DETROIT —
At Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, healthcare, immigration and criminal justice reform were the major topics that dominated the first hour of the event.
But CNN’s moderators eventually shifted the focus to Michigan and asked a couple of the candidates how they would win back the state after President Donald Trump flipped it to Republican in 2016.
Trump won the state by less than 11,000 votes.
Former Vice President Joe Biden pointed to his record of investing into the state and he said he was a part of the Obama administration that helped General Motors out of bankruptcy.
“I was also asked, as the mayor of Detroit can tell you, to help the city of Detroit get out of bankruptcy and get back on its feet,” he said. Biden answered the question by mostly pointing to his track record as Vice President.
“Anyway, the point is, we’ve made significant investments in this state, in this city. I expect that’s why the mayor endorsed me,” Biden said.
Mayor Mike Duggan endorsed Biden the week before the debates.
The debate moderators also asked New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand how she would win Michigan.
“To the people of Michigan, I know exactly how I would beat Trump,” she said, explaining her bus tour where she talked about Trump’s broken promises bus tour in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“I can bring people together in red, blue and purple areas,” she said.
The moderators also asked Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii how they would win Michigan. Both of those candidates pivoted in their answers to talk about other issues. For Yang, it was the economy and for Gabbard it was chiding partisan politics.
However, Yang did mention that his focus in Michigan is jobs lost due to automation.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker had a very specific answer: voter oppression helped Trump win the election, he said.
“This is one of those times where we’re not staring at the truth and calling it out,” he said. “We lost the state of Michigan because everyone from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters. We need to say that. If African Americans had voted in this state like it had been four years earlier, we would have won the state of Michigan.”
Despite the candidates answering a question specific to Michigan, Lt. Gov. Garlin GIlchrist said it’s not enough.
“I think that as Michiganders, we still need to hear more,” he said. “We need to hear something as concrete as possible about what people want to do to improve the quality of life in cities.”
Gilchrist said infrastructure, clean drinking water, closing the skills gap and investing in the K-12 education system are the issues Michigan voters care about.
“If we know in Michigan that a president cares about those things, that’s the president we’re going to support moving forward,” he said.
Prior to the debate, some Michigan voters attending the debate shared what they thought were important issues.
“I hope they say anything that is good for the environment and good for water and water quality, in particular is good for the Great Lakes. I think that’s good for Michigan. And agriculture is a big topic in Michigan,” said David Thompson of Battle Creek.
Another voter in line from Troy said, “Things that are important to me are things like care for the Great Lakes, water, I know healthcare is a big issue here, I think domestic policy and economics are important in Michigan.”
The Great Lakes were not mentioned once.
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