DETROIT — With a Michigan victory securing the White House for Donald Trump, his campaign deployed disciples to downtown Detroit last week to bolster his support among black voters.
180Church pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who gave a passionate prime-time speech at last month’s Republican National Convention, moderated Thursday’s roundtable. The conference aimed to connect Republican outreach efforts with black pastors who were trusted sources in their communities.
Sewell said he had always voted Republican until Trump showed up at his church in July. Sewell calls this his coming out party.
“I have had the honor of serving in Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw throughout my life,” he said. “I always serve in Democratic strongholds, but I always vote Republican.”
why?
“I believe in the Bible.”
A fellow church member echoed his comments at the event held at table number two in the restaurant.
Apostle Ellis L. Smith, who leads Jubilee City Church in neighboring Redford, said: “I am often asked why I am involved in all this political madness going on in our country right now,” he said. “But I have no political motivation. “I’m not really a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, I’m a Bible buff.”
“We have to start thinking biblically,” Smith said. “Not culturally or biblically. Biblically, there is no black or white. As grandparents and now great-grandparents. I don’t want little boys who think they are girls going to the bathroom with my grandchildren.”
“If Detroit goes, so goes America,” Smith added. “As America goes, so does the world. So what we do and how we do it has the ability 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 for a Republican seat on the Ingham County Commission. He and his wife Linda have been involved in Republican politics for many years. She is a former member of the state Civil Rights Commission.
When Tarver sets out on campaign, he must fend off two enemies. There’s a general indifference and a special antipathy when people find out he’s a Republican.
“One of my friends asked for a Trump sign,” Tarver told The Post. “So he was able to burn it. It’s cold, you know? But that’s what we go through.”
Tarver hopes to move the Overton window to a point where it’s not a shock for someone to see a black Republican on their doorstep.
“People should be free to make their own choices,” he said. “We have to give them choices.”
Martell Bivings, a black Republican running against Democrat Shri Thanedar in a Detroit-area congressional district, was not in attendance. But he warned the Trump campaign that the black vote he hopes for will not materialize without a real outreach effort to the African-American community.
“I know those black people. I relate to those black men,” Bivings told The Post. “They won’t go to the polls. They say, ‘I can’t go to the polls. Was there an election day last week?’”
Alexandria Taylor, vice chair of the 13th District Republican Party, agreed with Bivings about the importance of access and said the pastors’ roundtable was a good start. The campaign is ramping up its promotional efforts every Saturday until Election Day.
So what can Republicans do to win more black votes?
“I think it has to be a ground game, a game that knocks on the door,” Taylor said. “I am a Democrat who has spent most of my adult life. Then I changed direction and came here, and there is a clear difference.”
“I think the Democrats are capitalizing on the black vote. So we can’t do the same thing and expect it to pop out of thin air,” she continued. “We have to be willing to do the work and have the conversation. “There is no way to avoid hard work.”
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers was the only non-pastor to speak.
The former congressman recently joined Sewell (“the hood,” Sewell points out) on Pontiac’s east side to reach out to black voters.
He told them what he had said to the pastors on Thursday.
“I’m not asking you to be a Republican,” Rogers said. “I encourage you to try a series of ideas that will help this community and all of us grow.”
While pastors talked about the many ways America has strayed from God’s Word, including abortion and gender reassignment, Rogers focused on literacy.
Illiteracy in the black community is robbing people of their future, he said.
“We are experiencing a literacy crisis in America,” Rogers said. “This isn’t just a problem in black neighborhoods, it’s not just in Hispanic neighborhoods, it’s not just in white neighborhoods, it’s a problem for all of us,” Rogers said. “80% of Michigan students cannot read at grade level.”
“I think education today could 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.”
