Trump campaign hopes to flip Michigan's Black and Hispanic Biden voters

Former President Donald Trump has the swing state of Michigan on his mind and a particular voting bloc he'd like to sway, according to new reports.

State GOP have been urged to make strides to win over “nontraditional Republicans voters and traditional Democrat voters — specifically Black voters — around the city and state, state GOP leaders said on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

“The president believes that there’s a case to be made for reaching out to African American voters and to Hispanic voters, whether it’s in Saginaw or going into Wayne County or Muskegon, anywhere across the state,” said Michigan's new GOP chair Pete Hoekstra, speaking from a strategy conference in Florida.

“This meeting was about let’s talk about southeast Michigan and creating relationships, and then make sure that we continue this dialogue over the next seven and a half months,” said Hoekstra.

The Trump campaign appears to be “very interested in Wayne,” which is home to Detroit and the Democrats’ largest base, having voted nearly 70% for Biden in 2020, according to Hoekstra. Other focuses are Saginaw, Kent and Ottawa counties, places where Trump did well in 2016 before losing support in 2020.

Republicans believe President Joe Biden is vulnerable with minority voters for his efforts to deal with the Israel-Hamas war that continues to rage without a cease fire in sight.

Biden narrowly edged out Trump in 2020 by a few percentage points to flip it blue.

Michigan leaders are already pouncing on what has been viewed as discontent amongst Democrats where only 58% of Black adults approve Biden’s performance, according to a February AP-NORC poll.

That's markedly down from 94% in January 2021, the Associated Press reports.

The poll found that only 24% of younger Black voters had a favorable view of Trump.

Biden apparently angered some of the Saginaw community members by spending time on a porch with two local white leaders and failing to attend a Black church service, according to the report. However, Biden did spend some time with a Black family at a local public golf course.

Hoekstra said the Florida gathering put Michigan on the map for the Trump campaign to strategically flip back to the GOP.

“This meeting was about let’s talk about southeast Michigan and creating relationships, and then make sure that we continue this dialogue over the next seven and a half months,” he said.

In response, Biden's campaign co-chair, Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, tried jogging the memories of Great Lake state citizens when it came to Trump's past race relations.

“Michiganders remember Trump’s racist record, and they’re not going to fall for his desperate pandering," she stated. "As president, Trump peddled bigoted policies, tried to cut health care for thousands of Black Michiganders, and sent thousands of Michigan jobs overseas."

"Folks here know Joe Biden has delivered where Trump failed, and they’ll reject this cheap effort to win their votes in November.”