In Michigan, black voters are being urged to support Harris

DETROIT — Eric Brown, a podcaster and former Detroit News blogger, considers himself an “independent voice” in politics. Unlike 90% of black voters, he has voted for a third party rather than the Democrats since 2012.

So Brown was surprised when a friend approached him and asked him to “tone down” his criticism of Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice president and likely presidential nominee.

“There’s too much at stake,” said the friend. “Can you do me a favor?”

“It made me laugh,” Brown said, adding that a more detailed response to that friend would follow. “I thought it was ridiculous.”

“It’s not my nature to retire from politics,” Brown said.

Detroit political consultant Mario Morrow received a similar call – not once, but twice.

“Two black women called me at different times this morning and said, ‘Hey, we know you’re going to be with Kamala, right?'” Morrow told the Post.

When President Biden tweeted on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, Harris quickly garnered the votes needed to secure the Democrat’s nomination.

Those demands reflect the enthusiasm with which black women enter the 2024 election, which is now amplified by Harris at the top of the ticket, said former Michigan state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a Democrat who now sits on the Detroit school board.

“When black women are motivated, nothing can stop us,” Gay-Dagnogo told the Post.

She participated in a Zoom call with the organization Win With Black Women on Sunday evening, where about 40,000 people watched the four-hour virtual conference that raised more than $1.5 million.

At some point during this marathon Zoom conference, an AP poll found that Harris had the support of enough Democratic delegates to run as her party’s nominee.

Although Harris’ campaign is starting late in the year, with less than four months until Election Day and her running mate not yet announced, Gay-Dagnogo says the size of the early support is a good sign for Democrats.

“It’s not just a campaign, it’s a movement,” she told the Post. “Nobody has awakened this energy so quickly.”

Gay-Dagnogo, a black woman, says black women see Harris’s candidacy as an opportunity to “step out of the background” and get “front and center.”

And the fact that she would be the first woman in office – not just the first female president, but also the first black president – ​​has significant value to black voters, Gay-Dagnogo said.

“This doesn’t solve everything in America, but it shows there is hope. There is hope to move beyond the way we have been viewed and treated. There is an opportunity to take off now as a leader in this country.”

Gay-Dagnogo will be manning the phones for Harris and making the kind of calls Morrow received on Monday.

Karen Dumas, a longtime politician and political observer in Detroit, said it is common knowledge among friends that she “does not actively or visibly participate in campaigns” and that most “people respect that.”

But on Sunday, Dumas heard from several friends who “respectfully but passively informatively” passed her the Zoom link to the Win With Black Women call, just in case she wanted to participate.

She didn’t do it.

Still, Dumas pointed to Harris’s enormous fundraising total: $100 million in the three days since she was voted to the top of the ticket.

“The money raised was a testament to the social and economic influence that black people have and should use every day,” Dumas said.

Dumas, herself a black woman, is unimpressed by the historic demographic makeup of Harris’ campaign.

“With Obama, we checked the box of the first black president, but what were his accomplishments?” Dumas asked. “It’s not important that it’s a woman, it has to be the right woman. We have to look at all the candidates as a whole.”

Brown said he didn’t believe Harris in 2020 and doesn’t believe him now, no matter how many of his friends called.

“I feel the same way about Harris as I did about Barack Obama,” Brown said, referring to a statement on Sunday in which Obama called for a tough primary campaign.

“There should be a process for selecting the candidate.”