Michigan will, once again, be crucial to the outcome of the presidential election. So we wanted to know: How are the candidates doing when it comes to addressing the concerns of people living in the state’s largest city?
A survey commissioned by Outlier Media and conducted by the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study in April found inflation, health care and safety to be the top priorities Detroiters want federal officials to address. Let’s take a closer look at what Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are saying about those issues.
Inflation
Inflation and the cost of living topped the list of priorities Detroiters want federal officials to deal with, accounting for 16% of responses.
Detroiters have been paying significantly more for goods lately, according to the Detroit Economic Outlook released earlier this month. The report put the city’s inflation rate at around 3% for the first quarter of 2024, down from 8.9% in 2022.
“Life is precarious for working people in this country, and in the city of Detroit especially. We all work two jobs and have no safety net. It’s exhausting and it makes it difficult to care who the president is.”
Detroit resident and survey respondent
The survey results suggest Detroiters are keenly feeling the effects of inflation. “I am a registered nurse and after paying for both of my daughters’ college tuition, (along) with every other household expense, how do they expect people to have savings,” one survey taker said.
Finding money to cover higher costs can be particularly difficult for a demographic that already has very little financial wiggle room. The average household income in the city is $38,080. Detroiters pay disproportionately high rates for things like auto insurance and are considered “cost-burdened” when it comes to what they pay for housing, child care and utilities.
“Life is precarious for working people in this country, and in the city of Detroit especially,” one respondent said. “We all work two jobs and have no safety net. It’s exhausting and it makes it difficult to care who the president is.”
What the candidates are saying
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign website celebrates the tax cuts he oversaw and “job-killing regulations” he got rid of while in office.
“He wants to protect a lot of local jobs — especially in manufacturing cities like Detroit — by ‘slapping tariffs,’ as he would say, on places like China and restricting bans on cars that rely on gas,” said Mara Ostfeld, faculty lead for the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study.
But for the most part, Trump is light on specifics to back up his pledge to lower costs of living and expand job opportunities if elected to a second term. “He just uses a lot of superlatives to highlight what he’s going to do without a lot of details,” Ostfeld said.
She said Vice President Kamala Harris’ messaging on the economy centers on her middle-class background.
“She’s really highlighted more specific aspects of her platform in terms of trying to limit price gouging, creating more incentives to expand the supply of affordable housing and providing first-time homebuyers with down payments,” said Ostfeld.
Health care
Detroiters also identified either health care or health insurance as a top concern, with 14% of respondents saying they wanted to see the federal government prioritize these issues.
The vast majority of Detroiters, about 93%, have health insurance, according to a 2023 census estimate. But a 2018 survey by the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study found many Detroiters felt their health care needs weren’t being met. Nearly a third said they were unable to access certain types of health care, like dental care. And nearly 10% of Detroiters reported they couldn’t afford a copayment or prescription.
“Curtail big Pharma,” one respondent in the April survey wrote, “and overall ensure better cheaper health care like any other developed countries.” Another said they wanted to see “great health care for all without red tape.”
Other survey-takers focused less on insurance and more on health care itself, with some saying hospitals are substandard or understaffed.
What the candidates are saying
When it comes to health care, Ostfeld said Trump talks about how he supports choice and competition and wants to protect Medicare, but the former president doesn’t get into the details.
“I’ve never heard or read of him saying anything specific about … Medicare (especially), how he’s going to protect that, or how he’s going to bring in market competition,” she said.
Trump’s campaign website touts how he eliminated the mandate that had required adults to have health insurance or pay a fee. It also talks about how he organized the supply and development of vaccines against “the China virus,” a racist phrase the former president continues to use.
Harris, on the other hand, has proposed a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket health care expenses, along with extending a $35 cap on the cost of insulin and using public money to reduce medical debt.
Crime and safety
Crime and safety were the third-highest priorities respondents said they wanted to see the federal government address, mentioned by 13%.
In 2023, Detroit’s murder rate was among the highest in the nation. At the same time, city officials said 2023 saw a reduction in all major violent crime categories except aggravated assault compared to 2022.
In the survey, the subject of police came up frequently. Some respondents said they wanted more funding for police, “more help with crime in our neighborhood” or “more police policing robberies and guns.” Others want the federal government to address police brutality and “police disobedience,” and end the immunity that protects police from being sued for misconduct.
Many respondents were concerned with gun violence. “Better policies need to be put in place to stop mass shootings and killings,” one person said. Other commenters wanted to see gun restrictions. One wanted to see the government “making sure people have the right requirements to buy guns.” Another wanted to see an assault rifle ban.
Survey-takers also wanted to see the federal government tackle drugs. “Clean up the drug house,” one said.
What the candidates are saying
Ostfeld points out that Trump often links crime to immigration. “He almost always goes to a salient case of some immigrant who committed a crime, and really trying to lean into his scapegoating and fear baiting when it comes to immigration.”
In the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump claimed that, “In Springfield (Ohio), they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats.” The Columbus Dispatch reports Springfield officials have heard no credible reports of people eating pets.
As for Harris, “This is where you see her lean into her background as a prosecutor,” Ostfeld said. “She hasn’t veered away from the fact that she intends to be aggressive about keeping communities safe … including from people like Trump.”
During the debate, Harris responded to Trump’s insistence that crime is going up in the U.S. by saying, “I think this is so rich, coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.”
As vice president, Harris has worked on policies to limit gun access and helped direct funds to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs to communities.
Both Harris and Trump want to continue funding police.
Getting out the vote
At 81%, the vast majority of survey respondents said they “typically participate” in presidential elections, and 70% said they “definitely will vote” in this November’s election.
But some residents reported frustration with national politics. “I’m feeling more discouraged and ignored by specifically the (federal government) than ever before,” one survey respondent said, adding that it would “take a knowledgeable/ethical candidate who is not bought or bossed and not afraid to do what’s right to regain my confidence again.”
In 2020, more than 248,000 eligible Detroit voters sat out the presidential election. Michigan voted for Biden by a margin of fewer than 155,000 votes.
“Candidates need to show Detroiters why it’s worth their time” to vote, Ostfeld said.
This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
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