Michigan, which went to Donald Trump in 2016, is again a key swing state in the presidential election with 16 electoral votes.
In the end, what may be pivotal in the state for former Vice President Joe Biden is how the lives of blacks have been upended, says NBC News. After interviewing residents, former lawmakers, political strategists, activists, journalists and political experts in Michigan, the network writes:
What may impact the election here more than anything is how the lives of black Americans in particular have been upended by what Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley called a "pandemic within a pandemic": black people sickening and dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates while suffering from the epidemic of police brutality currently being protested in the streets.
Biden, who has enjoyed strong levels of support from African American voters throughout the campaign, stands to benefit politically, they said. But given what happened in 2016 — when polls showed that Michigan was also Hillary Clinton’s to lose, and then she lost it — black voters and Democratic political strategistswarned that Biden must do more to appeal to and turn out African American voters in order to compete with the white working class contingent Trump so adeptly mobilized in 2016, and who could turn out en masse for him again.
“The African American community is motivated to come out to have Trump removed. Unlike when Hillary was running, no one truly knew how bad Trump could be,” said LaMar Lemmons, a former Democratic member of the Michigan state House. “The pandemic was really the last straw for many people. Of course now we’re talking about the protests, but Trump’s nonresponse to the pandemic has really alienated the African American community."
The latest poll shows Biden leads Trump 12 percentage points in Michigan.
