In the state of Michigan, Harris promises to rethink career education Al Jazeera News

The vice president reaches out to uneducated voters in battleground states.

Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris is promising to reexamine which federal jobs require a college degree if she is elected president of the United States.

Harris was campaigning in Michigan on Monday and told workers at a semiconductor plant in Saginaw County that the state needs to change the perception that certain jobs require a college degree.

“We have to deal with this idea that only high-skill jobs require a college degree,” Harris said, promising to address this on “day one” of his presidency.

“One of the immediate things is to re-evaluate the organization’s jobs, and I’ve started looking at them, to see which ones don’t require a college degree,” he said. “Because here’s the thing: That’s not the only qualification for a professional worker.”

Education is divided

Harris’ comments reflect efforts by Democrats to bridge the national political divide between educated and uneducated voters. Democrats are trying to attract support from the latter group, which now tends to vote Republican.

Last month, Harris unveiled proposed economic policies aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing.

His visit to the Hemlock Semiconductor plant in central Michigan was to highlight the Democrats’ efforts to build the US semiconductor industry. The company recently received a $325m grant for a new factory from the new CHIPS and Science Act.

Republican candidate Donald Trump criticized the law, criticizing it during a lengthy interview with the Joe Rogan Experience on Friday. “That deal is terrible,” Trump said in the podcast, adding that the funding went to “rich corporations”.

But Harris said the country must be willing to balance its economic culture and the jobs that go with it, with the need to push new technologies.

“If we understand who we are as a nation, we pride ourselves on being a leader in many things. And we have a tradition of that,” he said. “But I think what we know as Americans is that we can’t rest on tradition.”

He added: “We must stay on top of what is happening, what is happening now, and invest in the industries of the future, and respect the traditions and industries that have built the American economy.”

Trump ‘focused’ on him

Harris also took a shot at Trump before flying to Michigan. He told reporters that Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden helped prove his point about what was at stake in the election.

Harris said Sunday’s event “highlighted a point I’ve been making throughout this campaign”, namely that Trump is “focused on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country, and not in any way strengthen the American family, the American worker”.

Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday where many speakers made racist and crude remarks, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.

Harris plans to deliver his campaign closing speech on Tuesday in Washington, DC.

“There is a big difference between me and him,” he said.