Democrats Spend Little Time Courting Union Voters in Debate in Crucial Michigan

[left-of-center2012]

The Detroit debates offered the Democratic Party a chance to repair what was widely considered one of its fatal 2016 mistakes: taking for granted the white, non-college-educated workers who instead embraced Donald Trump’s promise to revitalize the Rust Belt. It arguably will entail boosting enthusiasm among the state’s many white working-class voters as well as African Americans in inner-city Detroit.

The candidates spent more time on issues facing people of color, who feel ill-treated by the health-care and criminal-justice systems or because they live in cities with poor schools and crumbling infrastructure. It was poisoned water in Flint, Michigan, not laid-off General Motors Co. employees in Lordstown, Ohio, that got the most attention.

For Democrats, taking back Michigan may come down more to getting more people to the polls in Detroit, which is 83% black, and Flint, who reliably vote Democratic, than to flipping voters in white working-class suburbs. In those towns, Trump argued that his economic policies would save their jobs, including many union positions.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/democrats-court-detroit-s-urban-voters-ahead-of-union-workers