Candice Fortman (left), a Detroit resident and media executive; Piper Carter (right), an organizer, environmental justice advocate, and entrepreneur who worked on the 2012 Obama campaign. Collage illustration: Renald Louissaint; Photography: Rikki Wright.

Searching for the Other Midwestern Swing Voter

Spoiler: She’s Black and lives in Detroit

For two evenings in late July, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates debated at Detroit’s Fox Theater, often invoking appeals to a mythical Midwestern voter through their proclamations of values and lamentations on the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Andrew Yang emphasized the inevitability of automation taking over assembly-line positions; Pete Buttigieg pointed to “an economy that’s not working for everyone”; Cory Booker spoke of his paternal grandfather, a member of the UAW; and Tim Ryan argued for changes in production, saying, “We’ve got to fill these factories in Detroit, in Youngstown, that used to make cars and steel. We’ve got to fill them with workers who are making electric vehicles, batteries, charging stations … make sure they’re making solar panels.” After a reference that might have seemed oblique to the rest of the country, Julian Castro received a strong acknowledgment when he said, “Just go and ask the folks that just received notice that they’re getting laid off by General Motors.” He was referring to the GM Warren Transmission plant in neighboring Macomb County that was slated to…