DETROIT—For the supporters who filed into the same Detroit high school President Joe Biden visited in March 2020, the concern they’ve heard from some Democrats in Washington hasn’t dampened their support for the 81-year-old president.
“I believe he has America’s best interest in mind and I also believe he has his pulse on global politics far more than anyone has in recent history,” Richard Zulkak, an IBEW electrician from Southeast Michigan, told The Epoch Times on July 12.
Mr. Zulkak describes himself as “not a party voter.” The military veteran said the debate “hasn’t affected my perception at all” of President Biden.
“He’s not a young man,” Mr. Zulkak said. “But at the end of the day, I still am a firm supporter of the Democratic Party in this election and President Joe Biden. He’s going to have good debates. He’s going to have bad debates.”
President Biden has sought to allay concerns about his campaign after some Democrat lawmakers and donors called for him to step down as the party nominee following his debate performance against the former president on June 27.
Standing in front of hundreds of supporters at Renaissance High School, some holding signs that read “Motown is Joetown,” the president told them: “I am running and we’re going to win.”
Mr. Zulkak said that he believes the president is the best candidate to beat former President Donald Trump “at this stage of the game” but suggested he would like to see the Democratic Party put forward “better, more viable candidates” in future elections.
Great Lakes Battleground
Michigan is important for President Biden’s path to reelection. He won the state’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 by a more than two-point margin after former President Trump won Michigan in 2016 by a narrow margin of 0.23 percent.However, if you ask Arab American Ramez Khuri, 47, of Bloomfield Hills, the situation in his community is far more complicated than many assume.
He told The Epoch Times that he doesn’t like the situation in the Gaza Strip and wishes it was being handled differently, but he reiterated his support for the president.
“I don’t trust the other side to handle it better than Biden is doing it. So, at this point, my thought is I want the best for America first, and then we will want to address the issue of Gaza after Biden is elected,” Mr. Khuri said.
He said that while it is “understandable” that a lot of Arab Michiganders are critical of the president’s policy toward Israel, his community is not united in this view.
“I hear both sides, really. I hear people saying that they think that Biden is going to be fine, and he’s going to do the best job,” Mr. Khuri said.
Mr. Khuri, who has worked on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company for 11 years, called the first debate a “bad night” for the president but believes the media will move on to other topics as Election Day nears.
In his speech, President Biden listed promises for a second term—including an eventual action plan within 100 days of inauguration—and emphasized his commitment to union workers.
Kristy Burgess, a teacher from South Lyon, Michigan, also came out to support President Biden, who she described as “the most influential president of my lifetime.”
Ms. Burgess has not always voted for Democrats, she told The Epoch Times, but she is currently leaning “more heavily left” than at any other point in her life.
The teacher described a tense environment in her contemporary global issues class following the June 27 debate and the media frenzy that followed.
“What we should be talking about is very, very even coverage of both candidates that are running for president, and that has not happened,” Ms. Burgess said.
She believes that historically, “debates have not decided presidential elections” and that she'd rather focus conversations on substantive policy issues instead. Still, Ms. Burgess wishes Democrats would stay united behind President Biden, and said the calls for him to leave the race are “dividing the party and hurting ourselves.”
She is not alone in her calls for unity. Brenda Faye Butler, 77, a community worker from Detroit, defended the president’s debate performance and said it had “nothing to do” with the work he has done “for the last three and a half years that he has served in office.”
“I am confident and I am certain that the party will stand behind Joe Biden,” she told The Epoch Times.
Ms. Butler, who was raised by a coal miner in Birmingham, Alabama, and worked within the Civil Rights Movement when she was a teenager, said there is a lot of support for the president in the Great Lakes State.
“President Biden has always served us well for the city of Detroit and for the state of Michigan ... We are pleased with the work and the job that he has done in every area of government for the people and by the people,” she said.
