Efforts by Republicans in Michigan should court Detroit and other heavily African American regions of the swing state, according to former president Donald Trump. A group of Michigan Republicans, including the newly elected chair, recently gathered in Florida to plot a course of action for Trump’s 2024 campaign in the Lansing state.
Much of the discussion centered on southeast Michigan, home to large minority voter populations that have been vocal in their disapproval of President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict—a crisis that has tragically claimed the lives of many innocent Gazans.
Biden and Trump will engage in a heated battle in Michigan, a state that flipped to the Democrats in 2020. The November election is seen to be pivotal for both candidates.
Campaigns for protest votes in Democratic primary elections around the country, including in Michigan, have been prompted by Arab American protests against the war. Concerns have been voiced by Democratic officials in southeast Michigan that the party may be ignoring the discontent of Black voters, an influential Democratic group that the Trump team hopes to win over more heavily.
Whether in Saginaw, Wayne County, Muskegon, or anywhere else in the state, Michigan GOP head Pete Hoekstra claims that the president recognizes the need to reach out to African American and Hispanic voters. The Trump campaign has made Wayne County, including Detroit, the Democratic Party’s stronghold, a top priority. Nearly 70% of Wayne County’s voters supported Biden in the 2020 election.
With less time to make up lost ground, the Michigan GOP and Trump’s campaign are fundraising slower than Democrats. The state party, which Hoekstra took over not long ago, had internal strife and a mountain of debt under Kristina Karamo’s leadership. It will be long before the party raises the $30 million it sought during past election cycles.
Vance Patrick of Oakland and Mark Forton of Macomb, the GOP chairman in two of the biggest counties in Michigan, recently met with top Trump advisor James Blair. To be as proactive as possible, they deliberated campaign tactics for the Detroit metropolitan area. Patrick said that reaching out to Black and Hispanic voters shouldn’t be put off until June but should instead begin as soon as possible.
