The New York Times had a reporter spend the past week or so in Macomb, home of the “Reagan Democrats,” to figure out what the county’s Trump voters are all about.
Some of the report is the typical stereotype of Macomb as a solidly blue-collar community, and the story makes an odd assertion that most of the recent immigrants living here are Muslims.
Nonetheless, the piece focuses on working-class voters who have voted for Obama in the past and switched to Trump this time.
Here are some snippets:
- Chris Vitale of St. Clair Shores, a longtime Chrysler employee and UAW member, supported Barack Obama twice but voted for Trump because he wasn’t an “anti-manufacturing, anti-Midwest” Republican. “Mr. Trump understood our problems right off the bat, without being told by anyone.”
- Patricia Meadows of Warren, a retired waitress, voted for Obama in 2012 but viewed Trump as the lesser of two evils because he was “not so political.” She said she’s hopeful that the pres-dent-elect won’t repeal Obamacare. “I think he was bluffing.”
- Amanda Rogers, a bartender from Warren, said she voted for Trump to block Hillary Clinton’s immigration plans. She believes immigrants in Macomb County are living off the public dole: “There’s people who’ve been here 12 years who don’t even care to learn the language but want to reap all the benefits of this country: food stamps, free health care, Section 8 housing, welfare checks. People are sick of that, especially in Macomb County.”
- Jason Powrozek, a high school senior from New Baltimore, was an avid Trump campaign volunteer who traveled to New York City on Tuesday to attend the GOP candidate’s election night party. In addition to casting a ballot for Trump, Powrozek said he voted against the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax to boost public transit in the Detroit area. “I just felt it would speed up the transport of drugs up here from the inner city.”
The Times also talked with Warren Mayor Jim Fouts who offered his take on the election results.
“There were a significant number of (Bernie) Sanders people who made the transition to Trump,” Fouts said. “Bernie might have won here; Joe Biden might have won. But Hillary was never going to be the candidate to convince people around here that she was going to make a difference in their lives.”
Fouts told the Times that he voted for Obama twice, though he was an outspoken supporter of John McCain in 2008. In the primary season, he was a loud backer of Sanders. In this general election, he said, he voted for a third-party candidate, though he would not say which one.
