Pat Parker has campaigned for Democratic presidential candidates in the crucial state of Michigan for five elections, and it has not always been a pleasant experience.
The pleasure of doorstepping for Barack Obama gave way to working in a Hillary Clinton campaign office in the bellwether Saginaw County, Michigan, which had the vibe of a morgue, despite the fact that she was expected to win. The pandemic imposed constraints on Joe Biden’s campaign.
However, next week’s election is different. Parker experiences genuine terror for the first time.
The clinical social worker supports Kamala Harris, but she recognizes that many of people who say they would vote for her to become the United States’ first Black female president are being pushed to the polls by her opponent, Donald Trump.
“It is about him. There’s a strong element of, ‘We can’t have him back; we have to stop him.’ Some conversations are extremely challenging. “People get completely freaked out and upset, and it doesn’t leave much room for, ‘What do you think of Harris?'” Parker explained.
After Trump was defeated in 2020, many Americans hoped and expected him to leave politics. However, the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, Trump’s continuing undermining of public trust in the election system, and the long-term ramifications of his presidency, including the loss of abortion rights, kept the former president at the center of US politics.
Parker said this year’s campaign has only fueled fear as Trump threatens to demolish democracy, mobilize the military against the “enemy within,” and use the court system to punish people who oppose him. Then there’s Trump’s campaign rallies, which are full with hatred toward immigrants, including those who are legally here in the United States, as well as threats to deport millions.
“We monitor him. “It’s like you can’t take your eyes off a fire,” Parker added.
Michigan voters have a front-row seat to all of this, as Harris and Trump compete for every vote in a vital state where they are still neck and neck in the polls.
The Harris campaign views the least difficult path to victory as passing through Michigan, along with two other Rust Belt swing states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Turnout is the key to winning.
In 2016, Trump narrowly won five “blue wall” states, including Michigan, by 10,704 votes.
The then-president raised his vote significantly in all three states in 2020, but still lost to Biden, because Democrats who had stayed home four years earlier turned out in big numbers to oust Trump from office. In 2020, 72% of registered voters in Michigan cast ballots, the highest percentage since John F. Kennedy won the presidency 60 years ago.
There are indicators that this year’s turnout could be even higher, with Michigan county clerks reporting increased voter registration and nearly 1 million postal ballots already received. The good news for Harris is that the majority of them are from heavily Democratic places like Detroit.
However, in the aftermath of 2016’s failures, the Harris campaign is acutely aware of the importance of not taking anything for granted. Clinton made no effort to campaign in Michigan or communicate with important constituencies such as car workers and Black communities that have usually backed Democratic. Clinton’s strategists reassured nervous Michigan Democrats that the statistics showed she was five points ahead in the state, so they were focusing their efforts elsewhere. Her confidence was misplaced, as she lost Michigan and other battleground states.
In contrast, Harris has spent more time campaigning in Michigan than any other state, with the exception of Pennsylvania. The vice president and her campaign companion, Tim Walz, are touring Michigan, targeting factory workers, Black voters, white suburban women, and college students.
The Harris team brought out Barack Obama to rap with Eminem at a Detroit rally and dispatched Bernie Sanders, the Democratic party’s left-wing idol, to reassure student voters who are concerned that Harris is simply another corporate Democrat.
Harris is also attempting to recruit anti-Trump Republicans, with the support of previous Republican officials in the state, including former members of Congress. The vice president appeared on stage beside former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney in an effort to persuade Republican voters who are horrified by Trump and concerned about the legal assault on women’s rights that voting for Harris is safe.
Dick Cheney, Cheney’s father, has also endorsed Harris, which has some Michigan Democrats concerned given his involvement in leading the United States into a disastrous war in Iraq.
Chris Wyant, a top Harris campaign strategist in Michigan who formerly worked on the Clinton campaign in the state, acknowledged that the plan is shaped by the 2016 loss.
“I just don’t think there was the robust team and we didn’t get the time from the candidate that we do now,” he told me.
For his part, Trump and his vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, have been bombarding the state with harsh promises that many of his fans do not believe will be kept. Earlier this month, the former president stated at a rally in Saginaw that he would make Michigan the “car capital of the world again”. Over a dozen auto plants in the area have collapsed in recent decades, displacing tens of thousands of workers.
Trump has also capitalized on splits over electric vehicles at recent rallies in Michigan, where most supporters oppose government subsidies to encourage EVs because they could cost jobs in traditional auto manufacturers.
However, at a rally in Detroit, the former president did not help himself by denigrating the city, which is still rebuilding from factory and population losses and is studded with abandoned and burned-out homes.
“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” he said.
However, Trump is far more trusted than Harris on two critical topics in Michigan: inflation and immigration. The Biden administration boasts of a thriving economy, with record employment growth, but statistics do not help the many Americans who are still dealing with the consequences of years of rising costs.
Darshell Roberson, a Black woman working at a Saginaw soup kitchen, is more concerned about her employment than with Trump’s racist statements.
