Republican businessman John James, who is running against Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), bashed the Democratic Party in a video ahead of the Tuesday general election, saying the party’s “business model” is designed to keep “black folks dependent on the government.”
“Countless people have died for our right to think and to vote for ourselves,” said James, who is black, in his video released on Monday morning. “Yet, Democratic leadership asks us to outsource our voice on a straight-ticket ballot to a Godless party that neither represents our values, nor our economic best interests.”
“We’ve marched from Selma to New York, we’ve rebelled from Watts to Detroit and ain’t nothing changed in fifty years. The Democratic party leadership cares more about the black vote than the black people, and it’s time to wake up. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can have a seat at both tables, and we can elevate our people together,” said James.
I was raised by 2 Democrats from the Jim Crow south who taught me that “if God ain’t in it, he ain’t on it.” It’s time to wake up. Neither party is perfect, but neither party will get better if they don’t have to earn our votes and reflect our values. pic.twitter.com/79YZmqGfp7
— John James (@JohnJamesMI) November 2, 2020
President Donald Trump, who hosted a rally in Michigan on Monday evening, invited James to speak on stage, calling him a “tremendous guy” and the state’s next senator.
Once on the rally stage, the Republican senate challenger dunked on Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Peters for their status as political insiders, declaring that, despite their time in Washington, D.C., “we still have a life that doesn’t benefit all of us.”
“We need to get leadership that’s been tested in the real world, people who understand how to create jobs in the real world who can continue to bring results for everyone,” James told the crowd, later adding: “Only you can drain the swamp.”
James’ opponent has been referred to as one of the least known senators in the country. Although Peters was elected to the U.S. senate in 2015, a survey in January 2019, around the time his re-election campaign was starting, found that nearly 4 in 10 of voters in Michigan had never even heard of him, according to Detroit News.
In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Peters has a 5.5% lead over James heading into election day and has an 83% chance of winning the election. Back in 2018, James lost to long-time Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who was first elected in 2000, by 6.5%.
Trump narrowly beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Michigan back in 2016, 47.3% to the Democratic candidate’s 47%, marking the first time the state went Republican in the electoral college since 1988.
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