Two days out from Election Day, Kamala Harris dashed through four stops across battleground Michigan on Sunday without uttering Donald Trump’s name, while urging voters not to fooled by the GOP nominee’s disparagement of the electoral system that he falsely claims is rigged against him.

The vice president said she trusts the upcoming vote tally and urged voters, “in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.”

At a Michigan State University rally, Harris got a rousing response when she asked who had already voted and then gave students another job – to encourage their friends to cast ballots in a state that allows Election Day voter registration.

And instead of her usual speech riffs about Trump being unstable, unhinged and out for unchecked power, Harris sought to contrast her optimistic tone with the darker message of the Republican opponent she did not name.

It was all in service of trying to boost her standing in one of the Democratic “blue wall” states in the Midwest considered her smoothest 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 a oblique reference to Trump. “We are done with that. We are exhausted with that. America is ready for a fresh start, ready for a new way forward where we see our fellow American not as an enemy, but as a neighbor.”

Harris also avoided direct mention of Trump during her 11-minute morning talk at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. But her comments nonetheless served as a clear juxtaposition with the Republican nominee, saying God offers a “divine plan strong enough to heal division” and urged voters not to be fooled by Donald Trump’s disparagement of the electoral system that he falsely claims is rigged against him.

“There are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos,” she said. She spoke at the same time Trump was in Pennsylvania declaring the U.S. a “failed nation” and saying that he “shouldn't have left” the White House after the 2020 election, which he denies losing to Democrat Joe Biden.

As Trump referred to Harris' party as “demonic,” Harris quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and told her friendly audience she saw “a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward,”

After the service, Harris pushed back at Trump’s characterizations of U.S. elections, telling reporters that his comments are “meant 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.”

The vice president said she trusts the upcoming vote tally and urged voters, “in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.”

As Republicans have already begun to file legal challenges in swing states, a senior Harris campaign official said on Sunday “we will fight these challenges, and we will win” and that they already have “lawyers on the ground across Pennsylvania fighting” challenges from Republicans.

The official added that Harris and her team “fully anticipate” Trump and his campaign will challenge the results like they did in 2020 if they lose again, but expressed confidence election officials and other institutions are ready to withstand those challenges. The official also noted that President Joe Biden is in the White House this time and Trump has access to fewer levers of power. 

Separately, Harris nodded to the significant population of Arab Americans in Michigan, many of whom are angry at the Biden administration for its continuation of the U.S. alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu government presses its war against Hamas in Gaza.

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

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

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

Addressing what was a largely student crowd on Sunday evening, Harris promised to seek consensus.

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

The approach reflects the wide net Harris has cast since taking the Democratic Party mantle in July after 81-year-old President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid. Casting Trump as erratic and unfit for office, she has attracted supporters ranging from progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York to Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Still, Harris is looking to capitalize on core Democratic constituencies — including young voters like those she addressed at Michigan State — in part by emphasizing 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 on Sunday evening came when she declared that government should not tell women what to do with their bodies.

Harris, who is Baptist, has addressed a Black congregation each of the last four Sundays — a nod to how important Black voters are in Michigan and several other battleground states.

“Church is the place that really made her who she is. She sang in the children’s choir and she learned about a loving God. That church in Oakland, California, instilled in Kamala her strong and deep personal faith,” Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said at another church in Philadelphia on Sunday morning, according to local media.

Emhoff spoke about visiting with survivors and relatives of victims of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh last week as part of his and Harris’ efforts “to fight antisemitism, racism and all forms of hate,” according to prepared remarks shared by the White House. 

“When we got married, Kamala encouraged me to embrace my faith. She wanted me to feel the same meaning in mine that she finds in hers,” Emhoff told attendees at Sharon Baptist Church. “Your Christian faith — my Jewish faith — our faith is not just about what we do ourselves. It’s about who we bring along with us.”

After church, Harris told reporters she voted by mail, but declined to say how she voted on a California ballot measure that would reverse some criminal justice reforms.

She then greeted customers and picked up lunch at Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles, where she had collard greens at the Detroit restaurant owned by former Detroit Lions player Ron Bartell, a Detroit native. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among other officials, joined Harris for the stop. Later, Harris stopped by Elam Barber Shop, a Black-owned business in Pontiac, where she took part in a moderated conversation with local leaders and Black men.

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

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

On Sunday, senior campaign officials briefed the press on their efforts in the key swing states, expressing optimism that their massive voter outreach programs were returning dividends.

“She's really out there, crisscrossing the battleground states, reaching voters, and just really focused on this optimistic, hopeful future and vision she has for the country. And we're really seeing the response to that vision reflected in the efforts of our [get out the vote] weekend activities,” a senior campaign official said. “Obviously and ultimately, this is a very close race. We've been built, and we know and have expected this to continue to be a close race. And we truly believe and are seeing that the ground game matters and is having real impact.”

The campaign said they recorded more than 1.85 million doors knocked in battleground states on Saturday, including 807,000 in Pennsylvania alone.

As 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 jumped into action for her on the night she first joined the race. Harris thanked the women for their organizing work and urged them to make one final push to “mobilize our Facebook groups, our family group chats and everyone we know” to turn out the vote.

Spectrum News’ Cassie Semyon and Joseph Konig contributed to this report.