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But now on top of that, three times a week, 29-year-old Caldwell-Liddell is racing to get Detroit voters, especially the black community, to, in her words, "wake up."

Trump's Michigan victory was one of the biggest surprises of 2016. He won the state by just 10,704 votes. Wayne County, which includes Detroit, the largest Black-majority city in the country, was critical to that result. Hillary Clinton still won the county by a large margin -- but she received about 76,000 fewer votes than President Barack Obama did in 2012.

While Caldwell-Liddell is motivated and focused on preventing Trump's re-election, she also says, "the Democratic Party has not done a good job at all in taking care of communities like ours." And it's she clear she struggles with that burden.

"(Democrats) take us for granted because they know that Black women are going to help them get the big wins they need, where it matters. But they also know that they can give us the bare minimum, knowing that we aren't going to choose the other side," she said. "

"It says we still got a long way to go when the backbone of the country is the most neglected piece of the country," she said.

She isn't coordinating with any campaign, but she is pounding the pavement at bus stops and outside convenience stores to try to make sure Detroiters are registered to vote and are going to vote. Many of them are disillusioned by the systemic racism they see within their city, the President's response to the coronavirus pandemic that has hit minority communities hardest and the economic inequality that has persisted for decades in Detroit and is only made worse by the pandemic.

"I know for a fact that if just a portion of the folks who sat home in 2016 made it to the polls, had someone to empower them to do it, that could have changed the outcome for Michigan," Caldwell-Liddell said.

"On countless days when I go out and canvass, I will go up and talk to someone and they'll say, 'Listen, lady, I know that what you're saying is probably right. I know that you just want me to get out and vote. But I'm sorry. I've got gotta feed my kids. I don't even have time to listen to what you're saying,'" she said. "That's a part of why I started doing this work with Mobilize Detroit...because at this point, this is our survival now. What happens politically is a part of our survival. And there's no escaping that."

Fighting against apathy

Amber Davis, 29, is one of those people who sat out the 2016 election after supporting Obama in 2012.

"I didn't like Trump and I didn't like Hillary," Davis said. "I didn't really care who won that election."

Davis, a part-time massage therapist and full-time student pursuing a career in IT, says she cares now. She's voting for Biden, even though she says she doesn't really like him either.

"If I get Trump out of office by voting for Biden, then so be it," she said. Davis adds it is the President's handling of the pandemic that clinched her vote this time. "This coronavirus and everything that's going on, it is horrible. So he got to go."

She says she is disillusioned by politics in general because she says no matter which party wins the White House, her life doesn't get any easier.

"We feel like our votes don't matter. We feel like it's just a waste of time," Davis said.

Caldwell-Liddell knows what it is like to not have time for politics, especially presidential politics. In just the past year, she says her family was forced out of a home they had rented for the past four years. Then the next home had plumbing issues and instead of fixing it, the landlord simply just had the water shutoff, requiring Caldwell-Liddell to take them to court to get anything fixed. In the midst of all of this, she lost her pregnancy.

"I ended up having a stillbirth at seven months pregnant, living in a house with no water in a city that did not care to take care of me," she said. "And things like that are allowed to happen because when folks like me are too worried about surviving to pay attention to what's happening down at City Hall."

She is now turning that apathy into action.

"I know that as a voter and as a Black woman, that there is a job that I have to do in order to get a representative who will come close to protecting my people in office. But I'm not necessarily excited about having another representative there who really does not inherently understand the needs of our community."

Caldwell-Liddell is voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spending free time that she doesn't have trying to get others in Detroit to vote for him, but she's not excited about it. This election for her is more a vote against Trump.

"I don't really have many feelings towards Joe Biden one way or the other," she says. "Kamala (Harris) makes me feel a lot better than Joe, to be honest with you."

She says getting Trump out of office means life or death for her community. "Donald Trump is a president that does not care about people that look like me, about people like me, in any shape or form."

Sitting out any election is something 63-year-old Markita Blanchard simply does not understand.

"I've always voted straight down the street," she says while sitting in her backyard filled with the plants and flowers she shows off with pride. "There is no justifiable excuse not to."

"People died for that right for us to have the opportunity to vote," she added.

Like Caldwell-Liddell, Blanchard has also lived in Detroit her whole life. She and her three brothers still live in the house they grew up in, now all taking care of their 93-year-old mother.

Blanchard works as a janitor at a local public school. While she describes her childhood in the westside of Detroit as a "fairytale," she describes life today as a struggle.

"We're not exactly living paycheck to paycheck. I consider myself living paycheck and a half to paycheck," she said.

The main street in her neighborhood looks nothing like how Blanchard describes it from her childhood. A "ghost town" now sits where grocery stores, dry cleaners, Black-owned gas stations and a movie theatre once stood. This economic collapse is one reason Blanchard is voting for Biden. She says she's with him "100%," reserving more colorful language to describe Trump.

"He's full of s***. I'm saying he has done nothing," Blanchard says with an apology. "It's like we're living in a sitcom and it's not funny. It's not funny at all."

"I've had people say, well, he's not my President. I didn't vote," Blanchard recalls with visible anger. "I say, if you did not vote, you did vote for him."

Impact of coronavirus and police shootings

One critical pursuit of the Biden campaign in Michigan is to turn out those voters who didn't vote in 2016. But the Trump campaign is also taking steps to court those same people, including setting up an office just down the road from the Democratic Party's on Detroit's West side, covered with signs declaring "Black Voices for Trump."

"I've never seen it. I've never seen it ever, ever before," said President Pro Tempore of the Detroit City Council Mary Sheffield. "What that tells me is the importance of not only Michigan but Detroit in the black vote, the importance of the black vote...because both parties need us."

Sheffield says she is worried about what she senses is still a lack of enthusiasm this late in the game among Democrats in Detroit. She thinks the coronavirus pandemic is partly to blame.

"Joe Biden is not really the most exciting person. And I think, unfortunately, in light of COVID, we lost that personal touch with him that a lot of communities need to get them excited and to get them engaged," Sheffield said.

The coronavirus has disproportionally hit Black communities across the country, and Detroit is no exception. African Americans have made up 62.2% of the more than 14,000 confirmed cases in Detroit and 82.9% of the deaths.

While coronavirus may have hurt grassroot engagement for the campaigns, Sheffield says a different issue is sure to motivate Black voters.

"What we saw with George Floyd did spark a reaction in so many people and I think that's going to help also increase some of the voter turnout that we see in Detroit," she said.

Federal action in the police killing of Breonna Taylor is the one thing Davis says could actually swing her vote and convince her to vote for Trump.

"He could get Breonna Taylor's killers arrested, that's what he could do," she said. "I would definitely vote for Trump."

Taylor's death also weighs heavily on Wendy Caldwell-Liddell.

"When you're black in America, you know racism is alive and well," she says when asked about it.

She pauses, looks off, and shifts in her chair.

"Now I have to battle with that on top of the thoughts of when I send my son into the world," she said. "And now it's when me and my daughter are at home asleep, minding our business. Now, I've got to think about that, too."

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Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. And they feel the heavy burden of this election. - CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats controlling the House narrowly passed a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Thursday night, a move that came as top-level talks on a smaller, potentially bipartisan measure dragged on toward an uncertain finish. An air of pessimism has largely taken over the Capitol.

The Democratic bill passed after a partisan debate by a 214-207 vote without any Republicans in support. The move puts lawmakers no closer to actually delivering aid such as more generous weekly unemployment payments, extended help for small businesses and especially troubled economic sectors such as restaurants and airlines, and another round of $1,200 direct payments to most Americans.

Passage of the $2.2 trillion plan came after a burst of negotiations this week between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The Trump administration delivered concessions Wednesday, including a $400 per week pandemic jobless benefit and a markedly higher overall price tag of $1.6 trillion, but that failed to win over Pelosi.

This isnt half a loaf, this is the heel of the loaf, Pelosi said in a televised interview Thursday. Pelosi spoke after the White House attacked her as not being serious.

The ramped-up negotiations come as challenging economic news continues to confront policymakers. The airlines are furloughing about 30,000 workers with the expiration of aid passed earlier this year, and a report Thursday showed 837,000 people claiming jobless benefits for the first time last week. Most of the economic benefits of an immediate round of COVID relief could accrue under the next administration, and failure now could mean no significant help for struggling families and businesses until February.

The vote was advertised as a way to demonstrate Democrats were making a good faith offer on coronavirus relief, but 18 Democrats abandoned the party and sentiment remains among more moderate Democrats to make more concessions and guarantee an agreement before Election Day. Republicans controlling the Senate remained divided.

Talks between Mnuchin and Pelosi were closely held and the Speaker told reporters that no deal would come on Thursday. Mnuchins offer of a $400 per week jobless benefit put him in the same ballpark as Democrats backing a $600 benefit. Mnuchins price tag of $1.6 trillion or more could drive many Republicans away, however, even as it failed to satisfy Pelosi.

We raised our offer to $1.6 trillion, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Thursday. Its one that she is is not interested in.

Mnuchin and Pelosi spoke by phone Thursday, but the speaker was publicly dismissive of the latest White House plan. Discussions are continuing, Pelosi said.

The White House plan, offered Wednesday, gave ground with a $250 billion proposal on funding for state and local governments and backed $20 billion in help for the struggling airline industry.

Details on the White House offer were confirmed by congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door discussions.

As the talks dragged on, House leaders announced a Thursday evening vote on their scaled-back HEROES Act, which started out as a $3.4 trillion bill in May but is now down to $2.2 trillion after Pelosi cut back her demands for aiding state and local governments. The legislation came after party moderates openly criticized her stance.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has drawn a line in the sand and warns that Trump wont approve legislation that approaches a $2 trillion threshold. But theres plenty of wiggle room in numbers so large, and the revenue picture for many states is not as alarming as feared when Democrats passed more than $900 billion for state and local governments in May.

Pelosi said Thursday that the administration is still far short on aid to state and local governments and in other areas.

Some of you have asked, Isnt something better than nothing? No, Pelosi told reporters, citing the opportunity cost for provisions sought by Democrats but potentially lost in any rush to agreement.

At issue is a long-delayed package that would extend another round of $1,200 direct stimulus payments, restore bonus pandemic jobless benefits, speed aid to schools and extend assistance to airlines, restaurants and other struggling businesses. A landmark $2 trillion relief bill in March passed with sweeping support and is credited with helping the economy through the spring and summer, but worries are mounting that the recovery may sputter without additional relief.

Pelosi has largely assumed a hard line so far. But shes never had a reputation for leaving large sums of money on the table and her tactical position facing a White House and Senate controlled by Republicans is not as strong as her demands might indicate.

The White House also seems far more eager for a deal than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Any compromise that could pass both the House and Senate is sure to alienate a large chunk of the Senate GOP. McConnell expressed support for the talks and another bill but isnt leaning into the effort. But some of his members appear worried that the deadlock is harming their reelection bids.

Id like to see another rescue package. Weve been trying for months to get there, McConnell told reporters Thursday. I wish them well.

Even if Pelosi and Mnuchin were able to reach a tentative agreement on top line spending levels, dozens of details would need to be worked out. A particularly difficult issue, Pelosi told her colleagues earlier in the day, remains McConnells insistence on a liability shield for businesses fearing COVID-related lawsuits after they reopen their doors.

The latest Democratic bill would revive a $600-per-week pandemic jobless benefit and send a second round of direct payments to most individuals. It would scale back an aid package to state and local governments to a still-huge $436 billion, send $225 billion to colleges and universities and deliver another round of subsidies to businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program. Airlines would get another $25 billion in aid to prevent a wave of layoffs.

Read more:
House Democrats pass partisan COVID bill; relief talks drag - The Associated Press

President Trumps exhortation Dont be afraid of Covid was denounced by Democrats and others who criticized him for taking a dismissive tone about a disease that has killed more than 200,000 Americans, sickened more than 7.4 million and upended daily life across the country.

Dont be afraid of Covid, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter after announcing his plan to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he was brought by helicopter on Friday after testing positive for the coronavirus. Dont let it dominate your life.

His statement quickly resonated in the political world, with some Democrats denouncing it as cavalier, saying it implicitly suggested that those who died after contracting the virus were weak. And several warned that minimizing the dangers posed by a virus that is spreading across the country and the highest levels of government sent a dangerous message at a moment health officials are pleading with the public to take precautions, wear masks and practice social distancing.

Dont be afraid of Covid is an evil thing to say to those of us who lost our loved ones to Covid 19, Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota whose father died from complications of Covid-19, wrote on Twitter. This man is unfit to be President, he lacks the compassion and humanity it takes to lead our country.

Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University in Atlanta, responded to the presidents post with one of his own: Are you telling the relatives of 210,000 Americans who have died of #COVID19 not to be afraid? Please tell everyone the truth once and for all, this is serious & #WearAMask You didnt and got infected.

Julin Castro, a former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote: More than 200,000 American lives have been lost to Covid-19. The president himself and countless staff have been infected. Yet, nine months into the pandemic, the presidents advice is dont be afraid of Covid.

Several Republicans embraced Mr. Trumps dismissive message. Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, tweeted: COVID stood NO chance against @realDonaldTrump and shared a crudely doctored video of the president in a wresting match with the virus. And Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida posted: President Trump wont have to recover from COVID. COVID will have to recover from President Trump.

Many Democrats noted that Mr. Trump has access to better health care than most Americans. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, reacted to the presidents tweet by posting tell that to all the Americans who - unlike you - DONT have access to the best healthcare in the world, funded entirely by taxpayers.

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut went further, noting reports showing that Mr. Trump had paid little or no federal income tax in recent years. Dont be afraid, says the guy with a team of a dozen doctors, access to experimental treatments that no one else gets, a four room hospital suite, who lives in a house with top doctors on site 24/7, he wrote on Twitter. All of which is provided to him for free because he refuses to pay taxes.

In all seriousness, the Presidents incompetence has already gotten 200,000 killed, he added. The consequences of this tweet will probably kill a couple thousand more. Just bone chilling.

The doctor overseeing President Trumps care, Dr. Sean P. Conley, was asked about the presidents tweet at a news conference on Monday afternoon at Walter Reed. Im not going to get into what the president says, he said at the briefing, where he had also noted that the president was not out of the woods yet in his fight against Covid-19.

Read more:
Trumps Dont Be Afraid of Covid Tweet Is Denounced by Democrats - The New York Times

Democrats flood the courts

More election-related lawsuits have been filed this year than in the last two decades, according to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project, which is tracking the cases. These suits, filed in nearly all 50 states, challenge voter ID laws, polling place consolidations, widespread purges from the rolls and multistep absentee ballot processes. Lawsuits have snowballed in response to the coronavirus, with an increase of more than 300 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the Stanford-MIT database shows.

Some primary elections held at the height of the virus spread in the United States were plagued by last-minute polling place changes and closures as well as long wait times. Voting rights advocates point to the complicated primary elections in Georgia and Wisconsin as a warning sign that Covid-19 could expedite efforts to limit turnout among Black and Latino voters, who have been disproportionately harmed by the virus.

Still, Democrats say they're encouraged by a handful of wins in the courts. On Sept. 28, a U.S. district judge in Georgia ordered state election officials to prepare paper copies of voter registration and absentee voting information for each of the state's polling places, should problems arise with their digital voting system on Election Day.

Also last month, a Nevada judge dismissed a case filed by Trumps reelection campaign that tried to bar the state from mailing ballots to all active voters. Early voting in the state begins on Oct. 17.

In other states, however, Democrats had mixed results. A 2015 Wisconsin law requiring voters to present photo IDs to vote drew seven separate lawsuits from groups in the state, according to a tracker from the Brennan Center for Justice.

The lawsuit alleges the law, which does not count student IDs alone as a valid form of identification, is a violation of voters 14th Amendment rights to vote unburdened. That law was upheld by a federal judge on Wednesday, who ruled changing it would cause unnecessary confusion so close to the election.

In 2018, the Florida electorate voted overwhelmingly for Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to as many as 1.4 million formerly incarcerated people. But earlier this month, Floridas Supreme Court ruled that people with former felony convictions could vote only if they paid all their fines, court debts and fees. The ruling, which would keep hundreds of thousands of returning citizens from being able to vote, was a major blow to voting rights advocates, who view the requirement as a poll tax.

Our government is supposed to be seeking ways to expand democracy, to make sure that all of its citizens have a very unencumbered pathway to being able to participate in elections, said Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Voting Rights Restoration Coalition, which led the movement to pass Amendment 4.

They should not be seeking ways to restrict that. And when they do that, they're really breaking a contract with people, Meade continued. They're supposed to provide this access. They're supposed to want to create a more inclusive democracy.

Outside of the courts, efforts to keep dissuade voters from casting a ballot still loom.

One automated call in Illinois, sponsored by right-wing hoaxer Jacob Wohl, used paranoia to discourage Black voters from mailing in their ballots. In the call, a womans voice can be heard telling voters their personal information would be added to a public database and that they could be arrested for outstanding warrants or be forced to participate in Covid-19 vaccine trials.

Dont be finessed into giving your private information to 'the man,' the woman says. Stay safe and beware of vote by mail.

On Thursday, Michigan's attorney general charged Wohl and Jack Burkman, another conservative operative, with felonies in an alleged robocall scheme to suppress the vote.

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November's coming. Are Democrats losing the battle over voter suppression? - POLITICO

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Democrats are optimistic they can advance their new $2.2-trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

I know Nancy Pelosi is very serious about wanting to get to a deal. Shes made enormous concessions so far, Virginia Congressman Don Beyer said.

Beyer hopes Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will reach an agreement.

As long as those two are talking, and as long as Mitch McConnell ultimately will accept what the White House tells him to do, I think were all staying balanced on the balls of our feet, ready to come back and vote, Beyer said.

Republicans arent as enthusiastic and say even this less expensive bill costs too much.

I really dont think were closer to a deal. I think we need to do things that are specific to COVID and not really partisan wish list types of items, Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman said.

Riggleman says the new Heroes Act still includes too many unnecessary items.

Pennsylvania Congressman Dan Meuser says Democrats arent focused on helping the American public.

Are we trying to transform our nation or are we trying to fix a problem? We gotta stay focused on recovery, we gotta stay focused on finding a vaccine and we gotta stay focused on law and order, Meuser said.

After passing the House last week, the bill is on its way to the Senate.

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Heroes Act 2.0 passes in the House, Democrats optimistic while Republicans disappointed - ABC27