Conor here: The following piece highlights that Kamala is not only in trouble with a large number of Michigan Muslims because of her announcement that she will not stop arms shipments to Israel and nothing will change regarding Israel’s “right to self-defense.”
There is also the problem of voting in the Detroit area where he needs to increase the points to win the state, and one of the biggest problems for potential voters is the availability of water (yes, this is the US in the year 2024).
Kamala, however, did not address the issue during her Labor Day visit to Detroit. “In the world’s largest democracy,” one more person with a chance to win is no better in these matters.
On September 19, Trump told the Israel American Council National Summit 2024, “We will expel foreign jihad sympathizers and supporters of Hamas from our midst. We will get them out of our country.” He added that he would ban the resettlement of refugees in “terrorist areas” such as the Gaza Strip.
And Trump, too, was in Flint on Tuesday at a town hall where he didn’t talk about the top toxin found in the city’s drinking water. While neither candidate apparently wants to emulate Obama and drink from a glass of filtered Flint drinking water, their constituents have issued equally weak statements. From the Detroit Free Press:
On Tuesday, spokespeople for both the Trump and Harris campaigns voiced their support for Flint and safe drinking water in general and highlighted the actions their administrations have taken in those areas. But the two campaigns won’t say whether the candidates, if elected, will direct the EPA to stop arguing that it lacks social responsibility and make a financial deal with the citizens of Flint. The EPA is charged with ensuring compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and a paper trail shows that its officials knew about the Flint River’s inadequate flushing months before residents were notified.
Horse race reports tell us that Kamala’s problem is that she needs voters in Detroit and Dearborn more than Trump. to represent such things.
Unsurprisingly, many Michigan citizens are looking to support Jill Stein who will fight the Green war or simply not vote. For example, the Uncommitted Movement, which started in Michigan issued a strange statement on September 19 when it refused to endorse Kamala, opposing Trump, again. does not recommend a third party vote.
Besides doing nothing to get their votes but actually showing their hatred by supporting genocide, Democrats will no doubt aim (some are already contenders) to blame Muslims in Michigan if Trump wins the state and the presidency. As the next piece shows, they’ll probably have another group to blame: people who can’t afford luxuries like water.
By Ronald Brown, professor of political science at Wayne State University and R. Khari Brown, a sociology professor at Wayne State University. Originally published on The Conversation.
The threat of violence was in the air at the TCF center in Detroit on November 5, 2020, after former President Donald Trump said poll workers in the city were duplicating ballots and that there were unexplained delays in getting them counted.
Both claims were later dismissed.
Buoyed by Trump’s speech, scores of mostly white Trump supporters stormed the doors and windows of the counting center, chanting, “Stop the counting!”
But Detroit poll workers, mostly Black, finished tallying the ballots. In the end, 95% of voters in Detroit, Michigan’s largest city and the one with the largest African American population – 78% of residents – voted for Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee.
We are professors of political science and sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit, where we teach about the relationship between race, religion and politics. Our research has identified two groups of African American voters in Detroit – one that will clearly support Kamala Harris and the other that is important to her if she wants to win Michigan.
Strongly in Kamala’s camp
Those African Americans who are most likely to vote for Harris in November 2024 are hard-line Democrats who feel that Trump threatens the Black political movement toward democracy.
Harris could also count on members of Detroit non-profit organizations such as the NAACP, Black Greek organizations, and religious churches affiliated with activist groups such as MOSES, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Committee.
But what about the working class and poor citizens of Black Detroit who tend to be less connected to the Democratic Party and less involved with the grassroots organizations that represent it? These are the people who consistently vote in presidential elections but recent history has shown that they could be the key to winning Michigan, a key state.
Minor Bumps in Voter Turnout
While Detroit voters helped Biden win the state and the White House in 2020, that was not the case for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The difference is due in part to lower voter turnout.
In 2016, 95% of Detroiters who voted in the presidential election chose Democratic nominee Clinton. Still, he lost Michigan by 0.2% – less than 11,000 votes.
One factor that contributed to the difference in Michigan presidential election results between 2016 and 2020 was the decrease in Detroit voters in 2016 compared to 2020.
In 2016, Detroit’s voter turnout was 48.6% – compared to 50.88% in 2020. The high turnout in Detroit in 2020 contributed to Biden winning Michigan in 2020 by less than 3%.
Let’s say 2016 and 2020 are guides to 2024. If so, Harris’ ability to win Michigan in November has less to do with losing black voters to Trump than his ability to motivate Black voters in Detroit and across the state to show up to the polls. This is important because African Americans, about 13% of the American electorate, vote overwhelmingly Democratic when they vote.
In many ways, 2020 served as an audition for Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a major impact on black Americans, who were twice as likely as white Americans to die from the virus.
That election also served as a poll on Trump’s racial politics. In the summer of 2020, the country went into protests against police violence against black people, Trump called the protesters anti-American and criminals.
So it makes sense that in 2020, a majority — more than 90% — of Americans nationally said that concerns about racism and COVID-19 motivated their vote.
Looking ahead to the 2024 election, the question that remains is: Will black voters in Detroit be closer to 2016 or 2020?
Key to Quality of Life Issues in 2024
By early 2024, quality of life concerns about crime, vacant properties and affordable housing were the top three issues Detroit residents want their city and the US government to address, according to the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study.
Similarly, an August 2024 poll conducted by Suffolk University and USA Today found that nearly 6 in 10 black voters in Michigan cited the rising cost of living, crime and health care as driving their willingness to vote.
These issues are top of mind for Black voters across the country. A February 2024 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that more than 90% of black Americans believe that presidential candidates should discuss the rising cost of living and health care, and three-quarters believe they should discuss protecting the Affordable Care Act.
The 2024 election is an important time for these issues to be resolved.
Detroit’s Ongoing Water Concerns
When it comes to working and low-income people in Detroit, a key cost-of-living issue is the cost of water.
As Detroit’s city government tries to consolidate its finances following its 2013 bankruptcy, it began targeting residents who defaulted on their water bills. The city shut off water to more than 141,000 residents between 2013 and 2020.
As of 2023, 27% of Detroit households – nearly 170,000 people – are at risk of having their water shut off due to unpaid water bills. 60,000 people in arrears with unpaid water bills owe US$700.
In response to this problem, local organizations, many of them religious, such as the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, have organized community members to push for legislation that would include a tax on water bills and residents’ income.
In October 2023, Michigan Democrat State Sen. Stephanie Chang introduced a series of bills to do just that, but the bills have languished in the House and Human Services Committee.
In April 2024, a Detroit metro poll we conducted revealed that 87% of Black Detroiters support these water affordability bills.
Harris’ ability to generate black voters in Michigan in the 2020s, especially in Detroit, may depend on his ability to explain the federal government’s plans to address cost-of-living concerns. This includes getting federal grants for cities, like Detroit, to subsidize water rates for their workers and low-income residents.
Although Harris did not publicly address the issue of water availability during his visit to Detroit on Labor Day, he told the audience that, unlike Trump, he would not impose a national sales tax on everyday items. He also promised to keep prescription drug prices affordable and strengthen the Affordable Care Act.
Will Harris’ message that the cost of living for Detroiters will worsen under a Trump administration be enough to galvanize Black Detroiters to vote for him?
This is a key question in his 2024 campaign in Michigan, where he and Trump are tied statistically among likely voters.
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