Michigan set a record in the 2024 election. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced that 79% of eligible voters in the state cast their ballots — the highest turnout in the state’s history. However, turnout in Detroit decreased — and nationwide, nearly 13 million voters stayed home.

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The efforts to expand voter rolls are working, but why aren’t they connecting in places like Detroit? Mario Marrow, political consultant and president of Mario Marrow and Associates, and Brady Baybeck, professor of political science at Wayne State University, joined Created Equal on Wednesday to unpack the story of turnout on Election Day and what it means for our elections going forward. 

Baybeck pointed out that although many people feel compelled to vote because of a sense of civic duty, voting still comes with personal cost for many people. He stressed the importance of candidates inspiring voters to participate and explained that Trump was very effective at inspiring his base to vote, noting that Democratic messaging to voters could have been more widespread. 

Marrow suggested that Harris had difficulty gaining momentum among voters because Biden dropped out late in the campaign, resulting in low turnout in some areas. He also explained that Trump was more successful connecting with his base through his use of TV and social media advertising, whereas the Harris campaign’s focus on knocking on doors and in-person organizing was inefficient at reaching out to an already fatigued voter base. 

“It doesn’t work, you have to move into an area of technology, you have to move into getting to your constituents with an emotional affect,” Marrow said. 

Use the media player above to listen to the full interview.

Guests:

• Mario Marrow is the president of Mario Marrow and Associates.
• Brady Baybeck is a professor of political science at Wayne State University

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks to the nation in what will be his first appearance on camera in the aftermath of Donald Trump ’s decisive victory over Kamala Harris.

Control over the U.S. House of Representatives hangs in the balance, teetering between a Republican or Democratic majority with dozens of races left to be called.

The Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate early Wednesday.

Here’s the latest election news from the Associated Press:

Independent Angus King wins reelection to the US Senate from Maine

Independent Sen. Angus King won a third term in the U.S. Senate representing Maine on Thursday, turning back challenges from a former Republican state party chair and a Democratic environmental activist.

The 80-year-old former governor would be the oldest senator from Maine to serve if he completes his term, which ends in 2030, but he wasn’t dogged by questions about his age like President Joe Biden, the former Democratic presidential nominee. King caucuses with Democrats and was first elected to the Senate in 2012. The Associated Press declared King the winner at 10:14 a.m. EST.

Here’s how 5 key demographic groups voted in 2024

Donald Trump won the presidency after holding tight to his core base of voters and slightly expanding his coalition to include several groups that have traditionally been part of the Democratic base. That finding comes from AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide that shows what issues mattered to voters in this election.

Trump picked up a small but significant share of Black and Hispanic voters and made narrow gains with men and women. As Trump chipped away at parts of the Democratic coalition, Vice President Kamala Harris wasn’t able to make enough of her own gains.

Trump succeeded in locking down his traditionally older, white base of voters, and he slightly expanded his margins with other groups into a winning coalition.

Read more about how five key demographic groups voted

Many European leaders at summit stress the need for defense self-reliance in wake of Trump’s reelection

Around 50 European leaders on Thursday called for a stronger defense posture across the continent that no longer necessitates a fundamental dependence on Washington as they gave a guarded welcome to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The European Political Community summit on Thursday in Hungary’s capital of Budapest reassessed trans-Atlantic relations in the hope that Trump’s second U.S. presidency will avoid the strife of his first administration.

“He was elected by the American people. He will defend the American interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the other leaders, adding that it was not the role of European Union leaders to “comment on the election … to wonder if it is good or not.”

“The question is whether we are willing to defend the European interest. It is the only question. It is our priority,” Macron said.

There are concerns, too, that the robust military aid Ukraine has enjoyed under President Joe Biden will be cut under Trump, particularly if Republicans take control of the House.

Read more about how European leaders are responding to Trump’s election

Feds set to cut interest rates again amid post-election uncertainty

Federal Reserve officials are poised Thursday to reduce their key interest rate for a second straight time, responding to a steady slowdown of inflation pressures that exasperated many Americans and contributed to Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

Yet the Fed’s future moves are now more uncertain in the aftermath of the election, given that Trump’s economic proposals have been widely flagged as potentially inflationary. His election has also raised the specter of meddling by the White House in the Fed’s policy decisions, with Trump having proclaimed that as president he should have a voice in the central bank’s interest rate decisions.

The Fed has long guarded its status as an independent institution able to make difficult decisions about borrowing rates, free from political interference. Yet during his previous term in the White House, Trump publicly attacked Chair Jerome Powell after the Fed raised rates to fight inflation, and he may do so again.

Read more about interest rate cuts

FACT FOCUS: A multimillion-vote gap between 2020 and 2024 fuels false election narratives

Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, social media users began pushing two conflicting narratives to suggest election fraud, one that revived false claims by Trump that the 2020 vote was stolen from him and the other questioning how Vice President Kamala Harris could have received so many fewer votes in 2024 than President Joe Biden in 2020.

Both narratives hinge on a supposed 20 million vote gap between Harris and Biden.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: President Joe Biden won approximately 20 million more votes in the 2020 election than Vice President Kamala Harris earned in the 2024 race, proving either that Trump has cheated his way to a second term or that there was widespread fraud four years ago.

THE FACTS: The claims are unfounded. Votes from Tuesday’s presidential election are still being counted, so any comparison with previous races would not be accurate. In addition, election officials and agencies monitoring the vote have reported no significant issues with Tuesday’s election. Claims of widespread fraud in 2020 have been debunked countless times.

Read more on this fact focus

Trump’s return elicits both worry and hope among Iranians

Iranians, like many around the world, are divided on what Donald Trump’s next presidency will bring: Some foresee an all-out war between Tehran and Washington, particularly as other conflicts rage in the region. Others hold out hope that America’s 47th president might engage in unexpected diplomacy as he did with North Korea.

But nearly all believe something will change in the U.S.-Iran relationship.

And while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, has repeatedly expressed his own disgust with Trump, Iran’s new reformist president has kept the door open to talks with Trump to seek relief from international sanctions to buoy a cratering economy. The Iranian rial, in a free fall for years, hit its lowest value against the dollar on Wednesday before slightly recovering.

Read more about the response in Iran to Trump’s election win

What could US diplomacy look like under Trump?

Trump’s second term could realign U.S. diplomacy away from traditional international alliances and more toward populist, authoritarian politicians, according to both those leaders and outside observers.

Among them are:

1. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán

2. President Vladimir Putin of Russia

3. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

4. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

5. President Javier Milei of Argentina

6. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico

Read more about these leaders and their diplomatic approaches

Bernie Sanders calls for reckoning in Democratic Party following election losses

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders did not mince words in a scathing statement Wednesday.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders, Vermont’s senior senator, said.

“First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well,” Sanders said.

Sanders won reelection to a fourth term on Tuesday. He singled out wealth inequality, a slipping standard of living in the U.S., a lack of full health care guarantees and support for Israel’s recent military campaigns as problems Democrats need to focus on. Sanders’s 2016 presidential run was a key factor in pushing the dialogue in the Democratic party to the left. Sanders has built his political career outside — and often criticizing — the Democratic Party, but he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate.

Vatican No. 2: Holy See hopes Trump will help end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza

“At the start of his mandate, we wish him much wisdom because this is the main virtue of rulers according to the Bible,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said, speaking on the sidelines of a Rome conference on Thursday, according to Vatican News.

While acknowledging no one had a “magic wand” to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Parolin said the Holy See hoped Trump “can indeed be an element of détente and pacification in the current conflicts that are bleeding the world.”

Parolin also said he hoped Trump would work to end polarization in the U.S., including over abortion. On migration, he recalled Pope Francis’ call to welcome those fleeing wars, poverty and climate change.

After visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in 2016 and asked about Trump’s call to build a wall, Francis famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants was “not Christian.”

More recently, Francis recommended U.S. voters choose the “lesser evil” when asked how a U.S. Catholic should vote given Trump’s pledge to deport migrants and Vice President Kamala Harris’ support of abortion rights.

The Dalai Lama congratulates Trump on his election win

“I have long admired the United States of America as the champion of democracy, freedom and the rule of law,” the Tibetan spiritual leader said in a message to Trump from the northern Indian town of Dharamshala where he has lived in exile since fleeing Tibet in 1959.

“The Tibetan people and I have been honored to have received the support of respective U.S. Presidents and the American people, in our endeavor to protect and preserve our ancient Buddhist culture — a culture of peace, non-violence and compassion that has the potential to benefit humanity as a whole,” he said.

Turkey’s president spoke with Trump late on Wednesday

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed his hopes in a call for strengthened cooperation between their two countries during Trump’s new term in office, according to a statement from the Turkish president’s office.

Trump’s presidential transition starts now. Here’s how it will work

Trump’s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden. His team is also pledging that the second won’t look much like the first one Trump established after his 2016 victory.

The president-elect now has a 75-day transition period to build out his team before Inauguration Day arrives on Jan. 20. One top item on the to-do list: filling around 4,000 government positions with political appointees, people who are specifically tapped for their jobs by Trump’s team.

That includes everyone from the secretary of state and other heads of Cabinet departments to those selected to serve part-time on boards and commissions. Around 1,200 of those presidential appointments require Senate confirmation, which should be easier with the Senate now shifting to Republican control.

Read more about Trump’s transition

Neither party has a dominant pathway to House majority

The House contests remain a tit-for-tat fight to the finish, with no dominant pathway to the majority for either party. Rarely, if ever, have the two chambers of Congress flipped in opposite directions.

Each side is gaining and losing a few seats, including through the redistricting process, which is the routine redrawing of House seat boundary lines. The process reset seats in North Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama.

Much of the outcome hinges on the West, particularly in California, where a handful of House seats are being fiercely contested, and mail-in ballots arriving a week after the election will still be counted. Hard-fought races around the “blue dot” in Omaha, Nebraska and in far-flung Alaska are among those being watched.

Updates on the last two presidential races left to be called

With a win in Wisconsin early Wednesday, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. But his exact margin of victory is still unclear — there are two presidential races that the AP has yet to call:

Arizona: Officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County said late Wednesday they’ve got more than 700,000 ballots left to count, which means the races for president and senate were too early to call. In all, AP estimates there are at least a million ballots to be added to the results in Arizona. County election officials are expected to firm up those numbers on Thursday.

Nevada: AP estimated late Wednesday evening that there are more than 200,000 ballots left to count in Nevada — including more than 130,000 in Clark County. Given the narrow margins in the races for president and U.S. Senate, both are too early to call. The AP will further review results released by Nevada election officials on Thursday.

Decision Desk updates on key Senate races

Arizona: Officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County said late Wednesday they’ve got more than 700,000 ballots left to count, which means the races for president and senate were too early to call. In all, AP estimates there are at least a million ballots to be added to the results in Arizona. County election officials are expected to firm up those numbers on Thursday.

Nevada: AP estimated late Wednesday evening that there are more than 200,000 ballots left to count in Nevada — including more than 130,000 in Clark County. Given the narrow margins in the races for president and U.S. Senate, both are too early to call. The AP will further review results released by Nevada election officials on Thursday.

Control of the US House hangs in the balance with enormous implications for Trump’s agenda

The U.S. House majority hung in the balance Wednesday, teetering between Republican control that would usher in a new era of unified GOP governance in Washington or a flip to Democrats as a last line of resistance to a Trump second-term White House agenda.

A few individual seats, or even a single one, will determine the outcome. Final tallies will take a while, likely pushing the decision into next week — or beyond.

After Republicans swept into the majority in the U.S. Senate by picking up seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted his chamber would fall in line next.

“Republicans are poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate and House,” Johnson said Wednesday.

Read more about control of Congress

Biden will deliver a Rose Garden address at 11 a.m. ET

The remarks to the nation will be Biden’s first appearance on camera in the aftermath of Trump’s decisive victory over Harris.

How Trump spent his first day as president-elect

Donald Trump spent his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from his defeated opponent, world leaders and President Joe Biden as he began the process of turning his election victory into a government.

Trump was keeping a low profile, staying out of the public eye after addressing supporters in Florida during the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to concede the race and to congratulate him, while Biden invited the man he ousted from the White House four years ago to an Oval Office meeting to prepare to return the keys.

Biden’s chief of staff later Wednesday nudged the Trump team to sign the required federal agreements necessary to begin an orderly presidential transition, a White House official said.

Republican Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

Republicans reclaimed control of the Senate, picking up seats in West Virginia and Ohio. Top House races are focused in New York and California, where Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years.

Follow WDET’s Election 2024 coverage at wdet.org/electionresults.

Here’s the latest:

A unified Republican grip on Washington would set the course for Trump’s agenda

But if Democrats wrest control of the House, it would provide an almost certain backstop, with veto power over the White House.

Trump, speaking early Wednesday at his election night party in Florida, said the results delivered an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” for Republicans.

He called the Senate rout “incredible.” And he praised House Speaker Mike Johnson, who dashed from his own party in Louisiana to join Trump. “He’s doing a terrific job,” Trump said.

Vote counting in some races could go on for days and control of the House is too early to call.

Norwegian group: Trump’s election means US ‘will no longer be a driving force’ in climate fight

Norwegian Bellona environmental group said that “with the election of Donald Trump, the United States will no longer be a driving force globally to reach the 1.5 Celsius target,” referencing the international goal of trying to limit future warming since preindustrial times.

The outcome means the European Union “must take the global leadership role in the climate fight, and to a significantly greater extent ensure the defense of Europe’s strategic interests,” the group said.

“The EU will now become significantly more important for climate, technology development and restructuring in the next four years,” Frederic Hauge, founder of the Oslo-based organization, said in a statement.

US humanitarian group urges Trump, Congress to ‘reject policies that demonize immigrants and asylum seekers’

The International Rescue Committee, a large humanitarian aid organization, urged the Trump administration to “continue America’s traditions of humanitarian leadership and care of the most vulnerable.”

The New York-based nonprofit also urged the new administration and Congress to “reject policies that demonize immigrants and asylum seekers,” and noted that the U.S. program to resettle refugees has saved lives and strengthened the fabric of the United States.

IRC is led by Britain’s former top diplomat, David Miliband, and says it provides relief services to people affected by crises in more than 40 countries.

Barriers broken and history made in several congressional races

With their victories, several candidates are set to be firsts.

New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat, won his race to become the first Korean American elected to the Senate.

Delaware State Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat, won her race to become the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. The former Obama administration official was elected to the Delaware General Assembly in 2021.

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks won her race and is set to become Maryland’s first Black senator. Alsobrooks is currently the county executive for Maryland’s Prince George’s County, one of the most prosperous Black-majority counties in the nation.

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, broke barriers again, becoming the first woman and first Black person elected to the Senate from the state. Seven years ago, when she was elected to the House, she was the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in the House. It will be the first time that two Black women will serve simultaneously in the Senate.

North Dakota elected its first woman to Congress. Republican Julie Fedorchak, running for the House of Representatives, won her race handily in the deep red state. She’s currently a member of the state’s public service commission.

Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, defeated incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown to be the first Latino from the state elected to the Senate.

Abortion proposals win in 7 states

Despite major losses for Democrats in the Senate and White House, the party’s central campaign issue surrounding protecting reproductive rights fared much better across the country as abortion rights advocates won on measures in seven states.

The last state to pass such a measure by early Wednesday was Montana, where abortion rights advocates pushed to enshrine abortion rights until fetal viability into the state constitution as a safeguard against future rollbacks. Though there’s no defined time frame, doctors say viability is sometime after 21 weeks.

In three others — Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota — voters rejected measures that would have created a constitutional right to abortion.

Control of the US House is still up for grabs

Republicans have taken the White House and Senate, but the House is still very much in play.

With nearly 60 House elections still undecided, either party could gain control of the chamber. For Democrats, a House majority is the last hope of gaining a toehold in Washington and putting a check on Donald Trump’s power. Yet if Republicans win a House majority, they’ll be able to implement Trump’s agenda with more ease, including extending tax cuts, funding hardline border measures and dismantling parts of the federal government.

Still, it might take some time before House control is decided. Neither party so far has a convincing advantage in the tally of key House races. There are tight races all over the country, including many in slow-counting California.

Trump is elected the 47th president

Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal — often misogynistic and racist — terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants.

The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters — particularly men — in a deeply polarized nation. As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and retribution against his perceived enemies.

Race to control the House intensifies with Michigan flip

Republicans have flipped a House seat that was previously held by Democrats, giving them a valuable pickup in a frenzied race for House control.

At this point, practically every seat matters when it comes to building a House majority. In Michigan’s 7th district, Republican Tom Barrett picked up a seat that Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin vacated to run for U.S. Senate. Barrett, a former state senator, defeated another former state lawmaker, Democrat Curtis Hertel.

On the campaign trail, Barrett didn’t back away from his record of supporting abortion restrictions in the statehouse, but he also described abortion access as a settled issue in Michigan.

Trump, a longtime source of division, calls on country to unite in election night speech

Trump, someone whose political career has been defined by division and acrimony, told the audience at his election night party early on Wednesday that it was “time to unite” as a country.

“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said. “It’s time to unite.”

“We have to put our country first for at least a period of time,” he added. “We have to fix it.”

Trump speaks at election party flanked by family, friends and top political supporters

Most of the important people in Trump’s personal and political life have joined him on stage in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Former first lady Melania Trump stood near her husband and was joined by Barron, the former president’s youngest son. Trump’s older children, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany, all joined their father on stage, too.

Trump’s top political minds, including top campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, joined Trump on stage. And his political allies were on stage, too, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Trump also celebrated a few celebrities in the audience and on stage. Dana White, the CEO of UFC, was on stage with Trump, and the former president called golfer Bryson DeChambeau on stage. Trump also shouted out Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, who has become one of his most high-profile supporters. “We have a new star. A star is born: Elon,” Trump said.

There are serious 2016 echoes in Harris’ 2024 election night

Forgive Democrats if they are having a bit of déjà vu.

There are noticeable similarities between then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s election night in 2016 and the one that Harris had planned for tonight at Howard University.

Neither Clinton nor Harris, appeared at their election night party, despite both heading into Election Day believing they were about to defeat Donald Trump.

Both sent top aides to inform the demoralized audience that the woman would not speak. And there were noticeable similarities between what each man said.

“We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted,” Cedric Richmond, Harris’ campaign co-chair, told the audience Tuesday. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.”

“We’re still counting votes,” John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said in 2016. “And every vote should count. Several states are too close to call. So we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Even the mood of the events — and the trajectory they took over the course of the night — was similar. The vibe at Clinton’s event at Javits Center started jubilantly, with people dancing, smiling and eager to make history — the campaign had even planned to launch reflective confetti in the air when Clinton won to resemble a glass ceiling shattering. The same was true for Harris, with the event resembling a dance party on the campus of the Democrat’s alma mater.

By the time Podesta and Richmond had taken the stage, the party had stopped, people had left, and those who remained looked forlorn.

Republican former Congressman Fred Upton is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Upton served Southwest Michigan in Congress for 36 years.

“I’ve never before voted for a Democrat for president,” Upton said. “I honestly never thought I would, but she’s a strong, committed public servant.”

Upton says he did vote for longtime Democratic U.S. Senator Carl Levin.

According to Upton, politics changed in 2016 once Trump came onto the scene.

“There have always been impassioned fights about policy, but with Trump in charge, politics was more personal, more angry and more divided than ever before,” Upton said.

Upton is unequivocal in his distaste for the former president.

“Instead of focusing on making people’s lives better, Trump is leveling personal attacks, spreading more election lies, and engaging in some of the most unstable and unhinged behavior that we’ve ever seen from a presidential candidate,” Upton said.

The former Congressman voted to impeach Trump following the attack on the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — something that drew the ire of the former President. Trump celebrated Upton’s retirement announcement in 2022.

GOP Former Michigan Congressman Dave Trott has also endorsed Harris.

As for Michigan’s tight U.S. Senate race, Upton has not made an endorsement, but did say that he donated to Republican candidate and Trump-ally Mike Rogers.

However, Upton says he considers both Rogers and Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin friends.

The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

Read more:

• Michigan Senate candidates have similar backgrounds, different agendas
• Harris, Cheney message to conservative voters in Royal Oak
• Metro Detroiters lay out the issues and candidates shaping their vote

Michigan voters are deciding who they want to be the next president of the United States.

Polls indicate immigration is a top issue among Michigan voters.

Michigan Public has been talking to voters about what kind of presidential leadership they would like to see when it comes to immigration.

Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott’s southwest Michigan county is a long way from Mexico. But he says immigrants who cross the southern border are sometimes ending up in his county jail.

Abbott said at any time there are four to nine people in his jail, accused of serious crimes, with federal immigration holds.

“The fact of the matter is on a regular basis, especially over the last couple years, we’ve seen over and over and over, not only on the roadside but in the jail, that inmates coming in and out of the jail are getting flagged on a regular basis by ICE once they’re put into the system,” said Abbott.

Abbott said he wants to see the next president do something to slow the immigrant flow across the nation’s border with Mexico, which he blames for increased crime in his rural county.

But advocates object to labeling immigrants as a criminal element.

Susan Reed is with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in Kalamazoo.

She said the main problem with immigration is the confusing, often long process for immigrants to obtain legal status.

“I have a client who lost his work permit and has been waiting 15 months for the replacement. He can’t work without it,” said Reed. “He’s very skilled, has a great background working in a variety of settings and just can’t work ’cause he lost a document.”

Reed wants the next president to streamline the immigration and work permit system rather than imposing new obstacles.

Detroit has long been a destination for immigrants. And over time, where those immigrants have come from has changed.

“When my family moved in here, it was predominately Mexican and Puerto Rican. In the early 2000s, we started having more Central American immigrants come in,” said Adonis Flores. He helps undocumented immigrants seeking to stay in the U.S.

Flores said he’d like to see the next president change the part of immigration law which allows individuals to apply for permanent residency, but only if they’ve been in the U.S. since 1972.

Flores would like to see the date of registry updated to 2015.

“If somebody, for example, arrived in this country in the early 2000s or in the late 90s, and haven’t been able to fix their status because of that date of registry,” said Flores. “If that date gets updated, all of a sudden they have American kids and an American spouse that might be able to help their immigration status.”

Mara Cecelia Ostfeld is a U of M researcher. She said a recent University of Michigan study found the perception of whether immigrants are good or bad depends on an individual’s personal experience.

“Overall, a plurality of the residents in the communities we looked at: Flint, Grand Rapids, Ypsilanti and Detroit, did favor making it easier for foreigners to immigrate to the U.S. legally,” said Ostfeld.

However, some Michiganders are not as welcoming to their new neighbors.

“Young Black men are saying right now that they feel that people who are illegally coming into this country are getting treated better than they are,” Pastor Lorenzo Sewell told a group of Republicans gathered in Roseville back in August.

Sewell said his parishioners in Detroit, Pontiac and other Michigan cities want the immigration system changed.

“We need a president who’s willing to make a hard decision, send people back and then if they want to come in this country,” Sewell said. “They need to come the way, whatever way we feel as a country, they need to go through the process.”

Former President Donald Trump says the federal government should stop the flow of migrants across the southern border, and conduct a mass deportation effort of undocumented immigrants. Vice President Kamala Harris says she wants to fix the immigration system and create an earned pathway to citizenship.

You can learn more here about how all the presidential candidates on the Michigan ballot stand on this and other issues.

The campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris leaned into star power Tuesday night with a rally in Detroit featuring former President Barack Obama and Eminem.

The event leaned heavily into the narrative the Harris campaign has been pushing that Trump is both out of touch with working class people and possibly in cognitive decline.

Obama brought up lies Trump has told about the 2020 election being stolen, and false claims that FEMA funds were diverted away from hurricane relief.

Obama said it’s time to stop giving Trump the benefit of the doubt.

“We act like it’s okay. Or at least those who say they support him, they say well, you know, he’s just joking or it’s not that serious. Or, as long as we win, that’s how politics is played. No, it’s not,” Obama said.

Earlier in the speaking lineup, Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow referenced Trump’s recent comments calling some notable Democrats “the enemy within.”

“What does he mean about that? I assume he means anybody who disagrees with him,” Stabenow said.

In a press release ahead of the visit, the Trump campaign said it’s not worried about the Obama appearance, adding that it suggested Obama himself was out of touch.

Victoria LaCivita is the spokesperson for Trump’s campaign efforts in Michigan.

“You know things aren’t going well for Democrats when they have to fly in Barack Obama from his $12 million Martha’s Vineyard estate and his ‘high eight-figure’ Netflix production deal to campaign for Kamala Harris during the homestretch. And while it’ll probably be a slightly less unhinged affair than what other Kamala surrogates are doing to move the needle, an Obama visit isn’t going to convince Michiganders to vote for another four years of open borders, rising prices, and disaster at home and abroad,” LaCivita said in a statement.

With two weeks left until election day, the presidential race remains tight in Michigan, a key swing state. Tuesday’s rally in Detroit sought to bring enough excitement to the Harris ticket to break through the noise.

Speakers met the crowd with the popular Detroit greeting, “What up, doe?” Obama came on stage to Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself.’ And Detroit Lions legend Calvin Johnson Jr. gave the first speech to a packed room at the Huntington Place convention center.

Eminem said supporters need to volunteer with the campaign and knock on doors.

“There are still a lot of people who have not made up their minds about this election. And they’re not going to be convinced by another ad or another email. They’re going to get out and vote because of people like you and me. So, with that being said, politics is not a spectator sport,” he said.

Early in-person voting is already open in Detroit and will become available statewide on Saturday.

Both Harris and Trump will be back in Michigan later this week to continue rallying voters. That includes competing events on Saturday.

Former President Donald Trump sought to bring together various parts of his coalition during an Oakland County roundtable Friday evening.

The talk included a New York businessman, representatives of the law enforcement community and members of the United Auto Workers and Teamsters unions. Each was there to highlight a different part of the Republican candidate’s campaign messaging.

For the union workers, Trump discussed his plans for U.S. trade policy should he win back the White House.

Trump has been using promises to jack up tariffs to appeal to autoworkers in particular. He says raising taxes on imported goods would boost the auto industry.

“The higher it goes, the more likely it is that they build in this country,” Trump said.

Presidential campaigns spend a lot of time in Michigan.

Whichever candidate gets the most statewide votes wins all of Michigan’s 15 coveted electoral votes. Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (R) are nearly tied in most polls of the state’s voters.

The map below shows where we know candidates (and some surrogates) have publicly appeared in Michigan since July 15, 2024.

The height of each county on the map represents the number of voters in the 2020 presidential election.

The colors of each county show which party had the lead in votes and how big the lead was. Dark red means Republicans had a big lead and dark blue means the same for Democrats. Counties that look almost white had both parties nearly tied.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are campaigning in metro Detroit today.

The visits come before in-person voting begins in Detroit this weekend.

Harris joined a national radio show broadcast from Detroit earlier this week. The Democratic nominee will be stumping in Grand Rapids and Lansing on Friday, before finishing with an event in Oakland County.

She’s expected to be in Detroit on Saturday for the start of early in-person voting.

Harris needs a strong turnout from the typically Democratic stronghold, where Trump has tried to make inroads.

He’ll be in Oakland County as well on Friday for a roundtable discussion, before heading to a rally at Detroit’s Huntington Place — a convention center Trump falsely claimed was the site of massive voter fraud in 2020.

The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

Reporting by Quinn Klinefelter, WDET

More headlines for Friday, Oct. 18, 2024:

• Million Muslim Votes, Black Muslim Leadership Council and Dream of Detroit are hosting Muslim Vote Fest 2024, a get out to vote rally, from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20, at the Jam Handy in Detroit.
• The Black Political Power Tour, hosted by Capital B, is taking place at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, at Spot Lite Detroit, featuring vital discussions about the political landscape of Black Detroit, networking opportunities and more.
• Monster’s Ball, Detroit’s largest annual Halloween event, is coming to the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 19, featuring live music, food trucks, and a variety of unique costumes.

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

Tonight on the Detroit Evening Report, we cover Harris’ recent visit to Detroit to shore up support from Black male voters; the opening of the new Dr. Maya Angelou Village in northwest Detroit and more.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Harris joins The Breakfast Club in Detroit

Vice President Kamala Harris spent part of the day in Detroit on Tuesday to take part in an “audio town hall” moderated by Charlamagne Tha God, host of iHeartRadio’s nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club.”  Discussion topics ranged from the economy, to the use of misinformation, to the violence on Jan. 6, 2021. 

“Donald Trump incited a violent mob to try and undo the will of the people and undo the results of a free and fair election,” Harris said Tuesday. “That violent mob attacked the United States Capitol. Over 140 law enforcement officers were injured.  Some of them were killed. And he has said since then, that there will be a bloodbath after this election.”

Harris has been working to attract more Black male voters in recent weeks, making several trips to Detroit in the process.    

Harris and Trump in Detroit Friday

Both Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are scheduled to campaign in metro Detroit on Friday. The Harris campaign announced Wednesday that former President Barack Obama will come to Detroit next Tuesday. Michigan is a key battleground state in what is expected to be a very close presidential election. 

Duggan to host District 6 meeting

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is scheduled to hold a charter-mandated community meeting in District 6 Wednesday night. It’s an opportunity to hear from the mayor and his administration about important news and events in the area. Officials from the Detroit Police Department will be there to give a presentation to residents about code enforcement. The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Kingdom Apostolic Ministries, 4735 W Fort St., Detroit. Interested residents can also join the meeting via Zoom. 

Maya Angelou Village opens

A new development named after renowned poet Dr. Maya Angelou has opened in northwest Detroit, Model D reports. The mixed-use permanent supportive housing development, located near Grand River and Burt Road, is a partnership between a Chicago-based developer and the Detroit-based non-profit Alternatives for Girls.   The non-profit focuses on serving at-risk girls and young women in Detroit.  

Devin Scillian retiring

Longtime Detroit television anchor Devin Scillian is retiring. He announced the move last night on WDIV.   

“I am currently in my 30th year here at WDIV. And maybe it’s the roundness of that number, but I’ve decided to move on to the next chapter of what has been a most enjoyable and gratifying book,” he said.

Scillian started at the station in 1995. In the past three decades, he has covered politics, natural disasters, court trials, the Olympics and a wide range of news stories in metro Detroit. Scillian gained national prominence shortly before coming to Detroit, when he covered the Oklahoma City bombing for a local station there. He says he has decided to retire now to devote more attention to some of his other passions, including writing children’s books and singing with his band. Scillian’s last newscast will be sometime in December. 

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

The presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris is taking its messaging to Black men in Detroit this week.

That’s through the release of a new policy platform and events aimed at Black male audiences, like a nationally syndicated radio appearance with The Breakfast Club host, Charlamagne tha God.

During that interview, Harris fielded questions about the border, the stakes of the election, and how she would advance the Black community if she wins in November. Harris took that chance to highlight parts of her recently unveiled agenda for Black men.

Those include proposals for increased downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers, and forgivable loans for Black businessowners, before being ribbed by Charlamagne that some of her general talking points have become her “greatest hits.”

“The needs of the Black community are not just about criminal justice,” Harris said. “The community is not going to stand up and applaud just because everybody has a job. That should be a baseline.”

Harris also fielded a question from Detroit rapper Icewear Vezzo, who has said he’s dissatisfied with Democratic politicians, over whether her proposals for the Black community were opportunistic, given the timing.

Harris said her plan “is not new and not for the sake of winning this election,” before continuing into her record working with Black business owners prior to running for president.

The push to shore up Harris’ support among Black men comes at a time when there’s been reporting that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, was making inroads in that community.

In that vein, the Harris campaign hosted an event this week in Detroit also geared toward Black men. Harris was not there, but it featured range of speakers, including political commentator Bakari Sellers and actors Don Cheadle and Delroy Lindo.

Lindo said he got involved after hearing about doubts young Black men had about Harris.

“For me, it’s a question of coming out, meeting people where they are, if I can, talk to as many young people as I can, and try to understand why are you feeling that way. Well, let me tell you what I feel, let me tell you what I understand. And see if we can have a meeting of the minds,” Lindo said.

Campaign staff said the Tuesday event built upon ones in other states.

BET personality Jeff Johnson, who also spoke, said this is the first presidential election he’s seen campaigns discuss what he calls the “complexity of Black men.”

“To help make Black men the center of this election is a blessing and I’m excited about that. And I think it gives us an unbelievable opportunity to really show who we are and what our power is in a way that the country has never paid attention to before,” Johnson said.

Trump is also trying to engage Black audiences. A few months ago, he visited a Black church on Detroit’s west side.

The Trump campaign says he has a history “delivering for Black Americans.”

Janiyah Thomas is Black media director for the campaign.

“Under his leadership, we saw historic job creation, rising wages, and real opportunities for building generational wealth. In contrast, the Harris-Biden administration’s policies have reversed these gains, leaving many Black families burdened by higher living costs, stagnant wages, and a surge in crime,” Thomas said in a statement.

The statement went on to criticize Harris for some of the ways she’s campaigned for the Black vote.

“While Kamala Harris panders to Black voters with collard green recipes and cheap ads at the BET Awards, Team Trump is actively making inroads with Black voters,” Thomas said.

Both Harris and Trump will be in metro Detroit on Friday.

An imam in Detroit is signing onto a letter from more than 20 Muslim religious leaders from around the country in support of Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential campaign.

It’s a response to heavy criticism Harris has faced for her and President Joe Biden’s support of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Imam Mika’il Stewart Saadiq said Harris shouldn’t take the punishment for Biden’s policies.

“We don’t believe that it should fall upon everyone who he’s affiliated with, who is not the commander in chief. The Vice President is not the commander in chief. The Vice President, she works for her boss,” Stewart Saadiq said.

Harris has said she does not support any changes in U.S. policy when it comes to sending weapons to Israel. Stewart Saadiq said he interpreted her words to be more in favor of continuing American allyship with Israel, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “bad friend” in that partnership.

Both the letter and the Harris campaign say the Vice President has been reaching out to Muslim and Arab leaders, using a meeting last week with folks from the Washington D.C.-based group, Emgage, in Flint as an example.

That lack of a support for a policy shift, however, has led to pro-ceasefire groups working against Harris this election cycle. One of those groups, Abandon Harris, recently endorsed Green Party Candidate Jill Stein as an alternative. The organization held a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Dearborn to formally announce its pick.

Stewart Saadiq acknowledged the pain and frustration communities across the state and country are feeling as war in the region continues and spreads. But he said a previous letter he saw encouraging Muslims to vote third party didn’t have as much perspective from African American imams.

“Those that possibly were of generations of Americans that really gained civil rights victories and descendants of those who gained civil rights victories for all of us, especially minorities,” Stewart Saadiq said.

He previously told WDET that he would not “spit in the face of [his] ancestors,” when discussing his views on the election. When asked to clarify Wednesday, Stewart Saadiq said he sees accomplishments of the American civil rights movement as at risk this election.

“A lot of these things that we’re trying to evolve, and to really try to gain all of our humanity as African Americans, they’re under assault,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is trying to make its own inroads into Black and Muslim communities, highlighting criminal justice legislation and public safety policy stances.

Both campaigns are likely to continue trying to court Muslim voters since the group could make a critical difference as the race remains tight in Michigan.

Reporting by Colin Jackson, Michigan Public Radio Network

Read more: Michigan Muslim voters say they feel misunderstood by Republicans and Democrats

Other headlines for Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024:

• The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was awarded more than $1.3 million for juvenile justice reform. The money comes from the U.S. Justice Department and will go toward efforts to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and programs aimed at keeping youth in the community.
• Detroit’s casinos continue to bring in tax money for the city and state. The three gaming establishments reported nearly $102 million in revenue for the month of September.
• It’s been a busy celestial year so far — between the total solar eclipse this past April and lots of chances to see the northern lights across Michigan. But if you missed the aurora borealis this past weekend, it’s not too late to see a storm with the naked eye.

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

The economy. Immigration. Reproductive rights.

These are just a few of the issues presidential candidates regularly raise while campaigning in the battleground state of Michigan.

But how are they playing with the state’s electorate?

Voters in the metro Detroit region mirror some of those same concerns. Yet some have other policies they’d like to see addressed — and a wide range of views on which a potential new occupant of the White House might be the best one to take those issues on.

The economy 

For Keith Rowe, housing is the name of his game. He works in the mortgage industry and finds his sales hinge on having what he calls a “healthy” economy.

“It’s been absolutely brutal compared to five or six years ago, putting mortgage loans out for people, homes being absolutely unaffordable,” Rowe said.

He blames government regulation.

“It tends to choke the life out of business with fees and unnecessary oversight and rules that really get in the way of the people that it was meant to protect,” Rowe said.

Voter Ricardo Copeland claims it’s not just the government regulations, it’s the political party in charge of making them.

“As soon as the Democrats got in office, that’s when everything shot up,” he said.

Selling items at a recent Trump rally in Warren, Copeland praised the Republican presidential nominees’ plan to cut corporate taxes.

“You don’t tax the rich, you give the rich tax breaks. That’s when everything comes down. You don’t tax the bakers, you don’t tax the farmers, you don’t tax General Motors. Because McDonald’s is not going to take the hit. They’re going to put it on their Happy Meal, they’re going to put that on the consumer. Give them tax breaks. They hire people.”

Detroit senior Ayanna Johnson is not worried about being hired. She says she lives off of Social Security. And she’s worried about losing it under a new Republican administration.

“Trump gets in office and he’s talking about taking it away. What are people going to do? Where they’re going to go? I’m a lot leery,” she said.

Johnson adds that, in her opinion, the former president should not even be in the current election conversation.

“I think those ‘powers that be’ have gotten scared of Trump. He should be in jail. He got convicted. He incited that riot on Jan. 6. That’s unheard of,” she said. “We have protests, we have issues. But nobody as long as I can remember has ever done something like that in the nation’s capitol.”

Back at the Trump rally in Warren, William Going recites the GOP candidate’s pledge to “Drill baby drill” for fossil fuels in the U.S.

Going attributes the high price of groceries in gas to the Biden administration’s push for more clean energy sources.

“I would love to see where we’re actually exporting oil instead of importing oil. That’s why gas was so cheap when Trump was president,” Going said. “And then shipping costs, that’s the gas price again. If gas goes up, shipping goes up. If shipping goes up, the cost of items goes up. If the cost of items goes up, the cost of labor goes up. It’s not rocket science.”

Small business

“It seems like the more I make, the less I’m getting,” said Delano Shorter, who owns a small cleaning business.

He says he’s not just dealing with high prices at the grocery store, he’s fighting to keep his company from going under.

“Inflation is out of control. Even after they say that it’s going down, it’s not. These prices for cleaning supplies go up more and more, every year. With it being more expensive, I have to charge my clients more because of the inflation of my products that I’ll have to use,” Shorter said.

But beautician Christina Brothern sees a silver lining for her salon business in the policies Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris promises to pursue.

“She’s about small businesses. She’s about people and not just organizations. She’s about your health. My daughter is pre-diabetic. Kamala’s about insulin, about helping the people that can’t afford it because it’s so expensive. She’s about helping the people, the minorities that don’t make that much money, actually live,” she said.

Immigration and war

Clarkston resident Anna Johnson originally came to Michigan from Mexico.

She says she applauds Trump’s vow to launch a massive deportation effort if he regains the White House.

“I came to this country legally. I follow the steps. I pay money to become a legal citizen,” Johnson said. “And when I see on the TV, literally, an open border, that just breaks my heart. It’s almost like a slap on the face to me. I have to follow the procedures, I have to fill out the forms, go through clearance to make sure that I was a good person, a safe person to be living in this country.”

Housing specialist Alex Alexander also has her eyes on what’s happening outside the U.S.

She says for her, it’s the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon swaying her vote.

And Alexander says she’s not happy with either the response by the U.S. to the situation or the pledges made along the presidential campaign trail.

“I was hoping to have some candidates that were a little bit more pro-Palestinian,” Alexander said. “In my opinion, Kamala Harris had a shining perfect storm opportunity to be in opposition to the war, or at least opposition to sending resources to Israel, right as she got the nomination. And she didn’t, which means that her interests lie elsewhere. I’m not a huge fan of that.”

At a gas station in Roseville, a man who gives his name only as Billy Bee says he’s equally unhappy.

But he’s concerned about protests over the Biden administration’s support for Israel, even though he says he has relatives that have been displaced because of the ongoing warfare.

“All these people protesting amounts to nothing at the end of the day,” he said. “I tell my own people from Lebanon that if you don’t like it, then leave (the U.S.) Bring me a Palestinian that can point out which life one of the protesters saved. There’s nothing.”

Detroiter Savannah Robbins disagrees.

She says her top issues are the conflict in Gaza and whether Donald Trump becomes the future architect of U.S. policy in the region.

“I fear Donald Trump being president again and what that would do to our democracy,” Robbins said. “Women’s right to choose abortion access, trans people’s right to health care, I’m worried about all of it. I feel like Donald Trump is intent on destroying democracy one step at a time, whether it’s him or it’s the masterminds behind Project 2025.”

The road to uncertainty

Along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, Uber driver Dennis Custovic guides his car over several potholes.

He says his conversations with passengers convinced him there’s an especially rough road for one particular segment of the U.S. populace.

“My major issue right now is we have more poor people than ever. I talk to people all the time and we need to help the poor in any type of way, affordable housing, getting better pay, secure jobs. It’s kind of like a hit or miss,” he said.

Custovic’s hands tightened on his steering wheel just a bit as he considered which of the major party contenders for the White House might best address poverty.

“You’ve got a vice president mentioning the middle class, that she is from the middle class. So many promises, but nothing is happening under Biden. And she’s in the chair, she’s the vice president. She should be more aware of what can be done,” he said.

Custovic frowned as he navigated both the traffic and his choices for president.

“And then on the other side, you have Trump. He is a businessman but he’s a silly fellow. At the same time, I’m kind of scared of him. Why? Because he say things that don’t make no sense. In many occasions he’s attacking certain groups of people. So I don’t really know. You know, it’s tough. It’s tough.”

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Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign stop at a fire station in Redford Township before speaking to roughly 5,000 enthusiastic supporters in Flint on Friday.

As expected, the auto industry was a hot topic at both events.

Harris says a second Donald Trump term would be disastrous for autoworkers.

“He promised workers in Warren that the auto industry would, ‘not lose one plant during his presidency,’ then American automakers announced the closure of six auto plants when he was president,” Harris said.

Last week, Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance told the Detroit News a potential Trump administration would not honor a $500 million grant to convert a General Motors plant in Lansing to one that makes electric vehicles. He told his supporters at a campaign event in Auburn Hills on Wednesday that while he believes in encouraging innovation, “there’s a difference between promoting innovations and sending hundreds of billions of dollars to favored industries that make their products in China.”

In Flint, Harris told the largely union crowd that her administration would “ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles, are not only invented but built right here in America by American union workers.”

The Democratic presidential nominee says since the pandemic, entrepreneurs have been trying to start up new businesses, including 500,000 small business grant applications in Michigan alone.

“When I am President, I plan to build on that progress and that success, including by raising the startup tax deduction for small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000,” she said.

Harris acknowledged that costs are up due to inflation, but also cited the September jobs report that added 250,000 new jobs to the economy.

In Redford Township, Harris called the jobs report “solid” and hit Trump on his jobs record.

“He said he was the only one who could bring back America’s manufacturing jobs. Michigan knows what I’m about to say. Then America lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs when he was president, including 10s of 1,000s of jobs in Michigan,” she said.

Some of those lost jobs were during the height of the pandemic — however there was a drop in manufacturing jobs that started during his first year in office.

The vice president also invoked the memory of the Flint water crisis at the rally on Friday. The city’s drinking water source was switched in 2014. But because of mistakes in the treatment process, Flint’s drinking water carried lead and other contaminants into the homes of city residents.

Harris spoke of the need to provide clean drinking water.

“As president, I will continue to work with communities like Flint to ensure you not only have clean water, but the opportunity to recover economically and thrive,” she said.

Harris’ mid-Michigan campaign stop came just a day after Trump held a campaign rally near Saginaw. The Republican Party presidential nominee held a campaign event last month in the same Flint sports arena where Harris rallied her supporters on Friday.

A group of former state GOP politicians, staffers and consultants announced Thursday that they are endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President.

Many members of the group are well-known in state GOP circles and say they hope to move enough other Republicans to vote Democratic to make a difference in the swing state of Michigan.  

Former Congressman Dave Trott, who represented southeast Michigan in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2019, said Republican nominee Donald Trump was a disappointment as president and poses a danger if returned to the White House.

“He’s emotionally, intellectually, psychologically and, of course, morally unfit to be president,” Trott said during an online news conference.

Trott said he voted for Trump in 2016 but then for President Joe Biden four years later. Trott said the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election result confirmed his judgment.

“Now Trump is more dangerous than ever,” Trott said. “He promised to be a dictator on day one. He’s called for the termination of our Constitution. Let me repeat, a candidate for president in this country has called for terminating our Constitution.”

Trott was referring to a December 2022 post on his social media site Truth Social complaining about the outcome of the 2020 election.

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump said. Trump later tried to walk it back, but did not remove the post.

Members of the Michigan Republicans for Harris group say their differences with the Democratic nominee are minimal compared their fears about a second Trump presidency.

Long-time GOP strategist and advisor Bill Nowling said Trump mismanaged the economy and foreign policy when he was in office and on January 6th showed he is a threat to a stable democracy.

“We’ve been down this road before,” said Nowling. “We know where it ends. It ends in tyranny. It ends in protests. It ends in mobs taking over our illustrious capitol.”

The announcement of the Republican group’s support for Harris coincided with Trump’s campaign visit to Saginaw. The region is considered key to winning the battleground state of Michigan.               

Trump’s Michigan campaign spokesperson dismissed the announcement.

“Former Rep. Trott hasn’t been a Republican for years, and frankly no one cares what he says,” said Victoria LaCivita in an email. “Michigan families are worried about paying their bills, putting food on the table, and saving for their kids’ college tuition.

Any ‘Republican’ campaigning for another four years of unfettered illegal immigration and rising prices under Kamala Harris is neither Republican nor worth listening to.”

The latest polling continues to show a statistical dead-heat in the presidential race across political battleground states like Michigan.

Surveys also reveal the chief concern for most voters remains the state of the economy and the high cost of living.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have each touted their vision for the economy during recent campaign stops in Michigan.

At a town hall in Warren last Friday, former Trump claimed he would use a combination of tariffs and corporate tax breaks to protect U.S. jobs.

“You have to elect a person with business talent and common sense, and this whole thing is going to turn around very quickly,” Trump said.

Trump also made a stop at FALK, a manufacturing company in West Michigan, to promote his economic recovery plan. Harris counters that Trump’s tax plan could push the economy towards a recession.

At a recent town hall in Oakland County with Oprah Winfrey, Harris said she will work to stop what she calls “price gouging” by companies, and provide loans for small business start-ups and first-time home buyers.

One of the signature accomplishments of Trump’s term was the U.S. Mexico-Canada trade agreement that replaced NAFTA — a deal United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain says is bad for autoworkers.

“Donald Trump wants to spin this that he fixed NAFTA. He didn’t fix anything. He made it worse,” Fain said. “The deficits and the trade imbalance grew worse under Trump’s NAFTA.”

A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the yearly trade deficit increased by about $200 billion from 2016 to 2020.

In a statement released last Thursday, Harris said she wanted a full review of the deal when it comes up in 2026.

Drumming up union support

Winning over auto workers — and union members — has been a top priority for both Harris and Trump during the 2024 election cycle.

Many unions — including the United Auto Workers — have endorsed Harris, though strong support for Trump by the Teamsters’ rank-and-file likely led to the leadership deciding not to make an endorsement. The inaction has been celebrated as a win for the Trump campaign.

Trump — and other Republicans — have referred to federal environmental rules surrounding fuel economy standards as an “electric vehicle mandate”.

That’s something that rankles Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters.

“Well, let’s be clear, there’s not a mandate on electric vehicles. People will be free to choose the vehicles that they would like, but we also have to make electric vehicles because we are in global competition for the next generation of vehicles and the future of the auto industry, which is electric,” Peters said.

A study from J.D. Power and Associates found EV sales make up about 9% of all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.

And a recent report from NPR showed that the Americans who are most skeptical about the environmental benefits of EVs, also tend to be the people who worry the least about the climate.

Trump has stated that EVs will kill the American auto industry — though he did soften his stance a bit after being supported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. During Friday’s town hall event, Trump vowed to increase the use of oil and gas reserves and levy heavy tariffs on foreign products to help drive energy costs down.

Calling former President Donald Trump “one of the biggest losers” in the history of American manufacturing, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing her campaign on a key difference between the two presidential candidates — their relationship to workers.

Trump is scheduled to appear at a town hall in Warren, Michigan on Friday. Automaker Stellantis is planning to layoff hundreds of temporary workers at assembly plants in Sterling Heights, Detroit, and Toledo early next week.

In a statement shared to WDET, Vice President Harris highlighted her opposition to the United State-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — something Trump has dubbed “the new NAFTA.”

“It was Trump’s trade deal that made it far too easy for a major auto company like Stellantis to break their word to workers by outsourcing American jobs,” Harris says in the statement.

Stellantis has denied it is planning to move any jobs out of the country — despite accusations by the United Auto Workers that the company wants to move production of the Dodge Durango to Windsor, Ontario.

Harris has received the support of most of the major labor unions — including the UAW.

United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain has called Trump a “scab” after the former president crossed picket lines and hosted a rally at a non-union auto parts manufacturer in Macomb County during last year’s UAW strike.

The union has even gone so far to file unfair labor practice charges against Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the pair discussed firing striking workers. 

Trump has been confident he’ll get the backing of autoworkers telling rallygoers in Michigan earlier this year “most of the autoworkers are going to vote for me.”  

Manufacturing jobs in the US were trending downward in the year before the pandemic started. Harris says the Trump Administration lost “nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs.” 

She’s pledged to continue post-pandemic job gains made during the Biden Administration. 

“I will always stand with the UAW. Trusting Donald Trump again is a risk America’s autoworkers cannot afford,” says Harris.

• The full statement from Vice President Harris is below.

“Donald Trump is one of the biggest losers of manufacturing in American history. He makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers, but never delivers. As President, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs. He has joked about firing workers, supported state anti-union laws, and suggested companies move jobs out of Michigan. 

“We’ve seen this movie before. Once again, he is repeating the same playbook and telling the same old lies about how he’ll fight for working people, including those in Michigan. Yet it was Trump’s trade deal that made it far too easy for a major auto company like Stellantis to break their word to workers by outsourcing American jobs. As one of only 10 senators to vote against USMCA, I knew it was not sufficient to protect our country and its workers. Many who voted for this deal conditioned their support on a review process, which as President I will use.

“Enough is enough. American workers deserve a leader who keeps their promises and stands with workers when it matters, and as President, I will bring autoworker jobs back to this country and create an opportunity economy that strengthens manufacturing, unions, and builds prosperity and security for America’s future. I will always stand with the UAW. Trusting Donald Trump again is a risk America’s autoworkers cannot afford.”

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.

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.