Democrats Dismiss Idea El-Sayed Has a Problem With Black Voters as Rogers Hopes To Make Inroads

As this year’s Michigan Senate race comes down to the wire, Black leaders and elected officials are dismissing the idea that the GOP nominee, Mike Rogers, will make any significant inroads with the critical voting bloc in November. Some of the nation’s most well-known Black elected officials, including President Obama, are campaigning in the state to give Dr. El-Sayed the final boost that many believe he needs. Mr. Rogers is betting that he can make inroads with Black voters — just as President Trump did in 2024 when he narrowly carried the state. Dr. El-Sayed narrowly won the primary over a more moderate lawmaker, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who performed especially well in Black communities across the state. Mr. Rogers now sees an opening to pick up some of those Black voters who may have backed Ms. Stevens but are now wary of Dr. El-Sayed after his campaign against Ms. Stevens. “Abdul El-Sayed is for Palestine, but Mike Rogers is for Michigan,” an older Black woman says in an ad being run by “Democrats For Mike Rogers,” which is running digital ads on Mr. Rogers’ behalf. “I think Abdul cares more about the West Bank than West Detroit,” another Black voter says in the ad. “We need someone who is speaking for us first,” says a third. Another ad — this one from Mr. Rogers’ campaign — which began running on Tuesday features several Black voters from the Detroit area. In the 30-second spot, Dr. El-Sayed is described as “too arrogant” and “too extreme” for Michigan. “I voted for Barack Obama, but this year, I’m voting for Mike Rogers,” a woman from Warren, Naura Evans, says in the direct-to-camera ad. “He will kill our jobs and make our communities less safe.”On Wednesday, Mr. Rogers’ own wife, Kristi Rogers, made a campaign stop at a Detroit Freedom Fuel Network gas station, which has been offering discounted gas prices amid the war with Iran. During her stop, Mrs. Rogers handed out $10 gas cards and campaign literature on behalf of her husband. Mrs. Rogers spoke to several voters in the predominantly Black neighborhood, with one man, Dennis Ester, telling independent journalist Sam Robinson that he respected Mrs. Rogers for having the “courage” to show up in a place that traditionally does not vote Republican. Dr. El-Sayed has pushed back on the idea that he does not value Michigan’s Black community or that it is secondary in any way to him. During a campaign stop in western Michigan last week, the Democratic candidate was confronted by a Black voter who said he did not find Dr. El-Sayed “trustworthy.” The man in question, JD Chapman, told The Washington Sun that he supported Ms. Stevens in the Democratic primary, though he was now thinking of not voting in November. “I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Black folks,” Dr. El-Sayed told Mr. Chapman when asked why Black voters should trust him, referring to the benefits his family received as a result of the Civil Rights movement, paving the way for him to possibly become America’s first Muslim U.S. senator. Mr. Chapman was unconvinced, however. “Politicians come and go,” Mr. Chapman told The Sun. “They always pandering for our votes at election time, and then they just forget about us once they get elected, especially in West Michigan. I’m sick of that shit.”The Black vote is critical in a state like Michigan, where Black residents make up 13.7 percent of the population, compared to 12.6 percent of the national population. According to exit polls of the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Trump won 11 percent of the Black vote in Michigan, compared to the seven percent he won in 2020. Swings in counties with large Black populations also helped drive his victory in the state, with Ms. Harris running behind President Biden’s margins in Wayne, Genesee, Saginaw, Oakland, and Macomb Counties — five counties with some of the largest Black populations in the state. Ms. Stevens carried all five of those counties in the Democratic primary over the summer. Polling has shown Dr. El-Sayed lagging behind the Democratic nominee for governor, secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, who is leading her Republican opponent by nearly ten points in recent polls. Most surveys show Ms. Benson doing only two or three points better than Dr. El-Sayed among Black voters, with Dr. El-Sayed’s real problems come from a lower level of support from women, white voters with no college degree, and older voters. According to the most recent Marist poll of Michigan’s contests, Ms. Benson and Dr. El-Sayed are both beating their respective Republican opponents by about 20 points among non-white voters. The Marist poll shows Ms. Benson winning women by 19 points, while Dr. El-Sayed is beating Rogers by just 12 points. Among other voters over the age of 65, Ms. Benson is losing by three points, compared to Dr. El-Sayed who is losing that demographic by 11 points. Ms. Benson is tied with her GOP opponent among those white voters without a college degree, with both candidates taking 47 percent of the vote, while Mr. Rogers leads Dr. El-Sayed by seven points among the same demographic. Despite Mr. Rogers’ attempts to make inroads with Black communities across the state, some Black leaders are urging their fellow Michiganders to not buy what Mr. Rogers is selling. During an event at Detroit on Tuesday, education union leaders and elected officials warned about Mr. Rogers’ record. Terrence Martin, the president of the American Federation of Teachers’ Michigan chapter, pointed to a 1999 law that took control of Detroit’s school system from Detroiters and gave it to the state. Mr. Rogers sponsored that bill in the state senate. “I know what students, families, and educators need,” Mr. Martin said at the Tuesday event, according to Michigan Advance. “They need safe schools. They need trusted teachers, and they need real voice and decisions that shape their futures. Detroit families have too often been denied that voice.”State representative Tonya Myers Philips, who represents Detroit, pushed back on the idea that Black voters would move significantly toward Mr. Rogers and the Republican Party this year. “Black people, we are not supporting Donald Trump. We are not. You might be able to find a few,” Ms. Philips told the crowd. “But, for the most part, voters in the city of Detroit right here, our community has been devastated by Donald Trump’s policies — not only in the city of Detroit, no, the state of Michigan.”Dr. El-Sayed’s campaign has featured a number of high-profile Black surrogates in recent weeks in an effort to shore up his strength with the Black community and motivated Democratic voters, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who traveled to the state to hold a roundtable with him about maternal health. Last week, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, one of two Black women currently serving in the Senate, campaigned with Dr. El-Sayed. Later this month, Mr. Obama will hold a rally with Dr. El-Sayed, Ms. Benson, and other Democratic candidates at a Detroit rally.

Democrats Dismiss Idea El-Sayed Has a Problem With Black Voters as Rogers Hopes To Make Inroads

Democrats Dismiss Idea El-Sayed Has a Problem With Black Voters as Rogers Hopes To Make Inroads

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