Robin D. Stephens lived through Jim Crow and thought the worst days of racism were behind her. Then President Donald Trump told four American congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from.”
Said 61-year-old Stephens, “It was very hurtful to see the person who is the leader of the country that I live in and that I respect and love, speak that way to U.S. citizens.” Stephens is a retired public defender who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., reports the Associated Press. But Stephens is tired of talking about Trump’s racist tweets. She is ready to take her pain to the polls.
“What I want to talk about now to people and to get people excited about and to get people wanting to go out to vote about now is the fact that this came from the White House,” Stephens said. “We can change that. And the way we change that is by voting.”
Democratic presidential candidates gathering in Detroit on Wednesday to address the annual NAACP convention will need voters like Stephens to keep that passion heading into next year’s election. Trump is gambling that his attacks on the four congresswomen, which he revived on Tuesday, will help him secure another term in the White House by galvanizing his most fervent, overwhelmingly White supporters.
But dozens of Black leaders, activists and voters in pivotal swing states said they’re just as motivated to vote and won’t forget Trump’s actions. “I see more people engaged and responding to the comments, people who aren’t political, friends of mine who vote more casually, they are responding,” said Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, who is Black and from Milwaukee, where Democrats will meet to declare their nominee at the party’s convention next summer. In 2016, black turnout was down about 7 percentage points nationally compared with 2012, according to census estimates. Barnes said the Republican president’s comments are resonating with people “in a more real way” than past statements he’s made, which could translate into increased turnout next November.
