Michigan Is About to Elect a Very Different Member of Congress
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
BY: ASTEAD W. HERNDON
DETROIT — A Palestinian-American woman in the Michigan legislature running in the mold of Bernie Sanders. The African-American president of the Detroit City Council, who is popular with unions. The white mayor of a nearby suburb, positioning himself as a pragmatist. Two black state senators from historically prominent political families.
One of the most diverse Democratic congressional primaries of the year will reach a climax with voting on Tuesday. Yet it’s the competitive nature of the race that is a drastic adjustment for some residents, considering just how long political representation in this region has been almost singularly defined by one name: Conyers.
Voters are choosing a successor to Representative John Conyers Jr., a legend in Detroit and one of the nation’s most powerful black leaders until he resigned in December amid allegations of sexual misconduct. His House district, the Michigan 13th, has been a base of African-American political, economic and civic power since he first won election in 1964, so much so that Mr. Conyers’ name remains one of the first things that comes up when his would-be successors go door-knocking on the campaign trail, both in Detroit and the surrounding metro area.
Besides electing a new member of Congress, many residents see Tuesday’s election as an opportunity to reshape the identity of the district, which is one of the poorest in the country and a shadow of its former self during Detroit’s heyday, in terms of population, homeownership and jobs. People speak less of choosing candidates based on traditional ideological lines, and more of selecting a new face of hope in a community that has been so defined by waves of economic and political tumult.
“Something got lost in translation over that many decades,” said Will Miller, a community activist. “We love John Conyers, but our community — under his watch — turned into nothing.”
Michelle Moncrief, a 59-year-old who said her Detroit home had been inundated with campaign literature, said it’s “time to let someone else get in there,” though she shuddered at the idea of a nonblack candidate winning the seat.
“I’d like for the blackness to stay where it’s been for so long, but we may not get what we want,” she said. “Someone who understands.”
Detroit is no longer experiencing the worst of the early 2000s economic downturn, but the region still suffers from a disproportionately high concentration of poverty. More than 16 percent of residents live below the federal poverty line, according to a recently released report from 24/7 Wall Street, and a 2016 report from the Brookings Institution in Washington said the Motor City had the highest concentrated poverty rate among America’s 25 largest metro areas.
The 13th Congressional District also has unemployment rates well above the national average, which can be seen in the stark dichotomy between communities. While some areas of the congressional district are the hub of new investment, others remain blighted — and residents say that though the country at large may be experiencing times of robust economic growth, it is yet to become a reality in “The D.”
“We need things done around here,” said Vernon Boswell, a 67-year-old homeowner. “We need new people who can help get this community back on track.”
At a recent forum of candidates who are running to replace Mr. Conyers, several tried to lean into their social justice bona fides to win over minority voters, some of whom expect a vocal civil rights advocate to occupy the seat. On Tuesday, voters will cast ballots in not one, but two Conyers-related elections — a special election determining who will finish Mr. Conyers’ 2018 term, and a primary that will likely determine Mr. Conyers’ permanent successor.
With little reliable polling on the race, no clear front-runner has emerged among the candidates on the ballot (most of the major candidates are competing in both the special election and the primary election). The result is a campaign that seems equally about politics and personality, with six major candidates all heading into the election’s homestretch feeling confident about their chances of success.
The biggest fund-raiser has been Rashida Tlaib, the state lawmaker who could become the first Muslim woman successfully elected to Congress, but Brenda Jones, Detroit’s well-liked City Council president, may have the highest name recognition in the city. Also running are State Senator Coleman Young II, the only son of legendary Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, and State Senator Ian Conyers, the great-nephew of the now-resigned congressman. A former Detroit state legislator named Shanelle Jackson is also in the race, as is Bill Wild, a white mayor of a Detroit suburb called Westland, who could benefit from the fractured field.
Because there’s little policy daylight among the Democrats, issues of race, gender, age and dynastic politics have all received more attention and discussion in the primary race, as candidates have attempted to use their personal identity and legislative experience to differentiate themselves from their opponents. None will have the seniority and influence of Mr. Conyers, whose signature legislative legacy includes helping found the Congressional Black Caucus and being the first lawmaker to propose the establishment of a Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. But the candidates said their fresh faces would bring the much needed enthusiasm the 89-year-old Conyers missed.
Ms. Jones, a former union president who was first elected to the Detroit City Council in 2005 and has the backing of powerful labor unions such as the United Auto Workers and Michigan’s AFL-CIO, said she aims to bring “purity” and “civility” to the office. Though politicians often make that pitch, Ms. Jones expects the message to resonate more in Detroit, considering residents have seen almost every level of government ensnared in political scandals over the past decade.
“Civility is what’s needed in D.C. and that’s what I brought to local government in the city of Detroit,” said Ms. Jones, a deeply religious woman who wears an angel pin on her back to protect her from those who metaphorically “stab her.”
The younger Mr. Conyers, 29, is hoping the combination of his youthful energy — and his famous last name — can help him keep the congressional seat in the family. He was once considered a favorite to replace the family patriarch, but with uncertain momentum and a continued public feud with other members of the Conyers family, some are questioning whether he can win.
During a campaign stop in Detroit’s Rosedale Park neighborhood, Mr. Conyers expressed confidence that his doubters would soon be proven wrong. Mr. Conyers, never shy of using his last name to his advantage, jogged from house to house with an exuberant energy, yelling “Conyers here!” while he passed out literature showing a picture of him, his great-uncle and President Obama and Michelle Obama.
[John James, black and Republican, thinks he can crack the ‘blue wall’ in Michigan.]
“If my opponents are going to claim the credit for the things that are happening here in Detroit, there’s a lot of bad that’s still happening, and you have to pay the tab on that,” Mr. Conyers said, trying to cast himself as an outsider. “I’m a new legislator, but there’s all these issues that are unsolved and are nonnegotiable to who was at the wheel.”
But for a district that has one of the highest percentages of black voters in the country, it’s the race’s two nonblack candidates that have raised the most money — Ms. Tlaib, the state representative, and Mr. Wild, the Westland mayor.
Mr. Wild, whose majority-white city is outside the Detroit city limits but inside the 13th District, is considered to be a strong candidate — particularly if he carries the white suburban regions and Detroit voters split their votes among four prominent African-American candidates from the city.
In an interview, Mr. Wild highlighted his personal relationships with Detroit’s civic leaders, as well the state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, as reasons he was suited to procure investment into the 13th District. He also brushed aside any suggestion that a white politician from outside Detroit might be unsuited to represent the district and cited the recent election of a white mayor in Detroit as proof the community is singularly focused on policy outcomes — not skin color.
“People want to see results,” Mr. Wild said. “This is going to come down to the individual. This is going to be about trust in government.”
For Ms. Tlaib, ethnicity is an uncertain factor. The state lawmaker is the eldest of 14 children born to Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, and she moves with a frenetic energy more common among political activists than elected officials. Ms. Tlaib became locally famous five years ago for trespassing on corporate land to test for suspected pollution, and she says interacting with voters is her “comfort zone,” where she feels most free to do what she loves — rail against “corporate PAC money” and the uselessness of dispassionate politicians. She just received the endorsement of the Detroit Free Press, the city’s largest local newspaper.
“That fear and hesitation that politicians have — you don’t have that with me because I’m not worried about getting re-elected,” Ms. Tlaib said in an interview. “This isn’t some consultant. It’s real.”
Ms. Tlaib said voters in the 13th District want someone that has “experienced the same challenges they’re going through now or someone that they can relate to.”
In that view, she saw herself as a logical continuation of the civil rights activism that Mr. Conyers made a hallmark of his time in office. Like Mr. Conyers, who — along with his longtime friend Rosa Parks — helped bring Nelson Mandela to Detroit in 1990, Ms. Tlaib said she’s a product of the protest tradition.
During one campaign stop in Inkster, a deeply impoverished Detroit suburb that saw its entire public school system dissolved in 2013, she showed children a cellphone video of her heckling President Trumpduring a speech at the Detroit Economic Club in 2016. Ms. Tlaib told the children that protesting “evil” was “one of the most American things anyone can do.”
“I like being bad!” one boy then yelled out.
“Me too,” she responded.
