Michelle Obama at Clinton rally: ‘They are trying to get you to stay home’

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — First lady Michelle Obama campaigned with Hillary Clinton for the first time Thursday, urging an arena full of swing-state voters not to let Donald Trump’s “dirty and ugly” talk of a “rigged” election keep them from voting.

“If you hear folks talk about … ‘this election is rigged,’ understand that they are trying to get you to stay home,” Obama told the crowd of 11,000 supporters at an arena at Wake Forest University. “They are trying to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter.”

“Just for the record, in this country, the Unites States of America, the voters decide our election,” she said. “They always have.”

The rally drew one of the largest crowds for Clinton this cycle, and was the first time she’s had an event in an arena — a mark of the first lady’s star power. Her comments urging Clinton’s supporters not to get complacent or turned off by the election’s tone comes as Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook released a video warning that he believes her lead in the polls will shrink in the coming days.

Obama and Clinton emerged from backstage and gave each other a hug before the former secretary of state gave a shorter-than-usual speech, praising Michelle Obama as “inspiring.” Clinton complimented the first lady’s work with military families, kids’ health and the vegetable garden at the White House. (“I can promise you, if I win I’ll take good care of it, Michelle,” she joked.)

Clinton, herself a former first lady, also acknowledged the special pressures Obama has faced. “Let’s be real: As our first African-American first lady, she’s faced pressures I never did. And she’s handled them with grace,” she said.

She then turned the stage over to Obama, who said she was “thrown” by Clinton’s effusive introduction. She emphasized to the cheering crowd that Clinton was actually her friend despite reports that there’s been lingering animosity from the 2008 primary race between Clinton and Barack Obama. “People wonder — yes, Hillary Clinton is my friend; she has been a friend to me and Barack and Malia and Sasha,” the first lady said.

Michelle Obama, whom the Clinton campaign considers to be its most powerful surrogate, admitted that her level of involvement in the 2016 race was “unprecedented” for a sitting first lady. “I know there are some folks out there who have commented that it’s been unprecedented for a sitting first lady to be so actively engaged in a presidential campaign. And that may be true, but what’s also true is that this is truly an unprecedented election, and that’s why I’m out here,” she said.

The first lady again made the argument that this election is “bigger” than partisan differences between Republicans and Democrats. “What kind of a president do we want for them? Well, to start with, I think we want someone who is a unifying force in this country, someone who sees our differences not as a threat but as a blessing,” Obama said. She made the case that Clinton came from a “working family,” as she and the president did, and understands the challenges regular people face.

Her most forceful pitch was against Trump’s insistence that the election may be rigged. The first lady never mentioned the Republican nominee’s name, but urged North Carolina voters not to stay home, saying the talk of a fixed election was a “strategy” to suppress voter turnout. The Trump campaign outlined its “voter suppression” techniques in an interview with Bloomberg published Thursday and interviews with Yahoo News published earlier this month.

Obama told the crowd that her husband won North Carolina in 2008 by just two votes per precinct. “I want you all to take that in because I know there are people who didn’t vote,” she said. “People knew people who didn’t vote. If just two or three folks per precinct had gone the other way, Barack would have lost that state, could have lost that election.”

She also reminded Clinton’s supporters of the sacrifices black Americans made to get the right to vote. “They endured beatings and jail time; they sacrificed their lives for this right,” she said.

Obama then adapted her signature line from the Democratic convention — “When they go low, we go high ” — to a get-out-the-vote rallying cry. “Make no mistake about it: Casting our vote is the ultimate way we go high when they go low. Voting is our high. That’s how we go high — we vote!”