The Kamala Harris effect: The Democratic campaigners in the Rust Belt had already given up on the election, especially among black voters. Harris’ candidacy is now changing everything. That is the mood in Michigan.
For a year, community organizer Norm Clement from Michigan waited in vain for this moment, for this enthusiasm. Good job numbers under Biden? No one mentioned it. Booming economy? No one felt it. Biden’s industrial program? No one knew about it. Falling inflation rate? No one believed it.
“When I toured black neighborhoods in Detroit, I always encountered the same reaction: disinterest, indifference, rejection,” says the activist from the Detroit Change Initiative organization. “A real catastrophe was looming in terms of African-American voter turnout.”
