Michigan’s Black voters sent a message to candidates in midterms: ‘You’ve got to earn it’

Autumn Butler, deputy executive director of Michigan United, said that on Election Day, she saw lines of people waiting to cast their ballots in cities across Michigan — driving what she expects to be significantly higher voter turnout among Michigan’s Black voters than the last midterm election in 2022.

“Everywhere we went, people were coming out. They were excited. They were ready,” she said. “Anecdotally, just looking at the Black cities throughout the state of Michigan, I definitely saw a great enthusiasm for people to turn out.”

As the election results are certified and more detailed voter turnout data emerges, the main takeaway that James Johnson, the political director of Detroit Action, had for candidates in the future seeking to court Black voters is that “The overall lesson is you’ve got to earn it.”

“I think it shows that Black people will turn out and they will vote when you speak to them and speak to their issues. But you can’t do the wash, rinse, repeat of the traditional campaigning, or just dump a bunch of mail and commercials in here,” he continued. 

Johnson said candidates need to be “on the ground” and “touch some grass” to actually talk to Black voters and earn their vote.

“It is not something that you can just put in your back pocket and bank on. However, if you do earn it, we will show up, and we will show up for you,” he said.

Tameka Ramsey, executive director and convener of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Black Women’s Roundtable, similarly emphasized, “Everybody needs the Black vote. We’ve seen it across this country.”

As for what actually drove that higher turnout that Butler witnessed, she said that the cost of living, including healthcare costs, was a driving factor for many. 

“Struggling with gas, struggling with groceries, and this war has touched a lot of people who have been hearing that the government has enough money for wars, but it doesn’t have enough money for safety net programs here in the country,” Ramsey said.

An exit poll from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation noted that over 36% of Black voters surveyed nationwide listed inflation as the top issue threatening voters and their families, and over 18% listed housing.

That drive to the polls stemming from the issues, Johnson said, also showed that turnout was not driven by a “cult of personality” — Black voters were largely not turning out specifically to vote for Gov.-elect Jocelyn Benson or Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, but instead because they believed change needed to come on issues like housing and healthcare.

He did, however, call the results of the U.S. Senate race “a repudiation of the ideas of Mike Rogers as much as it was an acceptance of Abdul El-Sayed being the person who was carrying those ideas.”

The highly contentious Senate election led to significant conversation about whether or not El-Sayed could mobilize Black voters, especially after he lost Wayne County in the primary to U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. 

But Stevens herself turned off many Black voters just days before the midterms when she went with Rogers to the Perfecting Church in Detroit to announce her endorsement of his Senate campaign, despite having previously endorsed El-Sayed, a move that Ramsey said led some members of that church to feel “used.”

“When you talk about specifically anti-Blackness, you brought someone to a place of Black power whose entire career was based on diminishing Black power, and that is motivating because now I know that this person is attacking me in my home, at the home base,” Johnson said about Stevens’ decision not only to make her endorsement of Rogers, but to do so in what he called “the organizing base of Black political power in this country since its inception.”

Johnson noted historical friction between Black and Arab communities in metro Detroit — but reminded, “We’re not a monolith, and we also don’t think in such tribalistic terms.”

El-Sayed’s presence in Detroit throughout the campaign, and his background as the health director for the city and for Wayne County, was also helpful in developing his trust among Detroit’s Black voters, Ramsey said. 

“Abdul has worked in Detroit. He has worked around Black people. He has worked with Black people, and he understands,” she explained. “Abdul has worked in Detroit to decrease the health inequalities in Detroit. I mean, getting little kids glasses that were considered problematic in school. So there can be race problems between groups, but I don’t think with Abdul it was as bad as they thought.”

Johnson also highlighted another candidate who he said did a good job engaging with Black voters in his own district, Rep.-elect Will Lawrence, whose district includes Lansing and East Lansing as well as more rural areas including in Eaton, Livingston and Shiawassee counties.

“A lot of the failure that I saw from candidates was based on the fact that they came into a lot of Black spaces and saying, ‘This is what I’m going to do to fix the community, and this is what Black people need.’ And you’re not a Black member of this community,” he said. “So I saw great successes with people like Will Lawrence who walked in the room and sat down and said, ‘I’m not Black. I’m here to listen. Tell me what’s going on and how we should be trying to help this community,’ because again, the Black community is not a monolith.”

Considering all of that, the lesson that Butler said she believes candidates in 2028 — including those running for president — must learn is that the results that they are able to deliver in the next two years are crucially important in convincing voters.

“If you want to get reelected, you better show us and be able to show us that you have passed policy that has made life in the Black community better. We need tangible, real things that we can talk about. We don’t need anything esoteric or theoretical,” she said. “If you want to win in 2028, you better start showing us in 2026 and 2027. And I think too, it needs to be early conversations with African Americans to truly listen to what they’re saying and put into action in real time. Don’t wait until three months before the election.”

Both Butler and Ramsey also noted that those tangible impacts in the next two years must be long-term positive changes in the Black community — “policies that are going to impact us generationally,” Butler described, such as promoting policies that allow small Black-owned businesses to thrive. 

And for any candidate seeking office in Michigan going forward, Johnson said that he believes that “the Black voter in Michigan is and has always been a game changer.”

“I think it is now a much more activated base, and it has to be recognized by any politician, any political party, anyone who’s seeking office and seeking to represent this state at any level, they’re going to have to speak directly to the issues facing the community,” he said.