Michigan Is a Key Midterm Battleground. What Do Voters Want? | WSJ

- Michigan is a key battleground state this November. It's hosting both a governor's race and a Senate campaign that can help decide the balance of Congress. I'm Josh Jamerson, and I've been covering politics for "the Wall Street Journal" for much of the last decade. But before any of that, Detroit was home. In this episode of "Rooted In," I went back to speak with business owners, residents, and local politicians to find out what's animating voters ahead of the November election. - What I see is people who are frustrated with a system that has consistently failed them. - Detroit's median household income is around $39,000 a year, about half the national median income. - I make enough to where I can pay my bills and take care of my kids, but sometimes you do want to have fun and you don't have the money. - This election cycle, much of the country is grappling with the question Detroit has confronted for generations: Is hard work enough to get ahead? - Hey, Josh. - How are you? - It's good to see you. - Good to see you too. - We're sitting here at Niki's. As you can see, it hasn't changed in the 30 years that we've been coming. Do you remember when you had your 18th birthday? - I do. I do. I do, I do. - Look at that. Isn't that sweet? When you were growing up, Niki's was like the spot. I though you'd get a kick out of these old photos. - Yes. - You got Detroit in your blood. - What I think about Detroit, at least what I remember growing up, was it felt like everybody just hustled. Even growing up, like kids were just trying to sell you candies at school or Kool-Aids or whatever. I really want to understand how people are feeling about the economy. You guys have some pretty big elections in November. - Yes. We're gonna be the center of the universe. - Already the center of the universe. It's not overstating it to say that Michigan may decide the fate of the nation's politics this year. - We are going to win Michigan. We are going to take back the White House. - Trump won Michigan in 2024, but since then, a lot has changed. Trump's approved rating has crumbled, and historically that does not bode well for the President's party in midterm elections. Right now, Republicans hold thin majorities in both the House and the Senate. On the House side, Democrats need to flip three seats in November. And on the Senate side, the party needs to flip a net of four seats. One of the Senate seats Democrats are desperate to hold onto is in Michigan, where Republican nominee Mike Rogers is up against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. For either of these candidates to grasp victory, they will need to address Michigan voters' biggest concerns. - They come in tears. They come in tears, and that's because of the pain they're enduring. I had a customer the other day, her alternator failed three weeks after the warranty expired. She couldn't really scrape up any more money. - Michigan is famous for its auto manufacturing. Out of the top five employers in the state, three are automakers. And nearly everyone here will tell you how essential having a car is to everyday life. - So I got all these cores and returns. - Okay, well I have to make one more delivery. I'll come right back. - Good morning, Jay's. - Jay Salada has run this auto shop for 15 years. - Best shop in the city, man. Right here. - He says when people's budgets get tight, taking care of their cars is one of the first places people might cut back. - You can tell people are not driving unless it's necessary. They're pushing a lot of their routine maintenance repairs further along. Do I put milk on the table or do I do an oil change? - When would you say this started to pick up? Like you noticed people just feeling a little bit more cash strapped? - It's been the past year kind of, and then after the Iran war and I felt like it really put a strain on the stress that people were already enduring. - Like in many places around the country, consumer prices in Detroit have shot up since the start of the Iran war in February. - It's 65.56. You said you only got 65.10? - Yeah. - All right, I'll adjust it for you. I'll help you out. Everything has went up. Even the oil change, it used to be $40, now it's 64. - If you do vote this November, after you do your research a little bit, what's like the thing you want politicians to focus on the most? - Minimum wage. - What's like your top concern this fall? Like, what's like the thing on your mind the most? - Healthcare. My daughter, she has healthcare, but it's high. She's paying for healthcare out of her pocket. - How can you feel that costs are high? - Gas. - Gas. - Light bill. - Almost everyone I spoke to mentioned their rising bills from DTE, Detroit's primary utility company. Michigan law lets utility companies file for a rate increase every 12 months. In September, Michigan State Regulatory Agency approved a request by DTE that would raise the average residential bill by about 4%. DTE shared a statement with us saying the company's electric bills have remained below regional and national averages. The company said it is doing the necessary work to modernize the grid and natural gas system. DTE added that it would refrain from asking for more rate increases for the next two years. - When you look at all the fees, it's excessive and I feel like DTE wants a rate increase to fix the power lines every year on top of the record profits they're making. - What do you feel like is the way you're leaning this fall in terms of how you might want to express yourself at the ballot box? - I lost faith in our politicians. You know, they tell you what you want to hear, but once they're in their office, their hands are tied. - Concerns about the cost of living, including on utilities, have emerged as one of the most dominant issues in the midterm elections. - We want to make sure that if you want to put a data center anywhere, that it's going to meet the following terms, all union labor, no raising our utility rates, increasing our utility reliability. - I have a three point affordability agenda that starts with health and then goes with housing and energy. - Rogers has put a focus on lowering housing and healthcare costs. And he's betting that Michigan, a purple state known for sending centrist senators to Washington, will reject a firebrand progressive like El-Sayed who supports Medicare for all and free childcare. - So right now, the average new homeowner in Michigan is about 40 years old. That's ridiculous. And so what we've been doing for the last year is talking about, and we have a great proposal to get them to hit that 20% down payment by saving tax-free. We're gonna build more homes in Detroit. We've got 122,000 vacant lots. We've got a plan to allow builders to build on those lots tax-free if they sell it to a family or an individual in the city of Detroit. - El-Sayed's populist campaign reflects a larger shift in the Democratic Party towards far-left candidates, including some Democratic socialists who gained momentum this year. One of these candidates is Donovan McKinney, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Michigan's 13th District, which includes parts of Detroit. - I'm running to represent the fifth poorest congressional district in the country. - I joined McKinney hours after his primary win as he visited local businesses to talk to voters. - Congrats, man. - Thank you, bro. - Whoo. - You won it, man. Y'all helped. - Yes, sir. - I appreciate it. - Starts with you, man, all right? - Come on. Thank you, man. - My man. - Appreciate you. What I heard constantly on the doors at community events when I'm interacting with people is that "I don't have enough resources to survive." So when government has to send our taxpayer money overseas for bombs and weapons, that means we're taking money from the people who need it the most here. - You spent a lot of time talking to voters and it seems like there might be just like this anger that is being targeted at the system. - Yeah. - Tell me where that comes from. - Yeah, I mean, it comes from just the system not responding to the needs of the people. If you look at the history of Detroit, we had a Black home ownership rate, the highest in the country. We're a majority renter city now and our Black home ownership rate I think is down in the dumps. And so the Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of the people. Either you're gonna serve the working interests of the working people and the poor folks in our districts, or you're gonna continue to serve the interests of the oligarchs and the corporate class. - Garlin Gilchrist, who's running for Secretary of State, has been Lieutenant Governor of Michigan over the past seven years. In the congressional primary, he endorsed McKinney. Do you feel like the fact that so many people are turning to kind of outsider, insurgents, very progressive candidates, even some from the DSA, does that say anything about like a failing on the Democratic Party to actually address the needs of some of its voters? - I think what it says is that our politics have been inadequate. Republicans haven't solved them either. But we have to show that we have a vision for who the economy works for. That's what we need to focus on and lock in on. - What do you think about what we saw in the Democratic primary for Senate? - What I think we can very clearly say is that, you know, a candidate whose message was explicit about that we need to put money in people's pockets and get money out of politics, that that person won. - Before leaving Detroit, I stopped by one of my favorite places in the city, Belle Isle. - It's been so nice having you back home this time. A little bittersweet. It's like so nostalgic for me. What was your experience coming home this time? - It was interesting hearing people's perspectives. Nobody trusts the system. One guy was like, "There is no middle class anymore. It's just the haves and the have nots." - The have nots. Ooh. - Everybody here doesn't ask for much, you know, just like having a good community, good family. - And people in Detroit ride for Detroit. - Yes. All day. Twice on Sundays. I trust this place to get it right, whatever's next.