Trump’s 2011 Kamala Harris campaign endorsement focuses on tumultuous Michigan billboard

LINCOLN PARK, MI — A political billboard here involving the 2024 presidential race has gained viral buzz online.

On internet forums such as Facebook and Reddit, bystanders are sharing images of a digital sign showing what appears to be a copy of a $5,000 check donated by Donald Trump to Kamala Harris’ political campaign as she sought re-election as California’s attorney general for more than a decade. ago.

News of the existence of the check — from September 2011 — is not new. It has been previously documented by media outlets, including The New York Times. Trump also donated $1,000 to Harris in February 2013, state records show.

At the time, Trump was not running for political office, and Harris was serving the first of two terms as California attorney general. She was re-elected to this position in 2014.

Things have changed since then. Trump, the former president, and Harris, the current vice president, are rivals in the 2024 race for the White House.

A representative of Lamar Advertising, the company that sells the billboard space, said the ad with the check was paid for by FLIC Votes. The organization is the political arm of the Miami-based Florida Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group for Florida immigrants.

FLIC Votes officials did not return multiple messages left by MLive.

FLIC Votes made other headlines this month for a billboard it purchased near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach County, Florida. That ad simply said “weird,” which is a label that Harris surrogates have been using publicly with increasing frequency to describe Trump and his running mate, JD Vance.

The Michigan billboard towers above the eastbound lanes of I-75 near a stretch of the busy freeway southwest of Detroit in the downstream suburb of Lincoln Park.

The sign is between a Democratic stronghold — Detroit — and municipalities in Wayne County, as well as a neighboring county that supported Trump in the 2020 presidential race by increasing percentages the further south those communities were positioned. Detroit.

In Wayne County, Detroit favored Joe Biden over Trump in 2020 with 94 percent of its residents voting. South of Detroit, Lincoln Park favored Biden over Trump with 56.5 percent of its residents’ votes. South of Lincoln Park, Southgate favored Biden over Trump with 52.1 percent of its residents’ votes.

From there, the results reverse in Wayne County. South of Southgate, Riverview favored Trump over Biden with 49.5 percent of its residents’ votes. South of Riverview, Trenton favored Trump over Biden with 52.4 percent of its residents’ votes.

Wayne County as a whole favored Biden over Trump with 68.3 percent of its residents’ votes.

South of Wayne County — about 30 miles south of the billboard — Monroe County, on the Ohio border, favored Trump over Biden with 60 percent of its residents’ votes.

The image of the check serves as one of several ads that appeared on the digital billboard this week.

Other ads on the sign feature images of men, accompanied by words stating they were former Trump voters but will not vote Republican this year. Those ads claim they were paid for by Republican Accountability PAC, Inc.

The digital billboard also displays ads for Wendy’s, Leo’s Coney Island, Colovos Law Firm and The Carpet Guys.

The billboard’s location near Detroit puts it at a hot spot in this summer’s presidential campaign.

Harris and her Democratic running mate, Tim Walz, spent two days in southeast Michigan last week, starting Wednesday, Aug. 7, at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and ending with a nearby meeting with United Auto Workers the next day. .

Before dropping out and endorsing Harris last month, one of President Biden’s last stops was at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

And Trump campaigned in Detroit in June, when the Republican hosted a panel discussion at a church and later spoke at an event called “The People’s Convention.”