GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. _ At the end of a week that shook the race for president, Democratic nominee Joe Biden returned Friday to Michigan, where he called on the nation to take COVID-19 "seriously."
Biden's visit to Michigan, his second in less than a month, came the same day President Donald Trump revealed that he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and three days after the first presidential debate in Cleveland.
Biden was also tested for the virus Friday, but his results came back negative.
"We have to take this virus seriously," he said in Grand Rapids. "It's not going away automatically. We have to do our part to be responsible."
The former vice president sent prayers to Trump at the beginning of a 20-minute speech. He spoke in a parking lot in front of an American flag outside the office of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union hall, along a wooded street in Grand Rapids.
The Nov. 3 election is 32 days away and absentee voting has already begun in Michigan, a state Trump won by 10,704 votes in 2016. It was his smallest margin of victory nationally, and he became the first GOP nominee to carry the state since 1988.
Grand Rapids is Michigan's second-largest city and is in Kent County, an area that will help decide who wins the state.
Trump claimed Kent County by 3 percentage points, fewer than 10,000 votes, in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Two years later, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won Kent County by 4 percentage points, or 11,641 votes, on her way to becoming governor.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 951 in Grand Rapids, Mich., Friday.
In an interview Thursday, Laura Cox, chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, criticized Biden for the small events with limited crowds he's been holding during the pandemic.
"I'm not worried about it at all," Cox said of the Grand Rapids visit. "The president has unbelievable enthusiasm across the state for him."
At Friday's event in Grand Rapids, reporters and a small group of Biden supporters wore masks and sat in folding chairs with a white circle surrounding each to maintain social distance.
As of Friday, there had been 7.3 million cases of the virus in the U.S. and 208,000 deaths linked to it, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.
The former vice president last visited Michigan on Sept. 9, when he spoke to a group in Warren and met with steelworkers in a backyard in Detroit.
Trump's campaign has focused on large rallies outdoors. Thousands gathered for a rally at an airport hangar in Freeland near Midland and Saginaw on Sept. 10, the president's last visit to Michigan. Trump held another airport rally in Swanton, Ohio, near the Michigan border, on Sept. 21.
It had been unclear whether Biden's trip to Michigan would proceed as planned after Trump revealed early Friday that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Biden appeared on the debate stage with Trump stage Tuesday.
"I'm happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID," Biden said on Twitter. "Thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands."
Trump for months has downplayed the seriousness of the virus while he has campaigned for re-election. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Friday the president is experiencing "mild" symptoms, and that other senior White House officials had tested negative for COVID-19.
Trump's campaign on Friday postponed previously announced events where the president or one of the members of the first family were to appear, saying some would be converted to virtual events.
Vice President Mike Pence, who tested negative for the virus Friday, planned to resume his scheduled campaign events, according to the Trump campaign.
Grand Rapids is part of the 3rd Congressional District, a seat held by U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, L-Cascade Township. Amash is a former Republican who has clashed with Trump and decided against running for re-election.
Now, Democrats are hoping to flip the district that's been long held by Republicans. Their candidate is immigration attorney Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids. The GOP candidate is Peter Meijer, a military veteran and grandson of the founder of the Meijer supermarket chain.
Democrats haven't made a strong push to win the district since it was redrawn for the 2012 election. Amash, who was first elected in 2010, was re-elected in 2016 by a 22-point margin. In 2018 _ with Democrats still not spending money on the district _ Amash won by 11 points.
Scholten appeared with Jill Biden, the former vice president's wife, when she stopped in Grand Rapids on Sept. 15.
