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detroit
CNN
—
Reverend Charles Williams is among those carefully preparing for a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He thinks at least one thing will be different this time. That means Biden will not be able to win based solely on voters’ fear of Trump.
“We saw something that scared everyone, and here we are four years later,” said Pastor Williams of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church. “You see, this guy might not be the boogeyman.”
Williams won a front-row seat in 2020 thanks to Detroit’s surge in black voter turnout that led to Biden’s victory in Michigan, but he faces the prospect of another race between Biden and Trump. said he believes fatigue among voters could complicate efforts to rouse enthusiasm among young voters. .
“The challenge that Joe Biden has is he’s speaking to a completely different generation,” Williams said. “He speaks to the greatest generation. He speaks very well to baby boomers, but not to a generation that had a president who listened to a Jay-Z playlist.”
Four years ago, Biden built a diverse coalition of supporters of all ages and races to win the White House. But whether Mr. Trump can rebuild that vast, frayed network will help decide whether he returns to power.
One of the biggest tests of his campaign awaits here in Michigan, where the president visited on Thursday. In 2016, Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton in the state by 10,704 votes, and four years later, Biden defeated Trump by about 154,000 votes.
Michigan, along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which the president also flipped in 2020, is part of Biden’s “blue wall” surrounding the U.S. Great Lakes, and could be a factor in Biden’s chances of winning a second term. The state will be similarly essential this year.
Dearborn’s distrust and dissatisfaction
Biden’s challenge is complicated by deep anger and mistrust among Muslims and Arab Americans over the Israel-Hamas war. Growing discontent, fueled by persistent protests against the president in recent weeks, threatens to weaken parts of the Biden coalition.
“He’s not someone I trust,” said Adam Absala, who worked as a field organizer for the Biden campaign four years ago and focused on Arab American voters in Michigan.
Today, Absala said he will not support Biden because he and many of his voters believe the Biden administration is complicit in the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians.
Asked if withholding support for Biden could help Trump win, Absala said: “Maybe.”
“They’re telling us, as Arab Americans and Muslim Americans, as a minority community that didn’t support Biden, that we’re the reason we get another four years of Donald Trump. ” Absara said. “But the reality is that Joe Biden will allow Donald Trump to remain in power for another four years.”
In Michigan’s Feb. 27 primary, Absala and other community leaders are urging voters to choose “Irresponsible” over Biden on their ballots. At a rally on the eve of the president’s visit this week, placards were handed out proclaiming “Fuck Biden.”
The Biden campaign chose a private union training site in Warren, Macomb County, north of Detroit, for the president’s carefully planned trip Thursday, which also included an impromptu stop at a restaurant. Ta. He stayed away from Dearborn, which has the highest per capita Muslim population in the United States.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the administration was sending officials to Michigan this month to “speak directly with community leaders and their families about a variety of issues important to them, including the Israeli-Gaza conflict.” Listen.”
A campaign spokesperson said Biden will fight for support from Michigan voters.
“President Biden will begin 2020 by rallying a broad and diverse coalition of voters to fight for the issues that matter most to them: their rights, their pocketbooks, and their democracy,” Press Secretary Kevin Munoz told CNN. We won,” he said. “The president’s campaign is working hard to gain the support of the voters who will decide this election, rather than seeking their support.”
It was almost four years ago, on the eve of the Michigan primary that all but guaranteed Biden the Democratic nomination, that Biden appeared on stage with Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, the governor of Michigan, and others. This was when he announced his intention to become a bridge to the future of the world. Gretchen Whitmer.
“Look, I don’t think of myself as anything else, I think of myself as a bridge-builder,” Biden said to thunderous applause in the gymnasium at Renaissance High School in Detroit. “Behind me is a whole generation of leaders that you’ve seen. They are the future of this country.”
The implicit message, at least at the time, was that Biden might only be in office for one term.
This week, a small group of high school seniors eligible to vote for the first time this year spoke to CNN about the upcoming presidential election and their views on Biden and Trump.
“[Biden] I don’t think he represents young voters at all, so I’m not choosing him,” Emani Williams said, adding that she often sees memes of the president on social media. “‘Sleepy Biden’ is just what people mostly call him. I think it comes from him being the oldest president and people kind of treating him, but as a joke and I hate to say it, but people don’t have as much respect for him as they do for other presidents.”
Fellow student Dante Parker said he will study the race, including third-party candidates, before making a decision this fall. He said a vote for Biden was hardly guaranteed.
“I’m a free thinker. I like to think outside the box,” Parker said. “We’ve been stuck in this system for too long, and maybe it’s time to step outside of it and make progress.”
Norman Clement, founder of the nonprofit Detroit Change Initiative, said the rebuilding of the Biden coalition will address serious misconceptions, especially among young voters, about what the president has done or attempted to do. He said that it starts by fighting against the information that is available. But he said the burden was on Biden and his campaign to define what he would do in a second term.
“We’re not happy with Biden,” Clement said, recalling the refrain he often hears from voters. “However, we understand that other options are not favorable options for us.”
He said he often hears complaints about Biden’s unfulfilled promises, such as voting rights reform and police reform, but the reasons are less well known, such as Congress and minorities in Congress. Supreme Court blocks Biden administration’s plan for student debt forgiveness.
Asked whether he was more worried about people who support Trump or young people who don’t vote at all, Clement said, “I’m more worried about the protest vote.”
“Protest voting means not voting for either candidate,” he said. “There’s this concept on social media of ‘My vote is on hold, my vote is on hold.’ My message to them is that in 2016 we voted and people didn’t come to vote. is.”
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