Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is making a closing case for why Detroiters should support her in high-profile visits to the city and smaller events to reach persuadable voters.
Harris visited Detroit on Tuesday to address the skepticism of some voters in an “audio town hall” with Charlamagne Tha God from iHeart Media’s studio in Eastern Market. A day earlier, her campaign invited Black men for free drinks and wings at TV Lounge to talk through why some Detroiters remain uncommitted in the election.
Marloshawn Franklin, Michigan political director for the Harris campaign, dapped up attendees who stepped into the glowing bar, the early evening darkness outside signaling the transition to fall. At the bar, Franklin explained a strategy he outlined in May, back when Biden was still in the race: The campaign has to meet people wherever they can and be ready for what could be a razor-thin race.
Tony Whgln is an Islandview muralist and founder of nonprofit mentorship organization Leaders Amongst Leaders who attended the Monday meetup. He estimated half of the people he talks with are tuned into the presidential election, while the other half are overwhelmed with their personal lives.
“If you wake up and you see that it’s too expensive to eat that day, who you’re voting for at the end of the day probably isn’t going to make a change because it hasn’t made a change in the last four years,” he said. “What does it look like for them on a daily basis? Being able to understand how to survive, and understanding the politics at the same time, allows you to understand that things work at a small-scale level first. It begins with the community and then the city, state and country.”
Attendees included actors like Don Cheadle, Delroy Lindo and Detroit native Cornelius Smith Jr., along with BET personality Jeff Johnson, former Congressman Bakari Sellers, Harris adviser Brian Nelson and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Thomas Booker.
Presidential campaigns are planning near daily events around Detroit until polls close on Nov. 5. Harris’ campaign said it held 20 Detroit-area events, and counting, focused on Black voters in October.
Elections are no longer constrained to one day: Detroit voters cast 41,235 absentee ballots as of Oct. 15 thanks to early voting laws created before the 2020 election. Citizens can cast ballots in person at early voting centers starting Oct. 19.
“Detroit Vs Everybody” founder Tommey Walker Jr. and influencer and event emcee Terrance “TG” Grantham are hosting a Thursday hangout moderated by Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West. According to the campaign, the fireside chat will highlight an economic agenda for Black men released this week.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator, is holding a gathering for members of the Divine Nine Greek-letter organizations on Friday. Detroit-born entertainment star Loni Love held a brunch with voters on Thursday. The campaign has also tapped surrogates to speak at church services, including Pastor Bishop Ellis, Rev. Edgar Van II, Rev. Horace Sheffield II, Pastor Tellis Chapman and Pastor Cindy Rudolph.
Harris returns to Detroit on Saturday to mark the start of early in-person voting. Her husband Douglas Emhoff is holding an event with Jewish voters in Detroit on Sunday. Former President Barack Obama will hold another rally in the city on Oct. 22.
The attention on Detroit comes as former President Donald Trump aggressively courts Black men to his side. Polling suggests Harris’ relationship with Black men lags behind President Joe Biden’s support in 2020.
Trump is scheduled to appear in Detroit Friday evening for a rally at Huntington Place. Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance held a rally at Eastern Market last week.
State Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, said Harris is making a clear case for why Detroiters can trust her to improve their lives, while Trump “has a record of lying.”
“I’m tired of the narrative that if she doesn’t win, you have to have a scapegoat,” Carter said. “How is it that black men are the scapegoat when you’ve got uncommitted folk, when you’ve got folk that are undecided?”
John Hardiman is a Detroit resident and skilled trade worker who attended the TV Lounge meet up with his brother. Hardiman said he’s seeing signs of diminished support for Trump. He knew five Trump voters in 2020, all of whom no longer support the former president.
“They see him as crazy, they realize he’s not for us,” Hardiman said. “I can 80% trust (Harris), but I can trust Trump 5%.”
Harris hits on key concerns
Harris encouraged voters not to let cynicism “take you out of the game by not voting” during her Tuesday interview with Charlamange Tha God. Supporters invited by the campaign to a watch party at Cred Cafe said Harris engaged directly with issues that have left some hesitant to support her.
Harris said she plans to decriminalize marijuana, arguing that she did not send people to jail for possession while serving as a prosecutor in California. She pledged to increase access to capital for entrepreneurs and affordable housing for families.
Harris said reparations for African Americans should be studied, but didn’t commit to taking executive action.
She fielded questions from “The Breakfast Club” host and local figures like New Era Detroit Founder Zeek Williams, former Detroit City Storyteller Eric Thomas, rapper Icewear Vezzo and Pastor Solomon Kinloch Jr.
Vezzo, who met with Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during campaign stops this year, asked Harris to respond to the perception that politicians only engage with Black people to win elections.
“I’ve been in this race for 70 days, you can look at all my work before that 70 days to know that what I’m talking about is not new and is not for the sake of winning this election,” Harris responded. “This is about a long-standing commitment.”
Before the interview, Harris dropped by Norwest Gallery of Art, a Black-owned business along a developing corridor in the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood. Harris visited by Cred Cafe, a lower eastside speakeasy, to meet an enthusiastic crowd of roughly one hundred supporters. She was gifted a “Detroit Vs. Everybody” shirt and expressed an affinity for the “first-class city.”
“I just feel a kindred spirit whenever I come to Detroit,” she said.
Jerjuan Howard, a Detroit organizer and founder of Umoja Village, said the interview sounded like “real conversations” he’s had with people at the barber shop. Howard said Harris came off as sharp and unafraid to face scrutiny.
Before the event, Detroit resident Alonzo Marable said Democrats need to clear the record on pandemic-era stimulus checks for which some voters give Trump credit.
“It’s so crazy, so many young voters in Detroit think that stimulus package is coming back again,” Marable said.
He didn’t have to wait long for Charlemagne to bring it up during the interview.
“A majority Democratic Congress fought to get those stimulus checks out, fought against resistance by the Trump administration, and because we had a majority of Democrats in Congress that’s why those checks went out,” Harris said.
“It was Congress that made that decision. And then Donald Trump, never being one to pass up an opportunity to give himself credit when no credit is due, put his name on those checks.”
Getting Black men to the polls
Marable suggested there may be some internalized misogyny keeping some people from supporting Harris, echoing recent remarks by Obama.
“They can’t tell me one reason they have a problem with her,” he said. “I think so many men are really scared of having a woman president. I don’t understand it. Once you kill that myth of all the Black men she locked up for marijuana, they don’t have anything else to say.”
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said Harris is qualified, and she’s proving it with interviews like the Tuesday appearance.
“I don’t feel that there is an abandonment of Black men going to the Republican Party, although I’m sure there’s some defection,” Evans said. “If there’s anybody out there who thinks this woman shouldn’t be president because she’s a woman, they’re so confused and outdated I don’t even want to talk to them.
“She needs to get out and reassert to men: ‘I am qualified and support the fact that things haven’t been fair and I’m going to do something about it.’”
Gianna Fay, co-owner of Cafe Noir and midwifery director of the Wayne County Birth Center Project, appreciated Harris raising the issue of maternal mortality. The vice president said a large number of Black women live in states with abortion bans, exposing them to health complications and even death.
Fay and her husband have organized Black voter outreach events for Harris in Detroit.
“I think Charlemagne leaned in on things that a lot of people wanted to hear more clarity on,” Fay said. “She provided that clarity and not just a juxtaposition to what we’re facing, she provided some intentional plans for what she plans to do.”