There are conversations about the moment
Is the Detroit blue-collar community a felon? She told me she knew Trump had convicted a felony and that he had given it back to him
In the suburbs, Trump may be a deal-breaker. But for tens of thousands of blue-collar city dwellers, a felony is just a fact of life.
The Michigan Republican Party enlisted a man who served time in federal prison for corruption, to speak for Donald Trump as a man who gives second chances. Trump commuted Kilpatrick’s sentence in two years.
In Michigan, a law that automatically register people who are out of prison to vote was passed last year, and grass-roots effort is made in Detroit to make sure they do. These former inmates — who often struggle to get jobs and housing because of long-ago convictions — don’t love the idea of electing a prosecutor. Every time Harris calls Trump a felon, that’s a “a reminder of what she thinks of us,” one man who is trying to rebuild his life after a prison sentence told me.
There is another reason that comes to mind. Many blue-collar residents of Detroit went to prison at some point in their lives, instead of college. In the aftermath of mass incarceration, there are more than 100,000 adults in Detroit who have been convicted of a felony, and some 19 million around the country. That’s a lot of people, in a state that Trump won by less than 11,000 votes in 2016.
She mentioned the people she knew who were voting for Trump — a hairdresser, a landscaper, a former flight attendant — and told me that yes, there did seem to be a class divide going on. She has been giving out pins and wristbands. “I’ve had people give it back to me,” she told me. She surmised that Trump’s blue-collar appeal might be related to the celebrities that he surrounds himself with. At a rally in Detroit last week, Trump brought the rapper Trick Trick and the former boxer Thomas Hearns onstage.
Harris has been trying to engage with Black voters on the campaign trail and has a set of economic proposals geared at Black men. But Cohen said she still faces skepticism.
It was an excellent ad. I can only imagine what it would be like to live in a city where the economic and educational class divide is not good for the Harris campaign.
Detroit has been getting a lot of love lately. It seems like a day has not passed that there is no appearance by Harris or Obama. Donald Trump has been there a lot, even if his message is off-key: At the Detroit Economic Club, he warned the people of Detroit that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s our president.” The ad by Harris focuses on the city’s pride, resilience and remarkable comeback.
Despite her advantage, the GenForward poll points to a key challenge still remaining for Harris. While the findings show the vice president performing better with younger Americans than President Biden did before he left the race, she has struggled to match the historically high support that Biden enjoyed from voters under 30 during the 2020 election, especially among young Americans of color. That support diminished during Biden’s presidency, and Harris has been unable to regain it.
A new survey shows that some of the enthusiasm around Harris among young voters may be starting to fade with just two weeks until voting ends.
Harris and Trump are both in a tie with young white Americans, the only group under 45 that Trump won in 2020, but the former president holds a small edge that is within the margin of error.
More than 2300 white, black, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander were asked about their feelings regarding the survey. There is a period from September 26 to October 6 when there are people under 40 years old.
The fear of a Trump presidency that many voters who support the Democratic Party believe is imminent, is not likely to be appealing to young people, according to the University of Chicago professor who is the executive director of the GenForward poll.
The GenForward poll details a complicated picture of support for Harris when it comes to young voters — especially when broken down by race and ethnicity.
When it came to choosing between Trump and other third party candidates, more than one-fifth of Black women would prefer someone else.
Trump grounded a large portion of his outreach to young voters in interview appearances with a group of popular male entertainers, and some of them have shows geared towards young men.
It’s an issue Harris has heavily campaigned on, given safeguarding access to the procedure has previously driven youth turnout. She also leads Trump in young voter trust on issues related to racism and inequality, providing housing opportunities and protecting democracy.
It is Cohen’s belief that many potential voters attach Harris to a Biden administration that didn’t handle inflation in particular.
According to the survey, economic concerns are the most important election issue for Americans under 40.
More than one third of respondents said that they still want to learn more, meaning that the Harris campaign has a chance to potentially pick up more votes.