Michigan voters goal once again as Biden visits
State pivotal for election win
SAGINAW, Mich. — Turning Saginaw County blue again in 2020 — by a margin of 303 votes — contributed to Joe Biden’s success in securing the critical “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all pivotal in Trump’s previous victory as well. Leaders in both parties have said that it will be next to impossible for either presidential candidate to win the White House this year without winning Michigan.
Biden, who traveled to Saginaw on Thursday to meet with supporters and volunteers, understands its importance.
“Our democracy’s at stake,” Biden told the group that packed the front porch of a Saginaw City Council member’s home to meet with him. “I really mean it.”
With the campaign season heating up, the president has made intimate conversations with families and small groups to discuss policy matters most affecting their lives a set part of his travels around the country.
The visit was part of a twoday swing through Wisconsin and Michigan that started Wednesday as the president looks to create momentum for his reelection campaign after clinching the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night.
Saginaw, a Democratic stronghold, is encircled by predominantly Republican areas within the larger county. Described as a microcosm of the entire state, Saginaw County is the only Michigan county to have voted for the winning presidential candidate in the last four elections. In that respect it has largely replaced Macomb County north of Detroit as the go-to destination for political consultants and media looking to take the temperature of what might well be the ultimate swing state, with Macomb sliding steadily further into the Republican camp.
The Saginaw area boasts a large number of union-affiliated voters, a demographic that Biden has targeted in his reelection campaign. He has received multiple key union endorsements even as Trump lays claim to being the candidate of choice for working people despite many union leaders saying his first term showed otherwise.
The 44,000-person city at the heart of the county is also home to a significant Black community, comprising 46% of Saginaw’s residents. Energizing this demographic could be pivotal in November as Biden’s campaign navigates challenges in other regions of the state.
Over 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan opted to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s Feb. 27 primary in what had been pushed by activists as a protest vote against Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza. Top Biden advisors, both from the campaign and the White House, have traveled frequently over the past several months to places like Dearborn, a Detroit suburb with the nation’s highest concentration of Arab Americans, in their efforts to win back what had been a reliably Democratic constituency.
But some Michigan Democrats in recent weeks have cautioned the party about overlooking restlessness within a significantly larger and politically influential demographic: Black voters.
Biden’s support among Black voters has waned considerably since he assembled his winning coalition four years ago, when he was backed by 91% of Black voters nationwide, according to AP VoteCast.
His approval rating among Black adults is 42% in the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, a substantial drop from the first year of his presidency. Biden also is working to energize Black voters in the key swing states of Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans was among the 13% of Democratic voters who voted “uncommitted” in Michigan’s primary, but for a different reason than the one pushed by activists. He said he withheld his support to make a point to the Michigan Democratic Party that they are “not doing the things that they need to do to engage significant portions of the African American community.”
“We don’t see these programs and things that are talked about trickling down to us,” said Evans. “We don’t feel invested in. The philosophical stuff that you might hear in a speech, we’re not feeling that.”
Saginaw resident Jeffery Bulls shares Evans’ sentiment, opting not to vote at all in the state’s primary rather than vote “uncommitted.” Once a Democratic voter, Bulls said that both Biden and Trump have proven to be “more of the same.” He said he “probably will be skipping that top spot on the ballot” in November.
“We look around our community and 10, 20, 30 years go by and the same blight is here, the same joblessness is here, the same issues are here,” said Bulls. “Nothing has changed. That starts to click after a while and then you get cynical.”
The city of Saginaw’s poverty rate of nearly 35% is more than double Michigan’s average of 13%, as per the latest U.S. Census data. Average income in the city is also half that of the state’s average, though unemployment in the county has declined steadily since Biden first took office.
Biden’s team is keenly aware of the pushback his reelection has encountered in certain minority communities in Michigan. Thursday’s visit is Biden’s second in six weeks, and his team is establishing over 15 field offices across Michigan, including Saginaw.