watch live at the top of this page to follow along.

Vance says Project 2025 - a policy outline by the conservative Heritage Foundation - is not Trump's agenda and does not represent that agenda of the Trump campaign.

"No one speaks for Donald Trump, not 1,000 pages of white papers, not a conservative non-profit, not anybody except for the Trump campaign and Donald Trump," he said.

Critics of the nearly 900-page document - which calls for the sacking of thousands of civil servants, dismantling the Department of Education, halting sales of the abortion pill, and more - have pointed out the project was led by former officials in his administration

Image source, Getty Images

A reporter asks JD Vance about being called "weird". The word has become popular among the Democratic Party in recent weeks when they talk about Donald Trump and Vance.

The "weird" line was first used by new vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, and some people believe it helped his rise up the ranks on Kamala Harris's VP shortlist.

Vance says he thinks the weird argument came from "24-year-old" social media users "who were bullied in school".

He then tries to turn the phrase around and use it on Harris, calling many of her political moves "weird".

"I'm a normal guy who wants to live the American dream," he then says, adding, "if those people want to call me weird, I think it's a badge of honour".

A reporter asked Vance if he believes elections in Wisconsin are conducted securely.

He says he feels "a lot of confidence" about elections in Wisconsin, but then raises questions about big tech billionaires who previously spent money in the state to influence local boards of election.

"You cannot have private billionaires who own social media companies buying up public boards of elections," he said.

"The Trump campaign is on top of this stuff and focused on this stuff and we think we're going to have a great election in Wisconsin."

A local Wisconsin reporter just asked Vance a question about two area hospitals closing and how it affects those facing addiction.

"We're not far away from the fentanyl that Mexican drug cartels bring into communies like Eau Claire," Vance responded.

He proposed investing more in hospital systems to reinvigorate hospitals in small towns and rural areas.

"We've got to preserve the rural healthcare infrastructure that exists in this country," he said.

He pointed to money spent on dealing with immigration.

"Those are tax dollars that are not going to build out our rural hospital infrastructure and support our hospitals," he said.

A local reporter asks JD Vance: why would someone want to have a beer with you? It's a question often asked of politicians, to see if they are someone a regular voter could get along with.

"They'd like to have a beer with me because I do actually like to drink beer," he says. It gets a smattering of laughs.

He goes on to say that he's never met a guy who "likes normal people as much as Donald Trump".

Image source, Getty Images

There's two political lines of attack Vance is focusing on.

The first is energy. He says Americans are sitting on the "Saudi Arabia" of natural gas in the United States. And he says Kamala Harris would rather get energy from overseas, instead of sourcing it from within the US.

His next topic is the US-Mexico border. Vance says Harris is letting "poison" cross the border, referring to fentanyl. He also uses this moment to speak about his mother's own drug addiction when he was a child, which is also a major theme in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

Vance has taken to the podium and begun his speech by referencing how he spoke with reporters on the tarmac at the airport before arriving at the local warehouse.

He said he thought reporters might be "lonely", accusing Harris of not taking any questions from the media.

"President Trump and I will go anywhere we'll answer any question because we respect the American people enough to actually ask them for their vote," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance has just started speaking at a campaign event in Eau Claire, a city in the political battleground state of Wisconsin.

There's a small group of people gathered behind Vance, who is speaking from a local warehouse.

This is Vance's second speech of the day, he few hours ago an event in Michigan.

You can follow along by pressing watch live at the top of this page.

Can Harris and Walz sway swing voters in Michigan?published at 18:56 British Summer Time 7 August 2024

18:56 BST 7 August 2024

Sumi Somaskanda
Chief presenter, reporting from Michigan

Away from the media frenzy surrounding the launch of the Harris-Walz campaign, signs of an enthused, energetic Democratic base in this leafy suburb in western Detroit -near where the two candidates are set to speak later - are harder to find.

We’ve spoken to a number of voters who tell us they’re not entirely sure who they want to vote for – or if they’ll even vote in November.

Many cite the economy and inflation as their chief concern. One undecided voter told us he’s concerned about job security for Americans in such a difficult economic environment – and he’s not impressed with the candidates on either ticket.

Another key test for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Michigan will be winning back the Arab American vote. President Biden’s support for Israel in its military campaign in Gaza has angered members of this community and saw Democrats wage a significant protest during the primary election in February: some 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” instead of for Joe Biden (he was, at the time, still in the race).

One Muslim American woman we met told us she cannot vote for either of the candidates on the ballot in November. VP Harris has already struck a different tone on the Israel-Hamas war, but it might not be enough to convince some voters here in Michigan.

Image source, Getty Images

The Harris campaign has had an influx of funds since the announcement that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will be Harris's running mate.

Her campaign said there were $36m (£28m) in donations in the 24 hours after Harris announced Walz as her No. 2.

It was one of the best fundraising days yet in what has already been a massive month of fundraising for Harris. According to her campaign, she raised more than $300m in July, the same month she announced her run after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Her rival, Trump, reportedly raised $137m last month.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance is using some of his time this week on the campaign trail to take aim at his new opponent, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz.

At a rally in Shelby Township, Michigan this morning, Vance accused Walz of misleading the public about his military service, saying he “has not spent a day in a combat zone”.

“I wonder Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” Vance told the crowd. “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valour garbage. Do not pretend to be something you’re not.”

Walz served in the military for 24 years, enlisting in the Nebraska National Guard at age 17 in 1981, before later transferring to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996.

He retired as a command sergeant major, making him the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in the US Congress when he joined the House of Representatives in 2007.

Though he was deployed abroad, Walz did not see combat - nor has he claimed to.

Vance, meanwhile, enlisted in the military right after high school. He joined the Marines, where he served as a combat correspondent - or military journalist – from 2003 to 2007.

In Iraq, Vance embedded with different units to observe their daily lives. “I was lucky to escape any real fighting,” he once wrote about his deployment.

How did Harris and Walz's first appearance together go?published at 17:59 British Summer Time 7 August 2024

17:59 BST 7 August 2024

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

As they walked out for the first time as presidential running mates on Tuesday night, Tim Walz turned to Kamala Harris and mouthed one word: “wow”.

It spoke to the enthusiastic response from the Philadelphia crowd, but also reflected the unlikely journey that the Minnesota governor has been on over the past week.

Few people had Walz on their early lists of possible vice-presidential choices. But on Tuesday, the dark horse won the race.

In a year when "vibes" have been everything in politics - on the economy, on the campaign trail - that is exactly what Harris has gone for: good vibes.

The Minnesota governor has a "midwestern nice" appeal, even when he is throwing political punches. His background - a teacher, a football coach, an Army National Guard enlisted soldier - broadcasts "meat-and-potatoes middle America", as does perhaps his balding, rotund, slightly dishevelled appearance.

All of this was on display in Philadelphia last night.

After noting that violent crime rates went up under Donald Trump, he added – with a smile - “and that doesn’t even count the crimes he committed”. He called the Republican ticket “weird as hell” –a label that has become a Democratic mantra in just a matter of days. And on the topic of abortion, he said government should follow a midwestern golden rule: “Mind your own damn business”.

Mixing humour with jabs - and speaking openly of the “joy” he sees in Democratic politics - may prove to be a more effective way to convince undecided voters who were simply not convinced by the dark “threat to democracy” rhetoric the Biden campaign had been using.

Image source, Reuters

One of the looming questions in the presidential campaign is when, or even if, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris might debate.

Earlier today on the morning television programme Fox & Friends, Trump said he would debate Harris “in the pretty near future. It’s going to be announced fairly soon”.

He said it was his preference for the debate to be broadcast on conservative channel Fox News, but that “two people have to agree”.

Previously, Trump had said the debate scheduled for 10 September on ABC News had been “terminated”, because that was supposed to be between him and Joe Biden.

Trump has pushed for Fox to host the debate. The Harris campaign had responded to this by saying Trump was “running scared” and wanted the conservative cable network to “bail him out”.

On 3 August, Harris wrote on X: “It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space’. I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”

Brandon Livesay
US reporter

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the US campaign trail.

Today, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are focused on the swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance has already spoken at an event in Shelby Township in Michigan and he is now heading to Eau Claire in Wisconsin for an event at 14:00 EDT (19:00 BST).

Kamala Harris and her newly-minted running mate Tim Walz are also in Eau Claire for a rally at 14:20 EDT.

Then the Harris-Walz duo are off to Detroit later in the day for another event as they blitz the Midwest.

Meanwhile, Trump has no scheduled rallies. But he did a lengthy telephone interview on cable television programme Fox & Friends earlier today where he said he would soon debate Harris.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest from another big day of politics.