A 'singular candidate': Michiganders contemplate Kamala Harris in a key swing state

As many prominent Democrats gave their endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris’ freshly emerging presidential campaign, questions now turn to how Harris fares in a general election against former President Donald Trump, including in key swing states like Michigan.

In Michigan, some Democratic voters who spoke with the Free Press believe Harris is the right choice for the party’s nomination with just under a month to go before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where a nominee will formally be named. But others, even those who say they support Harris, are wary of potential pitfalls, namely racism and sexism Harris may face during the campaign.

Detroiter Wayne Phillips, 55, said he was “stunned” by President Joe Biden’s Sunday announcement that he would not seek reelection this fall. Harris is a “shoo-in in terms of at least trying to keep the Democratic Party together,” Phillips said, although he believes she should have been the party’s nominee from the start.

“To me, Kamala is the choice,” Phillips said. “I hope it won't be a clown show, but it's getting ready to be tough for the Democrats because I'm sure there's lots of people who are going to come out of the proverbial woodwork and try to get a shot. At this point, in order to defeat Trump, the Democrats need to be on a committed all-for-one stance. We have a singular candidate.”

Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing from the race was promptly followed with an endorsement of Harris. By Monday morning, a swath of notable Democrats — some who were floated as potential replacement candidates — including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and others had all offered their endorsements to Harris.

Alexis Wiley, founder and principal of Detroit-based public relations firm Moment Strategies and former chief of staff for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, said it’s wise for Democrats to rally around Harris at this stage of the election cycle. With relatively little time to campaign, Harris can point to her tenure as vice president to appeal to voters in a way that other prospective candidates cannot.

“It hasn’t even been 24 hours since President Biden announced that he wasn’t running. The avalanche of endorsements that we've seen thus far reflect an understanding that there's no possible world in which we can beat Trump and pass over Vice President Harris,” Wiley said Monday.

Chris Carswell, of Detroit, hopes Harris will seal the party’s nomination at the DNC next month, as well as gain backing from major party donors.

“(Harris) can run on the fact that she's been riding shotgun for four years, so she has actual experience that equips her over and above Trump,” Carswell, 59, said. “And then she can talk about all the problems that come with Trump.”

Trump won Michigan in 2016, flipping the script on decades of Democratic wins in the state every fourth November. But in 2020, Biden — with Harris as his running mate — defeated Trump by around three percentage points. Michigan is likely to be extremely competitive again, as both Trump and Harris, or whoever the Democratic nominee ultimately ends up being, understand the state's importance to the electoral map.

Harris is relatively untested in Michigan — when she sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 election, she withdrew from the race well before Michigan’s primary contest. She’s been in the state periodically campaigning for Biden, including as recently as Wednesday when she held a panel discussion on abortion rights near Kalamazoo.

Trump and Republican campaigns will likely work to tie Harris to Biden's record, primarily on issues like immigration, where Trump repeatedly hammered Biden.

But unlike Biden, Harris doesn’t have the same concerns about age and fitness as the potential Democratic nominee, noted Adrian Hemond, CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a Lansing-based strategic consulting firm.

“She doesn’t have the baggage vis-a-vis age and stamina the current president does, but she does have all the money that was in the campaign account, in addition to the $50 million or so she raised yesterday. She's not starting from zero,” Hemond said.

Trump appeared to have significant momentum in Michigan against Biden — a Free Press poll published Sunday, just hours before Biden withdrew, showed Trump leading Biden by seven percentage points. In a battleground state, the poll represented a sizeable margin for Biden to try and overcome.

Harris is likely starting her campaign from a much stronger position, Hemond said.

“We'll have polling soon, but my impression is that she probably starts in Michigan at about a jump ball with Donald Trump, which is about where things were pre-debate for Joe Biden,” Hemond added, referencing the June 27 presidential debate where Biden verbally stumbled through several responses. Calls for Biden to step aside amplified in the immediate aftermath of the debate performance.

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Despite Harris receiving the backing of many Democratic voters, there are those who are wary of any potential racism or sexism Harris could face. Harris would be the first Black woman to be president, should she clinch the Democratic nomination and beat Trump in November. She’s already the first woman, first Black person and first person of South Asian descent to be vice president.

While she would vote for Harris, Dayna Busbee, of Southfield, questioned whether some voters who don’t want a woman as president could end up voting for Trump.

Alyssa Lock, 40, a preschool teacher from Grand Rapids, was surprised when she heard Biden was dropping out from the race. Speaking at the Detroit Festival of Books at Eastern Market on Sunday, Lock said both Biden and Trump presented disappointing options, but she remained doubtful that Harris would succeed Biden.

“(I) just don’t think the country is ready to elect a Black woman to president. I don’t think there’s enough open-minded people in the … United States. I would love to see her be president. I just don’t think other people are going to be on the same page as me,” said Lock, who noted that she’s “still stuck” on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.

Wiley expects Harris to fare well in traditionally Democratic-leaning areas of Michigan, like Wayne County and Detroit. Biden repeatedly credited Black voters as being paramount to his 2020 win, and Wiley believes Black voters in Michigan will turn out for Harris.

The voting bloc most key to Harris’ chances of winning Michigan in November will be the so-called “never Trumpers,” Wiley said, referencing Republicans disillusioned with Trump’s particular style of conservative politics.

“I think those folks who are passionate and worried about (Trump winning), you need those folks to show up,” she said.

Not all Democratic voters are rallying to a Harris nomination, however. Ruth Carr, 63, a purchasing director from St. Clair Shores, expressed confusion and said she’s a little sad about Biden withdrawing from the race.

Carr said she'd prefer a “brand new ticket” and worried that it’s a bit too close to the election.

“I’m a Democrat, so I’m more for Biden than for anyone else, but we’ll have to see, but also encouraged because who knows what comes next, maybe there will be a better candidate for the Democratic Party,” she said Sunday.

Carr agreed that it leaves a lot of questions, namely who the nominee will be.

“And did they just hand the ticket over to Trump?” she added.

Free Press staffers Eric Lawrence, Jennifer Dixon, Adrienne Roberts and Special Writer Darren Nichols contributed.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How do Michigan voters feel about Kamala Harris?