DETROIT — Former President Donald Trump this week deployed top campaign surrogates to an intimate gathering of Black faith leaders in the heart of the Motor City.
The ask: getting these pastors and community leaders from across the state to convince other Black voters to back Mr. Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.
The pastors brought their church spirit to this informal, conversational event, which included multiple open prayers and enthusiastic affirmations from the roughly two dozen in the room.
Linda Lee Tarver, a Lansing resident and member of Black Americans for Trump, is a lifelong Republican. She joined alongside her husband to show support for Mr. Trump and was vocal throughout the pastors’ sermon-like speeches.
“Jesus, yes, yes, yes,” Mrs. Tarver exclaimed as one of the pastors complained that other Black preachers in Detroit have embraced liberal ideologies such as same-sex marriage.
The conversation was moderated by Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of the 180 Church, a Detroit native who drew attention for his passionate speech at the Republican National Convention in July. Calling himself a “student of the street,” Mr. Sewell said from the RNC stage that he believed Detroit had been overlooked and written off by politicians — until Mr. Trump came to his church to listen.
In the private dining room in the back of Table No. 2 in historic Greektown, Mr. Sewell explained why he’s enthusiastically backing Trump.
“Even for those who are saying, ’You know, pastor, I can’t vote for President Trump. I can’t support President Trump.’ This is what I say: You don’t like his character? Let’s look at a man by the name of King David … Moses … the apostle Paul,” Sewell said. “God uses people who we may question their character and even furthermore he who has not sinned let him cast the first stone.”
Former Rep. Mike Rogers addressed the group as he vies to become Michigan’s first Republican U.S. senator since 2001 in his tight race against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin. He shared stories about his background in law enforcement and why he thinks the state needs a change. He said in an interview later that he viewed the morning as an opening conversation that would be followed by meetings with these faith communities and, he hopes, convincing more and more Black voters to give Republicans a chance to improve the state.
“Thank you for having the courage to not give up on politics,” Mr. Rogers, who is White, told the group.
Mrs. Tarver is a political consultant and self-proclaimed Michigan civil rights and elections expert whose husband is running for county commissioner in Ingham County and believes more members of her community will give Republicans the chance to lead.
“Nationwide, there’s a lot of people who are coming out of the political closet for President Trump, and not necessarily for him as the man, but for his policies,” Mrs. Tarver said.
As a campaign strategy, it may seem far-fetched for Republicans to invest in efforts to woo Black voters. The group overwhelmingly aligns with the Democratic Party: a Pew Research Center survey from August showed 77% of Black registered voters favored Ms. Harris, who would be the first Black female president.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the overwhelming majority of the Black vote at 91%, and Joe Biden earned 92% of the Black vote in 2020. The people at the gathering of faith leaders, including Mr. Rogers, said Democrats have taken Black voters for granted and said they shouldn’t feel like they have no other choice.
Apostle Ellis Smith of Jubilee City Church in Redford said he doesn’t see himself as a member of any party but rather as a member of his faith.
“I am often asked why I am even involved with this political madness going on in our country right now, but I am not politically motivated. I am really not a Republican; I am not a Democrat, I am a biblocrat,” he said.
When introducing themselves, a man shared he had voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election, and the crowd responded in unison, “We forgive you,” and continued to express their agreement with, “Yes!” signaling they thought voting for former President Barack Obama was a mistake.
Later, Mr. Rogers told reporters that he was moved by what attendees had said. He characterized these Black leaders as feeling “they were only told you could vote one way.” But instead of choosing Democrats as their only option, they realized “there’s other options.”
“And if you want Democrats to pay attention to you in a way that’s meaningful, you might have to vote for some Republicans along the way,” Mr. Rogers said.
Similar conversations are taking place all over the country. Team Trump has hosted barbershop events in cities including Atlanta and a “Black empowerment” event on financial literacy Friday in battleground North Carolina.
It feels even more pointed here, given the razor-thin margins that could decide the presidency in November. Trump won Michigan by just 11,612 votes in 2016. In 2020, Biden won Michigan, flipping the state and securing the presidency by 154,188 votes. Polls show Harris and Trump are in a neck-and-neck match in Michigan, where every constituency potentially has the power to swing the election. The Black population of Michigan was just under 1.4 million in 2022.
Christina Barr, a political consultant at Raise the Barr Productions, shared her opinion on why she will vote for Trump. “Kamala Harris says she’s for women’s bodies, but if I recall, the Biden-Harris administration was forcing small businesses to get the jab,” she said, referencing the COVID-19 vaccine, “and my sister almost lost her job for that, but Trump didn’t instate mandates like that.”
The conversation also allowed for an open dialogue about some of the audience members’ history with incarceration. Mr. Sewell said he was “saved at church,” and Pastor Andre Faulkner of the Balm Deliverance Movement told the crowd he also spent time in prison.
“If we are going to say Trump is a felon, well, I am kind of partial to that because I’m a felon,” Mr. Faulkner said. The crowd clapped and shouted “Yes!” in unison.
Mr. Rogers stressed the link between education and incarceration. Citing lower literacy rates among Black children, he posed the question of what is happening to students who get passed through school or someone who graduates high school at a 6th-grade reading level who wouldn’t be able to fill out a job application, asking, “Think about what is happening in your life, where are you going?”
With a resigned response, those gathered in the room offered up: “Prison.”
The people in the room said they are looking to the Trump administration to fix the problems they face in Michigan, including education failures, inflation, abortion and food insecurity.
“Our children are not literate. … I’m really trying to make the case for conservative values and conservative approach to policies that really uplift our community,” Mrs. Tarver said.
According to the Department of Education, Michigan’s state ranking dropped significantly in fourth-grade reading levels from 32nd in 2019 to 43rd nationally in 2020.
“Black folks on the left want to talk about equity. And you know, equality, I have no problem with equality. Equity is not going to be achieved unless our children are educated,” Mrs. Tarver said.
Mr. Faulkner said he found the arrangement of the Trump event informative to expose him to ideas he hadn’t considered, and he stressed his desire to be open-minded.
“I’ve never really thought about [voting] Republican at all. Never. Until today. I’m serious. When I look in the mirror, I know what I see, and it is just we vote Democrat, it is inherent, it is ingrained,” Mr. Faulkner said.
• Jason Goode, Cierra Morgan and Sana Mahmud reported courtesy of the California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.