DETROIT, Mich. — Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers spoke at a Detroit church Tuesday, joining Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Pastor Lorenzo Sewell in an eleventh-hour appeal to black voters in the swing state.
Rogers, a former Michigan congressman locked in a tight contest with Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, presented an optimistic vision of Republican progress among Black voters — a voting bloc that Democrats have dominated for decades.
“We can feel that there’s movement here,” said Rogers. “That people are saying, hey, I’m not sure I’m a Republican, and we’re saying you don’t have to say you’re Republican. We just need you to be open to some ideas and some solutions, rather than trying the same thing over and over and over and getting the same result.”
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott endorsed Rogers before the mostly black panel, telling them: “We must go where we’re not invited. Do not wait for an invitation—just show up. I’ll say the proof is in the pudding. When you show up, the community is receptive.”
While they strategized ways to win the black vote, those in attendance still acknowledged that Democrats will still net the vast majority of votes from black Americans.
Malik Shelton, a panelist in attendance, argued that black voters are “programmed and indoctrinated by media,” and the “legacy or tradition” of voting for Democrats.
“You have these minions that come out that they have been conditioned to look up to. And they convince them, don’t vote for those Republicans. They are bad guys. They are bad people. They are racist. Keep voting for Democrats. But if it’s actually explained to them, they’ll see it because they are living in it,” he continued.
October polling from the NAACP suggests that 21% of black male voters nationwide support Donald Trump. That’s down from 27% in August, but a significant improvement from the 2020 election cycle, when Biden won 92% of the black vote overall and 87% of black men.
That could be a sign that black men are shifting their voting patterns toward Republicans — or at least the Republican running in 2024.
After the event, Scott told a reporter that Republican gains among black voters — no matter how small —can still decide the election.
“What we know today is we’re in a dead heat. So just anything could break that dead heat,” the senator said.
“The good news is Mike Rogers has done what you need to do. You have to be everywhere, all at the same time. Theoretically speaking, he’s getting that job done, having relationships already with the community.”
Rogers has done outreach to black voters on the campaign trail, most notably at a Detroit roundtable in September with black pastors.
Sewell, who delivered a pro-Trump speech at the Republican National Convention and has hosted Trump campaign events at his church, said discussing politics in his house of worship hardly unusual.
“The Bible’s a political book. When you look at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they were political people,” the pastor told The Post.
“Our congregation is getting equipped every single Friday we do ‘Souls to the Polls,’” he said, describing the series of discussions he hosts at his church to encourage the congregation to get out and vote on Nov. 5.
“We have a political discourse. It’s not us telling people to vote Republican or Democrat. We just lay out the facts.”
