Rev. Al Sharpton is heading to Michigan on Thursday in a get-out-the-vote campaign targeting Black voters as polls show Vice President Harris struggling with younger members of the voting bloc.
With stops in Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Sharpton plans to speak to Black voters on what is at stake for Black Americans this election and urge them to cast their ballots for Vice President Harris. He’ll be joined by Korey Wise and New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, two members of the Central Park Five, to help make his case.
“Michigan will become the litmus test for the power of Black voters in this election, which is why it is crucial everyone who can vote heads to the polls by November 5th,” Sharpton said. “Michigan voters will hear directly about what’s at stake if they stay home and what Donald Trump has actually done to Black men.”
Sharpton’s Michigan trip follows stops in Philadelphia and Ohio with other Black leaders like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).
Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, and former President Obama have also made tours through the battleground state.
The final push to turn out Black voters comes as Harris’s numbers with Black men appear to be slipping, even as her lead with the voting bloc remains steady in battleground states.
A recent Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion poll found that 84 percent of Black likely voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will support Harris in November.
But a wide gender gap persists.
University of Chicago’s latest GenForward poll released Wednesday found that if the election were held today, 26 percent of Black men said they would vote for former President Trump.
Still, Harris is aware of the slipping support, and sat for a town hall in Detroit with Charlamagne tha God last week where she fielded questions from Black voters across the nation.
She also recently released her Opportunity Agenda for Black Men, highlighting how she plans to Crete economic opportunities for the demographic if she is elected.
