The Black Voters Who Could Decide the Country’s Biggest Democratic Primary

DETROIT, Michigan — On Saturday afternoon, Representative Haley Stevens was walking down Livernois Avenue when she spotted a black woman in a bedazzled “I <3 Jazz” T-shirt, clutching her husband’s arm as if to ask: Don’t I know that woman?

“Yeah, that’s right,” Stevens said, high-fiving her. “Your girl here!”

She reminded the couple that Tuesday is the last day to vote in a Senate primary that could determine whether Democrats retake the chamber in November. For a congresswoman carrying the weight of the Democratic establishment on her shoulders, Stevens is remarkably at ease. She’s a hugger, a hand-holder, the kind of politician who tells one voter “I love you” before greeting another with, “Hi, handsome, how are you?”

For months, Stevens, a moderate, has been dropping in the polls as her opponent, an anti-Israel populist named Abdul El-Sayed, soared. But then a poll released earlier this month showed Stevens up 46 points among black voters. That helps explain why Stevens, 43, is here in Sherwood Forest, a prominent black community north of Seven Mile Road, sticking it out even through the rain.

“Amazing shirt, by the way,” I watched her tell a black man in a T-shirt with the message “THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS NEEDED AFRICA” in all caps.