Harris’ Michigan loss highlights Democrats’ many weak spots

DEARBORN, Michigan: Democrat Kamala Harris lost Michigan by more than 80,000 votes amid a nationwide shift to Republicans, as union workers, Black voters, Arab Americans and Muslims either failed to show up at the polls, or cast their ballots for Donald Trump.

It was a bracing loss, given the state is run by a high-profile Democratic governor who expanded voting rights and it had only backed a Republican president once before in the past 22 years - Trump in 2016, and then by fewer than 11,000 votes.

What happened in Michigan highlights issues that ail the Democratic Party nationwide, community leaders, voters and political experts say. Working class voters, people of color and immigrants voted in lower numbers or moved to Trump, high grocery and housing prices loomed large, and national party leaders ignored local organisers. Exit polling offered some insights about challenges Harris faced in her three-month campaign:

The economy was the top issue in Michigan, as across the country, said Ameshia Cross, a Democratic strategist, but the Arab American and Muslim vote, immigration concerns and a high concentration of Black voters also played a big role.

“There’s only so much you can do in 107 days,” Cross said, referring to the amount of time Harris’ campaign had after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. “However, I do think that there should have been more time spent in Michigan.”

Harris visited the state 11 times, and high profile Democrats campaigned here, including both Barack and Michelle Obama. Cross faulted the “consulting class” of the Democratic Party for relying too much on polling instead of local organisers.

“Listening to people on the ground is always going to be more vital than the modeling and the projections that we’ve seen,” she said. Local opposition to US support for Israel’s wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon also loomed over the campaign. The Harris team said the vice president held closed-door meetings with some Arab American and Muslim leaders, and pointed to outreach efforts in Michigan that included a large ground presence with 52 offices and over 375 staff.