Obama, Dems Try To Get Out The Vote
President Barack Obama has been on the campaign trail for various Democratic candidates across the country — but will it help?
Midterm elections, and the notoriously low voter turn-outs associated with them, are the subject of much attention.
WWJ spoke Monday with University of Michigan-Dearborn political science professor Ron Stockton, who explained why Obama is working to try to mobilize voters.
"He was elected really because young people and ethnic minorities voted for him in large numbers, and sad to say, those two groups are groups that tend to undervote," said Stockton.
With these groups of voters potentially sitting out the upcoming mid-term elections, the stakes are high for Democrats.
"If the Democrats have any chance at all, it's to get people to vote who probably would not vote in a congressional election — they would stay at home – and Obama is trying to mobilize that," Stockton said.
Stockton said past presidential efforts to effect mid-term elections have not been successful, and the outcome of the elections will depend on turnout.
Meantime, some of the party faithful in Detroit say it's not over. WWJ's Vickie Thomas spoke with Detroit City Council President Pro tem Gary Brown, who remains optomistic.
"The mainsteam media, you guys, looking at the polls and stuff -- it's really the voters that count. I think that if we can get 250,000 Detroiters to come out and vote in the Democratic party, that the Democrats will get ninety-percent of that and they'll be just fine. But it's all about getting the vote out," Brown said.
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