Detroit, a city where a man gives second chances despite his convictions of a felony and a federal prison term: a Detroit mayor who served time in federal prison for corruption and Kilpatrick for corruption

The suburbs might be against Trump because of his felony convictions. But for tens of thousands of blue-collar city dwellers, a felony is just a fact of life.

The former mayor of Detroit who served time in federal prison for corruption, and who is now a Republican, spoke for Trump as a man who gives second chances. Trump commuted Kilpatrick’s 28-year prison sentence in 2021.

The state of Michigan became the first in the country to pass a law last year that automatically tracks people who get out of prison and register them to vote. These former inmates — who often struggle to get jobs and housing because of long-ago convictions — don’t love the idea of electing a prosecutor. Every time Harris calls Trump a felon, that’s a “a reminder of what she thinks of us,” one man who is trying to rebuild his life after a prison sentence told me.

But another reason comes to mind. Many blue-collar residents of Detroit went to prison at some point in their lives, instead of college. In the aftermath of mass incarceration, there are more than 100,000 adults in Detroit who have been convicted of a felony, and some 19 million around the country. It is a state that Trump won by less than 11,000 votes.

She mentioned the people she knew who were voting for Trump — a hairdresser, a landscaper, a former flight attendant — and told me that yes, there did seem to be a class divide going on. She gave out pins and wristbands. “I’ve had people give it back to me,” she told me. She thought that the celebrities that Trump surrounds himself with might be related to his blue-collar appeal. At a rally in Detroit last week, Trump brought a rapper and a boxer to the stage.

Though Harris enjoys support among six in 10 young Black Americans, it’s a drop compared to Biden’s standing in GenForward’s poll from four years ago, when more than seven in 10 backed him.

It was a good ad. And yet, I can’t help noticing something that isn’t so great for the Harris campaign in the city, and it’s about an economic and educational class divide.

Detroit has been receiving a lot of love. It seems like a day does not go by that Kamala Harris isn’t appearing there with Lizzo or Oprah or Barack Obama. Donald Trump has been there a lot, even if his message is off-key: At the Detroit Economic Club, he warned the people of Detroit that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s our president.” Harris turned that into an ad that talks about the city’s pride, resilience and remarkable comeback.

Despite her advantage, the GenForward poll points to a key challenge still remaining for Harris. Despite the findings that show the vice president is doing a better job than President Biden is doing, she hasn’t been able to match the support that Biden received from young Americans in the 2020 election. That support diminished during Biden’s presidency, and Harris has been unable to regain it.

A new poll finds that young voters may be cooling off their enthusiasm for the Harris campaign by the time voting closes in two weeks.

Harris and Trump are virtually tied among young white Americans — the only group, under 45, that Trump won in 2020 — but the former president now holds a slight edge that is within the margin of error among young white women.

The survey, which was exclusively obtained by NPR, gauged the opinions of more than 2,300 people. The individuals under the age of 40 can be seen in September and October.

The executive director of the GenForward poll, who is also a professor at the University of Chicago, thinks many voters who align with the Democratic Party think the threat of Trump is imminent.

The GenForward poll details a complicated picture of support for Harris when it comes to young voters — especially when broken down by race and ethnicity.

Among young Black women, just 12% said they were supporting Trump, but an additional 16% said they wanted “someone else” when given the options of Trump, Harris and a handful of third party candidates.

The findings come as Trump has grounded a sizable portion of his campaign’s outreach to young voters in interview appearances with a handful of popular male influencers and podcast hosts that have shows geared toward young men.

It is an issue that Harris has been campaigning on in recent times, given that youth turnout has previously been driven by access to the procedure. She leads Trump in young voter trust on issues related to racism and inequality, giving housing opportunities and protecting democracy.

Cohen said that many potential voters look at Harris as being attached to a Biden administration that did not handle inflation in particular.

Economic concerns are the most important election issue for Americans under the age of 40, according to the survey.

Instead, a third of respondents in the poll said they still want to learn more — particularly young Americans of color — presenting an opportunity for the Harris campaign to potentially pick up more votes, but the clock is ticking.