Detroit Denise
 | |
| Era | The Modern Era |
|---|---|
| Age | 45-60 |
| Home | Detroit, MI |
| Demographic | Black, union, urban |
| Lean | Strong Democrat |
| Race | black |
| Predecessor | Snowbird Angela |
Denise is a woman in her fifties who works on the line at a Detroit car plant, belongs to the United Auto Workers union, and votes Democratic. She judges a president by whether the factory keeps running and whose side he takes against the company.
Who they stand for
Denise represents Black union women in the industrial Midwest. They are among the most reliably Democratic voters in the country, and they are among the last voters for whom the Democratic Party still represents organised factory labour. Her decade begins with Detroit's bankruptcy in 2013 and Michigan's right-to-work law, which passed in 2012 and was repealed in 2023. It also includes the Flint water crisis, the 2019 strike at General Motors, and the 2023 strike against all three Detroit carmakers, in which a sitting president joined a picket line for the first time. She and Rust Belt Rick both welcome tariffs on Chinese cars and steel, even though he is white and Republican-leaning and she is Black and Democratic. This shows that opinion on trade follows economic class more than it follows party.
Her white Catholic predecessor, Snowbird Angela, held similar views on Social Security and the union, but voted for Bush once, after 9/11. By 2019, that kind of voter had mostly left the Democratic coalition. Denise represents what remains of the New Deal coalition of union voters.
Playing to them
Denise supports a president who stands with the union in public, such as one who joins a strike, appoints a labour board that rules for workers, imposes a tariff on imported cars, or awards a federal contract to an American company. Medicare for All and a defended Social Security also hold her support, as they do for Gospel Gloria and Woodstock Allen. She does not forgive a push for right-to-work laws, praise for a replacement worker during a strike, a factory allowed to relocate, or a trade agreement similar to NAFTA, and she sees a Wall Street bailout as company executives being paid before workers. She almost always votes Democratic, so what a president risks losing is not her vote but her effort on the campaign's behalf, and in Michigan that effort decides close elections in November.
Winning her support on tariffs also wins the support of Rust Belt Rick and Union Jack, but loses the support of Country Club Craig, whose income comes from the markets she wants regulated. A minimum-wage rise or a workplace-safety rule wins her support and loses Phoenix Pablo's, because he pays the cost of both as a business owner.
Where they live
The five states where Detroit Denise makes up the largest share of the electorate in the modern era:
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Maryland
- Alabama
Lineage
Bensonhurst Rosalie → Snowbird Angela → Detroit Denise
The New Deal Democrat, and the one pairing the cast forces across race. Rosalie votes her parents' party. Angela votes Kennedy's party and votes Bush once after 9/11. Denise votes the union's party. Their politics are the same: Social Security, the union, workers against bosses. What changes is who holds those politics. The white ethnic Catholic left the Democratic coalition over these thirty years, and by 2019 the old labour Democrat is Black.