The Abandon Harris Campaign launched on Thursday in Dearborn as a continuation of the Abandon Biden Campaign.

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The campaign aims to change the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris regarding Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza — seeking a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo.

Michigan Co-chair Farah Khan says the Abandon Harris campaign is looking for actual policies, not just words and inaction.

“We will hold the Harris Biden administration accountable for their role in this atrocity,” Khan said at a press event outside the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn on Thursday. “Accountability means more than words. It means actions. We must be clear — they have had their chance, and they have failed us.”

Listen: Interview with Farah Khan, co-chair of Abandon Harris for Michigan

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 41,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed and more than 95,000 injured during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 — the day Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel, taking 250 hostages.

Campaign leaders say the Abandon Harris movement is active in at least nine states — including swing states like Michigan. Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam, national co-chair of the campaign, says they are asking voters not to vote for either party’s candidate.

“Our vote is magnanimous,” Salam said. “It’s a moment for democracy to triumph, for us to change the political landscape.”

The campaign plans to endorse a third party candidate soon.

Reporting by Nargis Rahman, WDET

Other headlines for Friday, Sept. 13, 2024:

• Henry Ford Hospital held a groundbreaking on Thursday for its $2.2 billion Detroit campus expansion, anchored by a new 1.2 million-square-foot hospital facility on the south side of West Grand Boulevard
• The city of Detroit’s Youth Affairs Team and Detroit ACE are hosting an artist showcase on Friday, Sept. 20, called “Young, Gifted and Woke.”
• Usher’s Past Present and Future Tour is continuing its run through the Motor City Friday at Little Caesars Arena. On his way there he stopped by the Boys and Girls Club of Detroit to help highlight the lack of access some youth have across the country to quality after-school programs.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a last-ditch federal lawsuit Thursday in an effort to get his name off Michigan’s presidential ballot. That’s as local clerks are already finalizing ballots for printing.

Kennedy exhausted his appeals in Michigan courts before turning now to federal courts — even though the state’s legal deadline to get ballots to printers is passed. Angela Benander, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, told the Michigan Public Radio Network the filing will not change current plans.

“Clerks are currently in the process of printing ballots to ensure absentee ballots will be delivered to voters by the federal deadlines,” said Benander. She said those deadlines ensure absentee ballots are in the mail to overseas and military voters in time for them to be returned and counted.

The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday held Kennedy’s name would remain on the ballot, which settled the matter in state courts.

Kennedy has had mixed results in having his name stricken from ballots in states where he has already qualified. He suspended his campaign last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

Michigan Secretary of State said Kennedy waited until it was too late to withdraw as the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. Kennedy sought and accepted the minor party nomination as a way to get on the Michigan ballot. Withdrawing now would leave the party without a presidential candidate.

But in the lawsuit filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for Michigan’s eastern district, Kennedy argued the state is violating his constitutional freedom of speech and freedom of association rights.

“Keeping Mr. Kennedy off the ballot will also cause no harm to the public,” said Kennedy’s filing. “Conversely, leaving Mr. Kennedy’s name will serve only to mislead voters, upend election and ballot integrity…”

In the filing, Kennedy also complained that he is being held to a different standard than President Joe Biden, who exited the presidential race on July 21 and cleared the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to be nominated.

But there is a critical distinction. Biden was in the race and the presumptive nominee prior to stepping aside. But he was never formally nominated and, thus, never accepted the nomination.

Harris was waiting in the wings when Biden withdrew his name from consideration following a disastrous debate performance against Trump. She was formally nominated by the Democratic National Convention on August 6th, which placed her on Michigan’s ballot.

The state will now have an opportunity to respond to Kennedy’s lawsuit and motion to remove his name. But the court does not have to accept the case or take any other action.

Michigan Republicans and Democrats exchanged barbs Monday over Chinese investment in the U.S. — and in Michigan in particular.

Michigan Republicans accused prominent state Democrats of providing a “safe zone” for companies fronting for the Chinese Communist party.

The criticism is tied to recent projects involving companies planning manufacturing investments in Michigan.

The main criticism involves a planned electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids. The company behind the project, Gotion, is a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. The articles of association of the parent company say it must “carry out party activities in accordance with the constitution of the Communist party of China,” but a spokesperson for the company has said there’s distance between the Chinese government and the company’s business decisions.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former congressman Mike Rogers accused his Democratic opponent, Representative Elissa Slotkin, of playing a role in attracting the project to west Michigan.

“I can tell you as a member of Congress for those seven terms, never once — never once — did I see an elected official sign a non-disclosure agreement for any issue, let alone a company that is tied to the communist party of China,” said Rogers.

A spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin called Rogers’ allegations a “false attack,” insisting Slotkin has never signed any agreement involving a project connected to the Chinese government.

Slotkin has introduced legislation giving the federal government additional authority to investigate Chinese-backed business dealings in the United States.

Democrats counter that Republicans are trying to distract from Rogers’ own history of working with U.S. companies that have partnered with Chinese businesses.

Rogers worked as a security advisor for AT&T and a risk analyst for Nokia (a Finnish company) while those companies had loose ties to the Chinese telecom company Huawei.

Rogers has defended his business dealings since leaving Congress, insisting his record shows he has long fought against Chinese intellectual property theft and other threats to the U.S.

Rogers and Slotkin are running to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat could prove pivotal for deciding which party will control the Senate.

In their first and perhaps only debate, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris described the state of the country in distinctly different ways. As the two traded jabs, some old false and misleading claims emerged along with some new ones.

Here’s a look.

Trump overstates his economic record

TRUMP: “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. … They’ve destroyed the economy.”

THE FACTS: This is an exaggeration. The economy grew much faster under Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan than it did under Trump. The broadest measure of economic growth, gross domestic product, rose 4% a year for four straight years under Clinton. The fastest growth under Trump was 3% in 2018. The economy shrank 2.2% in 2020, at the end of Trump’s presidency. And a higher proportion of American adults had jobs under Clinton than under Trump. During the Biden-Harris administration, the economy expanded 5.8% in 2021, though much of that reflected a bounce-back from COVID.

Trump’s record on manufacturing jobs examined

HARRIS: “We have created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs. … Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs.”

THE FACTS: Those statements are missing context.

There were 12,188,000 manufacturing employees in the U.S. when Biden took office in January 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Preliminary numbers for August 2024 put that number at 12,927,000. That’s a difference of 739,000 — close to the 800,000 number Harris has cited.

Also of note is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of manufacturing employees dropped steeply in April 2020, by more than 1.3 million. Discounting that decline, there were only 206,000 more manufacturing employees in August than there were in March 2020, prior to the pandemic.

Inflation has gone down

TRUMP: “They had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country, because I’ve never seen a worse period of time.”

THE FACTS: While praising the strength of the economy under his presidency, Donald Trump misstated the inflation rate under Biden. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020. It’s now seeing a downward trend. The most recent data shows that as of July it had fallen to 2.9%. Other historical periods have seen higher inflation, which hit more than 14% in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.

Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025

HARRIS: “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.”

THE FACTS: Trump has said he doesn’t know about Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for another Republican presidential administration.

The plan was written up by many of his former aides and allies, but Trump has never said he’ll implement the roughly 900-page guide if he’s elected again. He has said it’s not related to his campaign.

Trump on abortions ‘after birth’

TRUMP: “Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is okay.”

THE FACTS: Walz has said no such thing. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.

Abortion rights advocates say terms like “late-term abortions” attempt to stigmatize abortions later in pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are exceedingly rare. In 2020, less than 1% of abortions in the United States were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump’s taxing and spending plan examined

HARRIS: “What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump’s plan would actually explode the deficit.”

THE TRUTH: The Penn-Wharton Budget Model did find that Trump’s tax and spending plans would significantly expand the deficit by $5.8 trillion over ten years. But it also found that Harris’ plans would increase the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the same period.

Harris’ record on fracking examined

TRUMP: “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day 1.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s statement ignores the fact that without a law approved by Congress, a president can only ban fracking on federal lands.

The federal government owns about 2% of Pennsylvania’s total land, and it is not clear how much of that is suitable for oil or gas drilling.

Republicans have criticized Harris for “flip-flopping” on the issue, noting that Harris said in the 2020 campaign that she opposed fracking, a drilling technique that is widely used in Pennsylvania and other states.

Harris has since said repeatedly that she won’t ban fracking if elected, and she reiterated that in Tuesday’s debate.

Trump shares inflated numbers around migrants and crime

TRUMP: “When you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly — whereas, I believe, 21 million people, not the 15 people say, and I think it’s a lot higher than the 21 — that’s bigger than New York State … and just look at what they’re doing to our country. They’re criminals, many of these people are criminals, and that’s bad for our economy too.”

FACTS: Trump’s figures are wildly inflated. The Border Patrol made 56,408 arrests of people crossing the border illegally from Mexico in July, the latest monthly figure available. Since Biden took office, the Border Patrol made about 7.1 million border arrests, though the number of people is considerably lower because many of those arrests were repeat crossers.

The Biden administration also permitted legal entry for about 765,000 people on an online app called CBP One at land crossings in Mexico through July. It allowed another 520,000 from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come by air with financial sponsors. Additionally, an unknown number of people crossed the border illegally and eluded capture.

That doesn’t come close to “millions and millions of people” monthly. …. It is also unproven that “many of these people are criminals.”

There have been high-profile, heinous crimes committed by immigrants. But FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants. In 1931, the Wickersham Commission did not find any evidence supporting a connection between immigration and increased crime, and many studies since then have reached similar conclusions.

Trump repeats false claims that noncitizens are being sought to vote

TRUMP: “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

THE FACTS: In recent months, Trump and other Republicans have been repeating the baseless claim that Democrats want migrants to come into the country illegally so they will vote.

There’s no evidence for this, nor is there any evidence that noncitizens illegally vote in significant numbers in this country.

Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens already is illegal in federal elections. It can be punishable by fines, prison time and even deportation. While noncitizens have cast ballots, studies show it’s incredibly rare, and states regularly audit their voter lists to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.

Trump’s comments suggest that not speaking English is somehow prohibitive for voting in the U.S. — and that’s also not the case. In fact, the Voting Rights Act requires certain states to provide election materials in other languages depending on the voting-age population’s needs.

Trump misrepresents crime statistics

TRUMP, criticizing the Biden administration: “Crime is through the roof.”

THE FACTS: In fact, FBI data has shown a downward trend in violent crime since a coronavirus pandemic spike. Violent crime surged during the pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records

Violent crime was down 6% in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, according to FBI data released in March. Murders were down 13%. New FBI statistics released in June show the overall violent crime rate declined 15% in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year. One expert has cautioned, however, that those 2024 figures are preliminary and may overstate the actual reduction in crime.

Trump endorses false rumor about immigrants eating pets

TRUMP: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats… They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

THE FACTS: There’s no evidence to support the claim, which Trump and his campaign have used to argue immigrants are committing crimes at a higher rate than others.

Authorities in Ohio have said there are no credible or detailed reports to support Trump’s claim.

Jobs created under the Biden administration

TRUMP: “Just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.”

THE FACTS: This is a mischaracterization of the government’s process of counting jobs. Every year the Labor Department issues a revision of the number of jobs added in a 12-month period from April through March in the previous year. The adjustment is made because the government’s initial job counts are based on surveys of businesses. The revision is then based on actual job counts from unemployment insurance files that are compiled later. The revision is compiled by career government employees with little involvement by politically appointed officials.

National Guard soldiers on Jan. 6

TRUMP, speaking about the Jan. 6 insurrection: “I said I’d like to give you 10,000 National Guard or soldiers. They rejected me. Nancy Pelosi rejected me.”

THE FACTS: That’s false. Pelosi does not direct the National Guard.

Further, as the Capitol came under attack, she and then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell called for military assistance, including from the National Guard.

The Capitol Police Board makes the decision on whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol. It is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol.

The board decided not to call the guard ahead of the insurrection but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later.

There is no evidence that either Pelosi or McConnell directed the security officials not to call the guard beforehand.

Trump falsely claims China is building ‘massive’ auto plants in Mexico

TRUMP: “They’re building big auto plants in Mexico, in many cases owned by China.”

THE FACTS: It’s not the first time Trump has claimed the Biden administration is allowing Chinese automakers to build factories just across the border in Mexico.

At present, though, industry experts say they know of no such plants under construction, and there’s only one small Chinese auto assembly factory operating in Mexico. It’s run by a company called JAC that builds inexpensive vehicles from kits for sale in that country.

Trump falsely claims evidence shows he won in 2020

TRUMP: “There’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it.”

THE FACTS: The election was not stolen. The authorities who have reviewed the election — including Trump’s own attorney general — have concluded the election was fair.

Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 was not particularly close. He won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and the popular vote by more than seven million ballots. Recounts in key states affirmed Biden’s victory, and lawsuits challenging the results were unsuccessful.

Trump claims Putin endorsed Harris

TRUMP: “Putin endorsed her last week, said ‘I hope she wins.’”

THE FACTS: Russian President Vladimir Putin did wryly claim last week that Harris was his preferred candidate, but intelligence officials have dismissed the comment as not serious.

U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia favors Trump, who has openly praised Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.

Harris takes Trump’s ‘bloodbath’ comment out of context

HARRIS: “Donald Trump, the candidate, has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if this and the outcome of this election is not to his liking. Let’s turn the page on that.”

THE FACTS: Trump delivered the line at a speech in March in Ohio in which he was talking about the impact of offshoring on the American auto industry and his plans to increase tariffs on foreign-made cars. It was in reference to the auto industry that he warned of a “bloodbath” if his proposals aren’t enacted.

“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump said.

Trump inflates numbers around new military equipment left in Afghanistan

TRUMP, on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan: “We wouldn’t have left $85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind.”

THE FACTS: That number is significantly inflated, according to reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the conflict.

The $85 billion figure resembles a number from a July 30 quarterly report from SIGAR, which outlined that the U.S. has invested about $83 billion to build, train and equip Afghan security forces since 2001. That funding included troop pay, training, operations and infrastructure along with equipment and transportation over two decades, according to SIGAR reports and Dan Grazier, a defense policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight.

Only about $18 billion of that sum went toward equipping Afghan forces between 2002 and 2018, a June 2019 SIGAR report showed.

No one knows the exact value of the U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment the Taliban have secured, defense officials have confirmed it is significant.

Trump misrepresents key facts of the Central Park Five case

TRUMP: “They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ’well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately … And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty.”

THE FACTS: Trump misstated key details of the case while defending a newspaper ad he placed about two weeks after the April 1989 attack in which he called for bringing back the death penalty. Trump wrongly stated that the victim was killed and that the wrongly accused suspects had pleaded guilty.

Trump appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions that the men — teenagers at the time — said they made to police under duress. They later recanted, pleaded not guilty in court and were convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

The victim, Trisha Meili, was in a coma for 12 days after the attack but ultimately survived. She testified in court against the wrongly accused suspects, who are now known as the Exonerated Five. In 2002, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime and said he was the lone assailant. DNA testing matched Reyes to the attack, but because of the statute of limitations he could not be charged in connection with it.

Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin, David Klepper, Ali Swenson, Matthew Daly, Chris Rugaber and Tom Krisher contributed to this story.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson will tell a congressional panel that “lies,” threats to election workers and foreign interference are big concerns heading into the final weeks of this year’s political campaigns.

According to a copy of her testimony shared with the Michigan Public Radio Network, Benson will say that, although she is an elected Democrat, the role of the secretary of state or other election officials is not partisan or political.

“But it is a role that increasingly forces us — whether we consider ourselves Republicans, Democrats, or independents — to endure threats, harassment, false and malicious attacks on our character and integrity,” she said. “Why? Because of lies — about our work, about the security of our elections and our own integrity.”

Benson will appear alongside a bipartisan group of six secretaries of state, many from states considered competitive in the presidential race. Benson’s statement includes warnings about foreign interference in U.S. elections, and threats and harassment faced by election workers. Her statement also includes concerns about underfunding of elections and the need to maintain and update voting technology.

It is likely Benson can expect to face some tough questions from the Republican-controlled House Committee on Administration.

Read more:

• Benson, election officials hail recent reforms at press conference
• County clerks on security, early voting in the 2024 general election
• What Jocelyn Benson has been doing to protect Michigan’s elections

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name will be on the state’s presidential ballot.

This appears to settle the legal battle and allows local clerks to start printing absentee ballots to mail to overseas and military voters. Kennedy is the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. But he tried to remove his name from the ballot after suspending his campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

The case pitted Kennedy against election officials in the Secretary of State’s office who determined Kennedy flouted Michigan’s deadlines and election standards.

The order in the case was unsigned but in written statements, there was clearly a division between justices nominated by the Democratic and Republican parties.

Justice Elizabeth Welch, who was nominated by Democrats, wrote in a concurring statement that Kennedy had plenty of time to withdraw and his late exit left the Natural Law Party of Michigan without a nominee after Kennedy sought and accepted the convention nomination.

“Plaintiff waited more than four months before asking defendant to remove his name from the ballot. When plaintiff made his request, defendant faced a deadline for ballot printing that was two weeks away,” she wrote. “Additionally, the Natural Law Party, which opposed plaintiff’s efforts to remove himself from the ballot, had no opportunity to field a candidate and faced considerable prejudice.”

In a dissenting opinion, two Republican-nominated justices said the decision will only add to election turmoil.

“The ballots printed as a result of the Court’s decision will have the potential to confuse the voters, distort their choices, and pervert the true popular will and affect the outcome of the election,” said Justices Brian Zahra and David Viviano. “In short, the Court’s ruling will do nothing to rebuild the public’s trust in the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”

There was some urgency to the case since the deadline to finalize ballots was last week so absentee ballots can be sent to military and overseas voters.

A court majority also ruled in a separate, unsigned opinion, that a paperwork error on petitions will not bar academic and activist Cornel West from the Michigan presidential ballot as an independent.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released results of a poll of American Muslim voters.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and the Green Party’s Jill Stein are tied at around 29%, with 16% of Muslim voters stating they are undecided and 11% planning to vote for former President Donald Trump.

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CAIR conducted the election survey two days after the Democratic National Convention ended last month. The organization said 1,500 people responded to the survey out of a random sample of 40,000 Muslim voters across the nation.

The survey results show that Stein has more support in Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan — while Harris is favored in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

There are an estimated 2.5 million registered Muslim voters in the United States.

More headlines for Sept. 9, 2024:

• American Muslim Diversity Association breaks ground mosque expansion in Sterling Heights
• D’Artillery hosting global artisan pop-up experiences in Hamtramck
• ArabCon kicks off this week at the Ford Performing Arts Center in Dearborn

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

One of the more interesting — and expensive — Congressional races this year is in Michigan’s 7th district.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin currently represents the district, but is now running for U.S. Senate, leaving a vacancy in mid-Michigan.

The Cook Political report lists the seat as a toss-up.

Two years ago, Republican Tom Barrett lost to Slotkin and now he’s trying his luck again. Former Michigan State Senator Curtis Hertel Jr. easily won the Democratic primary.

At the latest campaign finance filing deadline in July, Hertel had a clear lead in cash — with over $3 million on hand. Barrett hasn’t raised as much, but is in the process of rolling out a TV ad campaign with a helicopter, dad jokes and dad jeans.

Hertel’s message is more about sanity — and moving away from partisan bickering.

“I’m not going to say I don’t want Democrats to control Congress,” Hertel said. “But what I care more about is having reasonable humans that are willing to work together and actually try to solve problems.”

One of the bigger problems to solve is stagnating wages in the face of record high inflation that has driven up cost since 2021.

“You used to be able to work a job at a factory and be able to raise a family and send your kids to college and take a vacation every year,” states Hertel. “That doesn’t exist for many people now.”

Hertel cited the ballooning salaries of CEOs as playing into income inequality.

He also proposes a middle class tax cut and negotiating lower drug prices.

“We are the only country in the world that does not use the power of the federal government to negotiate drug prices down for its people,” said Hertel.

As they do in other elections, the issues of healthcare and reproductive rights loom large.

Barrett told WDET in July that the right to an abortion is the law of the land in Michigan and any change to that wouldn’t come from Congress — it would come from voters in the state. The matter was largely settled following the 2022 state Constitutional referendum that passed with 56% of the vote.

WDET asked Hertel if he believed Barrett.

“Not at all, and voters in this district shouldn’t believe him either,” Hertel replied. “He has a very specific record on this.”

The Michigan Democratic Party is facing a lawsuit over the race for its University of Michigan Board of Regents nomination.

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The race was decided at the party’s Aug. 24 nominating convention in Lansing.

According to official party results, civil rights attorney Huwaida Arraf lost her bid for the party’s nomination for the U of M Board of Regents.

But Arraf said there were irregularities she’d like explained. She said her lawsuit is because party leaders haven’t provided election data she’s been asking for.

“If there’s something [that] happened that we don’t understand, then just tell us,” Arraf told reporters during a press call Thursday.

Arraf’s claims include that more people voted in the race than were credentialed and that the party barred her campaign from observing the vote tabulation process during the August convention.

One source of confusion was the party’s weighted voting system in which “each county’s (or portion thereof) delegates within a multi-county Congressional District Convention, caucus, or meeting, or at the State Convention, have a voting strength proportional to the number of Democratic voters from that county (or portion) at the last General Election relative to the total number of Democratic voters in the District or the state, regardless of how many delegates are present at the convention, caucus, or meeting.”

A press release sent by Arraf’s campaign earlier this week included screenshots that the campaign said show email exchanges with party chair Lavora Barnes listing out raw vote totals and weight equivalent.

In her lawsuit, Arraf is asking Michigan’s 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County to bar the race results from being finalized to the general election ballot until “a full and transparent investigation or audit of the University of Michigan Regents vote-counting process” takes place.

In a statement, a Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson said, “We are waiting to review the complaint filed with the Ingham County Clerk and look forward to following the proper legal process.”

Arraf had entered the race later than her two opponents, whom were already serving on the board and seeking renomination. She came in with support of pro-Palestinian activists.

While talking to reporters, Arraf acknowledged she very well may have lost the race. But she accused the party of sending the wrong message to her supporters by not being transparent.

“Encouraging young people, encouraging minorities, encouraging historically disenfranchised people to get involved in the voting process, what we hear over and over and over again is, ‘What does it matter? My vote doesn’t count anyway.’ And this is exactly the message that they’re getting now,” Arraf said.

According to court records, Ingham County Judge James Jamo has sent a first hearing in the case for Friday at 9 a.m.

Reporting by Colin Jackson, MPRN

Other headlines for Friday, Sept. 6, 2024:

•  The city of Detroit is now accepting applications from senior citizen homeowners who wish to apply for a discount on their Solid Waste Fee for their home.
• This Sunday will be the last day to check out the Michigan Science Center’s “Above and Beyond” exhibition offering a 360-degree view of Earth in Orbit.
• The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is seeking applications for the BOPC Youth Advisory Panel. Applications are due Sept. 30.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

As polls and political pundits work to predict the still evolving presidential race, an expert in Michigan says if the vote is close, one group “could potentially decide the state.”

Erick Gonzalez Jeunke is a political analyst specializing in Latinx politics at Michigan State University. In an interview with the Michigan Public Radio Network, he said the state’s 400,000 eligible Latinos voters could hold the key to winning in Michigan, if the campaigns reach out to them.

Listen: Political analyst says Michigan Latino voters ‘could potentially decide the state’

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michelle Jokisch Polo, WKAR News: In 2020 Joe Biden won the presidential election in Michigan by fewer than 200,000 votes. With more than 300,000 eligible Latino voters in Michigan, this group could prove vital in the state. How are parties engaging this voting bloc?

Erick Gonzalez Jeunke: I haven’t seen a lot of engagement for specifically this voting block. What that means is what they should have been doing and what I haven’t seen a lot of, but a lot of this happens behind the scenes, obviously, are registration drives. One of the gaps for Latino voters nationally, and then of course here in Michigan, is not just turning out to vote, but being registered to vote. A large part of that gap — about 70% of eligible voters — are even registered to vote. And so that’s part of the big gap. I mean, this is one of the lingering things, if you account for that, once you just look at registered voters, Latinos turn out at about the same rates as other groups, but the gap is really in getting individuals registered to vote. So that requires a lot of work, that requires the parties caring about these voters. Now when we get into this part of the season, a lot of the parties both nationally and here in Michigan, either leave that up to other groups, or they say, ‘look, we have limited resources. We can’t go out and mobilize people who aren’t registered.’ So a lot of that work takes place in the years and months that lead up to these elections.

MJP: This time around, it seems that there may have been fewer young democrats showing up to vote like they did in 2020, in the state primary election. Why do you think this is and tell us about the young Latino vote in November?

EGJ: I think it’s probably due to a not very competitive set of federal races, and then earlier in the year, a not very competitive presidential primary. But it’s also just an enthusiasm gap. We’re right in the middle of seeing this change with the change at the top of the ticket from Biden to Harris. I was just looking at some national polling data today, and what’s happening here in the Midwest and in Michigan is that Harris has seemed to have activated — particularly younger voters’ — enthusiasm about this race. So paying attention, getting excited, and that excitement turns into actual voting. It can turn into knocking on doors. It can turn into working for the campaign. So it’s still a little bit early to see what the overall effect of this is, but the early signs indicate that a change at the top of the ticket may reverse some of this lack of enthusiasm that we saw in the primaries, and particularly for younger Latinos.

MJP: How important do you think the Latino voting bloc is for the state’s general election?

EGJ: It depends how close the race is. It could potentially decide the state, and yet that depends on if the parties do the work to mobilize and get Latinos who aren’t registered, registered to get folks to turn out. So unfortunately, we won’t know until after the election. And it comes down to how close is Michigan actually going to be? It’s looking a lot less close than it did a month ago. But things could change, and we could go back to a really close race, if I had to put money on it right now, that it’s probably not going to be as close as we thought it was a month ago. But if it’s close, the Latino vote could be really, really important, and the Democratic and  Republican parties could say, ‘boy, we really should have done more work to mobilize Latino voters in Michigan, because we could have taken it.’ And I think both parties would say the same thing about Pennsylvania andWisconsin.

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Erick Gonzalez Jeunke, political analyst specializing in Latinx politics at Michigan State University.

The presidential election is a few months away, and American Muslim voters are weighing out their options for the next president.

Youssef Chouhoud, an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, studies trends involving American Muslim voters. He says this year many American Muslims are concerned about Gaza.

“Certainly one of if not the top, if not for some American Muslims, the only issue that they care about is the crisis in Gaza, and so that holds particularly heavy weight this election cycle,” Chouhoud said.

He says American Muslims are nestled within the American fabric, concerned about the economy, climate change, health care and immigration policies.

After 9/11, Chouhoud says, American Muslims were against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says after 2010, many focused on domestic issues.

But he says that changed after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel — during which Hamas killed 1,200 people — and the invasion of Gaza that followed, where the latest death toll stands at more than 40,000 Palestinians killed.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims view themselves as part of the extended Muslim nation, or the ummah.

“One of the beliefs in Islam is that anything that affects one part of the Muslim ummah affects you as well,” he said.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims also have close connections to Gaza.

“Everybody in the American Muslim context, is probably only one degree removed from somebody in Gaza,” he said.

Chouhoud says American Muslims are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to voting for the next president.

“They don’t, by and large, support a Trump presidency, for the reason that during the Trump administration, and you know, the explicit policies that Trump wanted to and has enacted have negatively affected American Muslims.”

He says many American Muslims say they do not feel like they belong to either Republican or Democratic parties.

“The sense of homelessness, I think, that American Muslims feel politically, is something that weighs heavy on them, and something that you know is going to probably continue from now until they go into the voting booth,” he said.

Chouhoud says things are likely to remain up in the air until the November elections.

Read more:

• DNC hosts first ever panel on Palestinian human rights
• Uncommitted delegates at DNC aim to put pressure on Harris’ Gaza policy
• ‘Uncommitted’ delegates hold DNC sit-in after refusal to allow Palestinian speaker at convention

A Michigan Court of Claims judge acted quickly Tuesday to deny Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s request to be removed from the state’s presidential ballot. That’s after Kennedy suspended his campaign last week to back Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Kennedy wants a court to reverse the determination of election officials in the Secretary of State’s office that he missed the deadline for removing his name as the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. Kennedy is trying to end his candidacy in Michigan and other swing states where he could siphon support from former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

“Plaintiff, a public figure, does not want to represent to the citizens of Michigan that he is vying for their votes for the position of President of the United States,” said Kennedy’s legal filing. “Keeping his name on the ballot against his wishes compels this speech and subjects him to derision, anger, reputational harm, and loss of good will by those who would vote for him based on this speech and later find out their vote was wasted and in vain.”

Kennedy argued the deadline cited by the state elections bureau applies only to down-ballot races and not to candidates for president.

Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates dispatched the case very quickly, noting the urgency of resolving election-related questions this late in the cycle. Yates wrote the law is “clear and conclusive” that election officials in the Secretary of State’s office are not empowered to go along with Kennedy’s “self-serving act”

“Elections are not just games,” he wrote, “and the Secretary of State is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel praised the ruling.

“Michigan election law in this instance is unambiguous and the Department of State made the correct decision,” she said in a written statement. “…The law does not apply less because a candidate changes their plans. I appreciate the Court making a quick and wise ruling on this matter.”

Kennedy’s Michigan attorneys did not reply to a request for comment or plans to appeal.

If history is any guide, it is highly unlikely that Kennedy would win Michigan’s 15 electoral votes. The last third-party candidate to win Michigan was former President Teddy Roosevelt, who left the Republican Party to run as the candidate of the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party in 1912. That helped Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson unseat Republican incumbent President William Howard Taft.

Like everyone else who is eligible to vote, young people matter in politics. But the difference between young people and everyone else is that they turn out to vote in much lower numbers.  

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That’s true for almost every generation of young Americans. But that doesn’t mean politicians don’t try to get them to the polls anyway.  

Kamala Harris’ campaign is working hard to get young people to vote in higher numbers during this presidential election. That’s why Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost and Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield are meeting with voters at a Detroit Cafe on Friday.

To talk more about local efforts to turn out young people for Harris, and how young Detroiters feel about the Democratic presidential ticket, BridgeDetroit reporter Malachi Barrett joined The Metro. 

Use the media player above to listen to the interview with Barrett.

More headlines from The Metro on Aug. 30, 2024:

• Detroit Documenter Meghan Rutigliano and Coordinator Noah Kincade joined the show to give us a better sense of Detroit’s Board of Zoning Appeals and its member training session that took place on Aug. 26. 
• The Carbon Athletic Club is one of those places in Detroit that makes you wish the walls could talk. The members-only club has nearly 80 years of history. WDET’s Jack Filbrandt bellied up to the bar with Club President MaryBeth Beaudry to discuss the history they’re preserving and the service they provide the community today.  
• A collective of social justice organizations have teamed up to create a space for art and justice to thrive in Detroit. Kwaku Osei, executive director of the LOVE Building, joined the show to discuss its mission.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.