Bernd Debusmann Jr.
Reporting from Kalamazoo, Michigan

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr / BBC

For journalists, covering the election campaign can be time-consuming. Media “presets” – during which we set up cameras – often take place several hours before the actual events.

This morning, for example, I arrived on site at 6:30 a.m. local time, well before today’s rally around 4:00 p.m.

It was a bit of a surprise, then, when I found a lone rally participant standing in the cold, dark Michigan morning: 25-year-old Matt Jansen.

Jansen lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and drove nearly seven hours overnight after leaving work Friday to see Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama here today.

“Harris rallies look awesome, like a party,” says Jansen, who runs a politics-focused TikTok. “It was on the bucket list.”

“I’m just here to share this enthusiasm and be part of the movement that’s happening,” he adds. “And see Michelle Obama.”

Jansen has a long list of issues that matter to him in this election. But the most urgent, he says, is the right to abortion.

“I’m afraid for women. I don’t know how we can call ourselves a great free country when we’re taking away half of the population’s rights,” he explains. “It blows my mind.”

“If I decide to have children and my wife and I have problems, what will happen?” Jansen adds. “Trump wants to take us backwards. I don’t want that.”