Donald Trump in Detroit (Deadline Detroit file photo)
Donald Trump at the Detroit Economic Club
It's no secret that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump has had a big problem attracting black voters, and here in Michigan he's done little to fix that.
Jonathan Martin and Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times write about the G.O.P. 's worries regarding Trump's dearth of African American support.
Their story begins with an anecdote about Detroit:
When Donald J. Trump went to Detroit last week to deliver a speech on his economic proposals, he laid the chronic problems of the heavily black city at the feet of his opponents, saying Democrats had a stranglehold on power, “and unless we change policies, we will not change results.”
But Mr. Trump had no firsthand encounter with the very difficulties he described: He flew into the city on his private plane, got into his sport utility vehicle and motorcaded on highways past several black neighborhoods before reaching the downtown convention center where he addressed the heavily white Detroit Economic Club.
Then he left without taking questions about the decline and nascent recovery of the country’s automotive capital, a hub of black America. In attempting to fashion a populist message, Mr. Trump has criticized Democrats for doing little to address urban joblessness and despair. But in the more than a year since he began his White House bid, the Republican nominee has not held a single event aimed at black voters in their communities, shunning the traditional stops at African-American churches, historically black colleges and barber shops and salons that have long been staples of the presidential campaign trail.
The Times does note that Trump may not be intentionally snubbing black neighborhoods, writing:
He rarely plunges into any community to tour businesses, sample local cuisine or spontaneously engage in the handshake and back-patting rituals of everyday campaigning. His preferred style of politicking consists almost entirely of addressing arena-size rallies, conducting media interviews and receiving visitors in private at events or at his Manhattan skyscraper.
In Michigan, last December Trump appeared at a rally at the DeltaPlex in Walker, a suburb of Grand Rapids. And this Friday, he'll return for a rally in Diamondale in suburban Lansing.
“He’s alienated a number of minority voters, and that’s reflected in his low numbers,” Tara Wall, a communications consultant who helped with black outreach on both of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid, tells the Times. “You have to do the bare minimum, and he’s not even doing that.”
