DETROIT — Black voters, long one of the most reliable pro-Democratic blocs, are shifting away from the party this cycle, according to polling. But Democrats on the ground in Michigan aren’t buying it, arguing there will be no boost for former President Donald Trump and GOP candidates in 2024.
Both sides agree that Michigan will be close in November. Democrats can’t afford to lose out on too many voters who backed the party four years ago when President Joe Biden carried the Wolverine State by just three points. Democrats are already concerned that Arab American voters in Michigan are souring on the party thanks to U.S. support for Israel during the deadly war in Gaza.
Republican and Democratic campaigns are both making plays at Black voters by holding events in Detroit, the state’s largest city and hub of its Black community. But the parties are taking different paths to wooing those voters.
Trump handed out signs pledging to “Make Detroit Great Again” at his Detroit rally on Friday, days after he publicly disparaged the city and compared it to a “developing nation.”
While rallying for Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School earlier Friday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) criticized Trump’s Detroit diss and told voters Trump had a history of racism.
Warnock also acknowledged the “chatter” that Black voters were moving right.
“We’re not a monolith,” Warnock added, before predicting that “You will not see waves of Black men voting for Donald Trump.”
The Democratic pitch: Speaking to us after the Warnock rally, Slotkin said her pitch to Black voters centers around “trust.”
“Who do you trust to actually listen to you, learn from you and then take the fight to Washington?” Slotkin said. “I’m someone who has done this for five years, who has, in particular, a strong African American community in Lansing and East Lansing.”
In 2020, Biden won 94% of Detroit’s vote. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who represents Detroit in the House, echoed Warnock’s optimism that Democrats will continue to do well.
“Largely the African American community is with Kamala Harris,” Thanedar said, describing reports of Black voters going to the GOP as “just isolated incidents.”
GOP optimism: But at an event for GOP candidate Tom Barrett in Lansing, Speaker Mike Johnson made a bold statement that cut against Democratic beliefs.
“I’m convinced you’re going to have a record number of Black and African American voters,” Johnson said. “These demographics of people have not, historically in large numbers, been in our camp. They are going to be this time because everybody is feeling the cost of living, rising crime rates and the wide open border.”
