DETROIT — With Michigan's victory all but guaranteeing Donald Trump the White House, the Trump campaign deployed proteges to downtown Detroit last week to boost support for the president among black voters. .
180 Church's Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, who gave an impassioned prime-time speech at last month's Republican National Convention, will moderate Thursday's roundtable discussion and promote support for the Republican Party through Black pastors who are trusted sources in their communities. The purpose was to
Sewell said he always voted Republican until President Trump showed up at his church in July, which Sewell called his “coming out party.”
“I have had the honor of serving in Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw,” he said. “Always active in Democratic strongholds, but always voting Republican.”
why?
“I believe in the Bible.”
His comments were echoed by fellow church members at the event held at the Table No. 2 restaurant.
Apostle Ellis L. Smith, who leads Jubilee City Church in neighboring Redford, said, “I'm often asked why I'm involved in all this political madness that's going on in this country right now.'' “But I don't have any political motivations. I'm really a Republican, a Democrat, a Bible-neutral person.”
“We have to start thinking biblically,” Smith says. “Culturally, biblically, it's not black and white. Biblically, it's not black and white. As a grandparent, and now a great-grandparent, I've had to ask little boys who think they're girls to have a grandchild.” I don't want you to go into the bathroom with me.”
“As Detroit goes, so goes America,” Smith added. “And as America moves forward, so does the world. So what we do and how we do it has the power to change everything.”
Clinton Tarver, 74, knows firsthand what the Trump campaign is up against.
The owner of Clint's Hot Dog Cart and Casual Catering is running as a Republican for the Ingham County Commission. He and his wife, Linda, have been involved in Republican politics for many years. She is a former state civil rights commissioner.
When Mr. Tarver goes on the campaign trail, he must fend off two enemies. It's the general apathy and the special antipathy when people find out he's a Republican.
“One of my friends asked for President Trump's autograph,” Tarver told the Post. “That way he could burn it. It's cold. But it's something we experience.”
Mr. Tarver wants to move the Overton counter to the point where it's not shocking to see a black Republican in the door.
“People need to be free to make their own choices,” he says. “We have to give them choices.”
Martel Bibbings, a black Republican who is running against Democratic incumbent Shri Thanedar in the House district that includes Detroit, did not attend. But he warned the Trump campaign that without serious outreach to the African-American community, the black vote he hopes will not materialize.
“I know that black man. I'm related to that black man,” Bibbings told the Post. “They're not going to vote. They'll say, 'I can't go to the polls.' Last week was Election Day? ”
Alexandria Taylor, executive vice chair of the 13th District Republican Party, agreed with Bibbings about the importance of reaching out and said the pastors' roundtable was a good start. The campaign is stepping up support efforts every Saturday until election day.
So how can Republicans win more black votes?
“I think it has to be a ground war, a door knock,” Taylor said. “I'm someone who spent most of my adult life in the Democratic Party and then moved to the Democratic Party and came here, and there's a clear difference.”
“To me, I think the Democratic Party is taking advantage of the black vote. So we can't do the same thing and expect it to suddenly appear out of thin air,” she continued. . “We have to be willing to do the work and have the conversations. There's no way to avoid the hard work.”
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers was the only person other than a pastor to speak.
The former congressman recently joined Sewell on the east side of Pontiac (“the hood,” Sewell noted) to reach black voters.
He told them what he had told the pastors on Thursday.
“I'm not asking you to be a Republican,” Rogers said. “Please give a chance to a set of ideas that will help this community and help us all grow.”
While pastors talked about the many ways America has strayed from God's Word, including abortion and transgenderism, Rogers focused on literacy.
He said illiteracy in the black community was robbing people of their future.
“There's a literacy crisis in America, and it's not just in black neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods, white neighborhoods, it's in all of us,” Rogers said. “Eighty percent of Michigan students cannot read at grade level.”
“I think education today may be the biggest civil rights issue of our lifetime,” he added. “If you can't read by fourth grade, there's a 70 percent chance you'll end up in prison or on welfare.”
