Visiting Detroit: Michigan Opened My Eyes During this Presidential Elections Year

Sitting in the breakfast room at my hotel, TV commercial breaks were filled with dueling political advertisements from both the Kamala Harris campaign and Donald Trump’s. The volume was sufficiently loud that we guests could hear every word of every pitch for and against electing candidates – while munching on granola cereal, buttering a bagel or slurping coffee.

It was the first week of October and campaigning was, and still is, intensifying.

The swings states, a statistically toss-up over which candidate Democrat or Republican the vote will ultimately favor, and Michigan is surely one of these key states as well. Kamala and Donald are neck and neck there, and with polls varying daily reaffirming the ups and downs; it’s a dead heat.

Living here in California (and San Francisco especially), we voters on this Left coast have no idea, no exposure to, the experience of a relentless barrage of attacks, by Democrats and Republicans hammering on each other. Oh poor things, those Detroiters!

Listening to both side’s pitches though, it was very clear from the onset Harris’ campaign focused on body autonomy, that is, the right for women to seek an abortion. Drilled into listeners eyes and ears were testimonials from women which feared a nationwide abortion ban, or having to travel out of state seeking termination of a pregnancy. And for the most part, that was it – that was the pitch, over and over, using varying testimonies, but there were essentially no other issues Harris’ campaign addressed. Not to diminish this important abortion issue, of course, no mattter which side you are on. But as an observer from outside the Detroit area such as I, it seems this is all Harris cared about.

Contrast this with Trump’s advertising for the week I was visiting the Motor City: His was multifaceted, issues addressed including open borders, middle-class jobs, illegal immigration, crime, inflation, bringing manufacturing home, supporting the auto industry and unions. Simply put, it was no comparison.

Detroit, as you may know, is today a major city in flux as it has been over the past many decades (two generations, apparently). Today the urban core is nearly 80% Black. Around the early 1960’s an outmigration happened of central city dwellers exiting north, west and east, fanning out, to suburbs filled with larger tract homes, sprawling plots of land and better schools. So, overall, there is a natural dichotomy of voters – those with inner-city urban concerns, and those with Midwestern families, Midwest housewives and values. And this past week, Kamala came out with a now-panned plan for Black Men, clearly a pandering to a segment of the community which backfire.

Though my hotel was in the suburbs, in an area of Oakland County, I also spent several days in downtown Detroit itself, touring residential and business districts, remnants of a once-mighty manufacturing town, and the now slow-but-steady resurrection efforts, turning many neighborhoods into hip, trendy artist galleries, music venues, coffee roasters and clothing stores. This central core is Wayne County, the city’s downtown.

Long-time, multigenerational Detroiters are intensely proud of their heritage, their can-do attitude and their classic, huge art-deco buildings; they do not like their city being compared to San Francisco. In the heart of downtown Detroit there are now three major sports stadiums hosting basketball, hockey, baseball and football teams. Major investments made by local Michigan multigenerational families.

Yet problems clearly remain, as do problems in cities across Michigan and indeed, all Midwest states.

Back to the barrage of political banter, driving around and through Detroit and the greater Wayne County area, passing yard signs supporting Harris/Walz and Trump competing for attention, signs on sprawling front yards – and often placed immediately next to each other on busy roadway medians.  There was a spattering of Elissa Slotkin for US Senate signage as well; a Democrat, she spoke at the DNC praising Harris, and is vying to represent this area in DC.

But Kamala Harris’ attack ads seemed to be out of touch with many of the voters of Michigan. As I stated before, woman’s body autonomy is clearly very important, but leaving the other major concerns unanswered, failing to address or acknowledge them at all, is quite problematic.

And there is a wildcard in play as well: the Muslim community of Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, which is Rashida Tlaib territory. Just these past few days, polls have shown an intensifying resistance to Harris, this over the Biden/Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib, along with the overwhelmingly Islamic Dearborn leadership, and joined by non-Muslim anti Israel sympathizers, collectively disapprove of the Unted State’s continuing commitment to Israel and failing to shut down the arming of the Jewish state. So, it appears Dearborn may go for Trump in the coming weeks.

By the time I caught my return flight back to San Francisco, I was exhausted. TV and radio ads (rental car radio on during freeway drives), yard signs, billboards and window signs, this is one helluva time for Americans to experience democracy in action. This is what democracy looks like.

Prediction: Michigan ultimately will go Red, for Trump.