ST. CLAIR SHORES, Michigan — Republicans often claim that there is a “silent Trump voter” phenomenon: those who are reluctant to voice support for the president for fear of professional and personal backlash.
That effect felt reversed in one of the counties most important for the 2020 election in Michigan.
Democratic voters in the suburbs of Detroit in Macomb County are still stunned by President Trump’s 2016 victory there and spoke about their support for Joe Biden in hushed voices for fear of upsetting the utterly un-shy Trump supporters who surround them.
One millennial man who said that he went to the woods and cried after Trump was elected in 2016 said that he had never seen so much support for a Republican in his community, citing a plethora of Trump signs, stickers, and attire. “It’s cult-like,” he said. He spoke to the Washington Examiner on the condition of not being named for fear of repelling those with whom he does business.
Macomb County helped push Trump to victory in his razor-thin 2016 win in Michigan. He won 53.6% of the country to Hillary Clinton’s 42.1%. Former President Barack Obama won the county by narrower margins in 2012 and 2008, and former President George W. Bush barely won over John Kerry there in 2004 despite losing to Al Gore in 2000.
Biden will visit the county on Wednesday to deliver a speech about his plan to boost made-in-America goods, but he will be in the city of Warren, one of its more liberal areas closer to Detroit that Clinton won in 2016. The former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee’s task is to boost engagement and turnout among the types of voters that didn’t come out for Clinton, particularly the white, working-class voters who reside in Macomb County and broke for Trump four years ago.
On that task, Biden has more work to do.
“I just can’t vote for someone who’s not all there,” said contractor Andy Williams, 36, referring to Biden’s mental acuity. Asked if that means that he will vote for Trump, he said yes. “I’m voting for the other guy.”
He remarked, though, that his brother is a Trump supporter while his sister-in-law plans to vote for Biden.
Travis Coffee Shop in St. Clair Shores was a microcosm of the divided community it sits in on Tuesday afternoon. Trump won 18,078 votes in the city to Clinton’s 14,011 in 2016. Despite its name, the circa-1968 joint is not a coffeehouse at all, but a no-frills 24-hour diner more famous for its burgers. A local remarked that all of the drunks from neighboring bars often end up there after the last call.
At around two in the afternoon on Tuesday, a thin, white-mustachioed older man sitting in the furthest booth away from the entrance wore a stark white “Make America Great Again” hat. On the opposite end of the establishment, sitting at the counter bar, was a young woman with blue pixie-cut hair and a flannel button-up over a Pink Floyd T-shirt.
Josh Bowman, who is in his late 20s, seemed reluctant to speak about his political opinions. Bowman confessed that while he hoped Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would win the Democratic presidential primary, he said that while he was not excited about Biden, “I’ll vote for him.”
Can Biden beat Trump? “I hope so,” Bowman said, “but I’m not sure.” He noted that he never sees people with Biden signs, hats, or T-shirts. “These people just came out of the woodwork,” he said of Trump supporters.
The businesses in the strip around Travis Coffee Shop, which was unusually walkable for the suburban Detroit area, housed some establishments that seemed to be from a bygone era. Instead of a Party City and a Victoria’s Secret, the street had a locally owned party supply store and lingerie store, along with a local firefighter-themed pub and a new brewery that is expanding despite the lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
A half-hour’s drive away, the Macomb County local Republican field office was a hub of activity in an otherwise quiet shopping center. Situated in an old National Guard recruiting office between a vacuum cleaner repair shop and a dance studio, the foot traffic in and out of the Trump office in the shopping center was rivaled only by a group of women who gathered to enter Pier 1 Imports for its going-out-of-business sale.
Biden is leading Trump by 3.2 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls for Michigan, but Sterling Heights resident Mel Koch, who is 63 and works in insurance, is confident about Trump’s chances.
Koch, who stopped in to to the Republican field office to pick up a bumper sticker, remarked about his neighborhood: “I see hundreds of Trump signs, and the only Biden sign I saw, it was ‘Hidin’ from Biden.’”
The question for Macomb County, and the election as a whole, is whether the loud and enthusiastic Trump supporters will translate to more votes or whether less-enthusiastic Biden voters and Trump haters will overwhelm them at the ballot box.
