Want to get blacks to discover Trump: “Coolest”

– God gave us a platform.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewel’s church, 180 Church in Detroit, is one of the few that has had Donald Trump visit – and now he wants to educate the parishioners before the presidential election.

A few miles away, retiree Terrilyne Bradley-Beth is knocking on the door of Kamala Harris in an election-hungry Michigan.

Pastor Sewell will host in the fabric flower decorated office behind the altar at 180 Church between two services. It’s only been a month or so since he preached at the Republican convention, but he points out that he is not formally endorsing any presidential candidate. In the United States, it is forbidden for religious communities to support political candidates and everyone is welcome to his church.

– Actually, I don’t care who is president. Jesus is the one who leads us, he says.

– 90 percent of the residents here are Democrats and that’s okay. But I’ve always been a Republican. I am against abortion and believe in traditional marriage.

Coolest guy?

Sewell says most people in the church’s neighborhood are like him: Socially conservative and worried about the economy — actually Republicans, in his words. But, he argues, blacks often vote based on how family and friends vote.

– The vast majority have a parent or a grandmother who made them promise to vote democratically. Some don’t even know why they do it.

Sewell dismisses the fact that democratic presidents have historically been in the breach for the civil rights movement or that many blacks distance themselves from the Republicans’ Donald Trump because he expressed himself as racist.

– It is a lie. He (Trump) was the coolest guy before he became a politician, everybody loved him. He gave money to (black politicians and activists) Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and was friends with Oprah Winfrey, he argues.

– That Trump came to our church worries the Democrats. If they lose just 25 percent of the black vote, they won’t win any elections.

In the “triangle of death”

On the rickety streets around 180 Church, warehouses and apartment buildings fall into disrepair. Reverend Sewell emphasizes that Detroit and its surroundings are hard and deprived. Actually something of a “triangle of death”.

– People here are busy surviving: taking care of their children, keeping housing and jobs, affording food and gas. How will they have time to keep up with the news? Politics is for the privileged.

Against this background, he and activist Ramon Jackson have started the education project Souls to the Polls. It aims to educate Detroit blacks about the US electoral process. But they are not trying to influence voters, they emphasize.

– When knowledge and facts are presented, they will know how to vote, says Jackson, who joined the office.

– Detroit has always been democratically governed, but that has not helped us. I’ve lived here for 46 years and we’ve lost hundreds of thousands of people to crime, evictions, and bankruptcy.

What do you think of the Democrats’ Kamala Harris?

– She has had her chance. She has been in the White House for three and a half years.

Rhetoric decisive

The discussion at the church mirrors the question being debated in the US media and likely behind closed doors at presidential campaign headquarters: Do the nation’s minorities — blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans — still support Democrats at higher rates? And in such cases why?

As many as 83 percent of registered black voters currently see themselves as Democrats, according to a recent survey by Pew Research. But another study by Gallup shows that the Democrats’ advantage among both blacks and so-called Hispanics has declined by about 20 percentage points in recent years, votes that can be decisive in a swing state like Michigan. For years, Republican strategists have emphasized that their party’s values ​​should be attractive to these minority groups, who are often conservative and strongly religious.

Educator and Democrat Ken Snapp, who is running for Detroit’s school board this year, says there is some grain of truth in the reasoning.

– Some values ​​are correct. But when the Republicans spread racism and hateful rhetoric and ban books, we blacks go back to the Democrats, he says.

– Politics is about feelings. Racism was there before Trump, but worsened during his time.

“Know what they’re doing”

In Detroit’s Oak Groove, where many blacks live, it is clear that Kamala Harris cannot count on support just because she is a woman or identifies as black. Voters TT meets highlight the abortion issue, education and economic equality as decisive for how they intend to vote this autumn.

Economist April Anderson, who runs the bakery Good Cakes and Bakes that Harris visited in 2020, is one of them. In previous elections she has voted both Republican and Democratic, but this year she has decided on the vice president.

– It is about politics, mainly the conditions for us entrepreneurs and about the Gaza war. The fact that she is a black woman does not guarantee anything, however, I can feel that as such she understands my perspective a little better, says Anderson and folds her apron.

The women’s perspective is all the more important for retiree Terrilyne Bradley-Beth, who previously worked at the tax authority and in the automotive industry. In recent weeks, she has been knocking on doors almost daily as a volunteer for the Harris campaign.

– Women know what they are doing. It is high time to get someone into a decision-making position, she says sharply.

Bradley-Beth mentions abortion rights and the immigration issue (“everyone is an immigrant here”) as particularly important and tells how she knocks three times on every house. If the door opens, she stresses the importance of getting out and voting, especially here in Michigan, and asks if people have made up their minds.

– Most young people are enthusiastic. But I am surprised that a large percentage of older people say they are unsure or like Donald Trump. Many say it’s because he sent out the covid checks.

FACT That’s why Detroit’s blacks are important in the US election

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