DETROIT — Former President Donald Trump last week deployed top campaign surrogates to an intimate gathering of Black faith leaders in the heart of Motor City.
The task was to get the pastors and community leaders from across the state to persuade other Black voters to support Mr. Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.
The pastors brought their church spirit to the informal, conversational event, which included open prayers and enthusiastic affirmations from the roughly two dozen in the room.
Linda Lee Tarver, a Lansing resident and member of Black Americans for Trump, is a lifelong Republican. She sat alongside her husband to support Mr. Trump and was vocal throughout the pastors’ sermonlike speeches.
“Jesus, yes, yes, yes,” Mrs. Tarver exclaimed as one of the pastors complained that other Black preachers in Detroit have embraced liberal ideologies such as same-sex marriage.
Moderating the conversation was pastor Lorenzo Sewell of the 180 Church, a Detroit native who drew attention for his passionate speech at the Republican National Convention in July. Calling himself a “student of the street,” Mr. Sewell said from the RNC stage that he believed politicians had overlooked and written off Detroit — until Mr. Trump came to his church to listen.
In the private dining room at the back of Table No. 2 in historic Greektown, Mr. Sewell explained why he enthusiastically supports Mr. Trump.
“Even for those who are saying, ‘You know, pastor, I can’t vote for President Trump. I can’t support President Trump.’ This is what I say: You don’t like his character? Let’s look at a man by the name of King David … Moses … the apostle Paul,” Mr. Sewell said. “God uses people who we may question their character, and even furthermore he who has not sinned let him cast the first stone.”
Former Rep. Mike Rogers addressed the group as a candidate hoping to become Michigan’s first Republican U.S. senator since 2001 in a tight race against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin. He shared stories about his background in law enforcement and why he thinks the state needs a change. He said in an interview later that he viewed the morning as an opening conversation with faith communities, and he hoped for more meetings to persuade Black voters to give Republicans a chance to improve the state.
“Thank you for having the courage to not give up on politics,” Mr. Rogers, who is White, told the group.
Mrs. Tarver is a political consultant and self-proclaimed Michigan civil rights and elections expert. Her husband is running for commissioner in Ingham County, and she said she thinks more members of her community will give Republicans the chance to lead.
“Nationwide, there’s a lot of people who are coming out of the political closet for President Trump, and not necessarily for him as the man, but for his policies,” Mrs. Tarver said.
As a campaign strategy, it may seem far-fetched for Republicans to invest in efforts to attract Black voters. The group overwhelmingly aligns with the Democratic Party. A Pew Research Center survey from August showed that 77% of Black registered voters favored Ms. Harris, who would be the first Black female president.
Hillary Clinton won 91% of the Black vote in 2016, and Joseph R. Biden garnered 92% of the Black vote in 2020. The people at the gathering of faith leaders, including Mr. Rogers, said Democrats have taken Black voters for granted and they shouldn’t feel like they have no other choice.
Apostle Ellis Smith of Jubilee City Church in Redford said he doesn’t see himself as a member of any party but as a member of his faith.
“I am often asked why I am even involved with this political madness going on in our country right now, but I am not politically motivated. I am really not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am a biblocrat,” he said.
During introductions, a man shared that he had voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. The crowd responded in unison, “We forgive you.” They continued to express their agreement with, “Yes!” signaling they thought voting for Mr. Obama was a mistake.
Later, Mr. Rogers told reporters that he was moved by the conversations. He said the Black leaders felt “they were only told you could vote one way,” but they realized “there’s other options.”
“And if you want Democrats to pay attention to you in a way that’s meaningful, you might have to vote for some Republicans along the way,” Mr. Rogers said.
Similar conversations are taking place across the country. Team Trump has hosted barbershop events in cities including Atlanta and held a “Black empowerment” event on financial literacy Friday in battleground North Carolina.
Razor-thin margins could decide the presidency in November, but the edge feels sharper in Michigan. Mr. Trump won the state by just 11,612 votes in 2016. In 2020, Mr. Biden won Michigan by 154,188 votes and secured the presidency. Polls show Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are in a neck-and-neck match in Michigan, where each constituency could swing the election. The Black population of Michigan was nearly 1.4 million in 2022.
Christina Barr, a political consultant at Raise the Barr Productions, explained why she would vote for Mr. Trump. “Kamala Harris says she’s for women’s bodies, but if I recall, the Biden-Harris administration was forcing small businesses to get the jab,” she said, referencing the COVID-19 vaccine, “and my sister almost lost her job for that, but Trump didn’t instate mandates like that.”
The conversation allowed for open dialogue about some of the audience members’ histories with incarceration. Mr. Sewell said he was “saved at church,” and Pastor Andre Faulkner of the Balm Deliverance Movement told the crowd he also had spent time in prison.
“If we are going to say Trump is a felon, well, I am kind of partial to that because I’m a felon,” Mr. Faulkner said. The crowd clapped and shouted “Yes” in unison.
Mr. Rogers stressed the link between education and incarceration. Citing lower literacy rates among Black children, he asked what happens to students who get passed through school or someone who graduates from high school at a sixth-grade reading level and can’t fill out a job application. “Think about what is happening in your life. Where are you going?”
With a resigned response, those gathered in the room offered up: “Prison.”
The people in the room said they are looking to the Trump administration to fix the problems they face in Michigan, including education failures, inflation, abortion and food insecurity.
“Our children are not literate. … I’m really trying to make the case for conservative values and conservative approach to policies that really uplift our community,” Mrs. Tarver said.
The Department of Education shows Michigan’s ranking in fourth-grade reading levels dropped significantly from 32nd in 2019 to 43rd nationally in 2020.
“Black folks on the left want to talk about equity and, you know, equality. I have no problem with equality. Equity is not going to be achieved unless our children are educated,” Mrs. Tarver said.
Mr. Faulkner said he found the arrangement of the Trump event informative to expose him to ideas he hadn’t considered, and he stressed his desire to be open-minded.
“I’ve never really thought about [voting] Republican at all. Never. Until today. I’m serious. When I look in the mirror, I know what I see, and it is just we vote Democrat, it is inherent, it is ingrained,” Mr. Faulkner said.
• Jason Goode, Cierra Morgan and Sana Mahmud reported courtesy of the California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
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