Green Party presidential hopeful Stein to visit Detroit
Green Party presidential hopeful Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka are planning a campaign rally Sept. 3 in Detroit — the same day Republican Donald Trump will be stumping for votes in the Motor City.
Stein’s Michigan campaign volunteers are organizing an event from noon to 3 p.m. on Sept. 3 at Bert’s Warehouse Theater, 2739 Russell St., near Eastern Market. Stein will be joined by vice presidential candidate Baraka in what the Green Party is billing as their first joint appearance since the party's Houston convention in early August.
The event will be free and feature political activists speaking out against Detroit’s water shutoffs, state emergency management of financially strapped cities and contracting out of public school services to private companies, said organizer LuAnne Kozma of Charlevoix.
“The whole ticket’s going to be here,” said Kozma, volunteer coordinator for Stein’s Michigan campaign. “I’m so excited. This might be her only visit to Michigan in this whole campaign.”
Stein, a Massachusetts doctor, is making her second White House bid as the Green Party nominee. Baraka, a human rights activist from Chicago, is running as the Green Party’s vice presidential nominee.
In 2012, Stein received 21,897 votes in Michigan, less than half of a percentage point among the 4.7 million votes cast in that year’s presidential election.
Among the entertainers scheduled to be at the three-hour Green Party event are former Detroit City Councilwoman Martha Reeves, a longtime Motown pop singer; the Bill Meyer Group; and Sturge Moreland, formerly with The Temptations.
Stein’s campaign stop in Detroit on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend will coincide with Trump’s plans to visit the city in an appeal to African-American voters.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, a former Republican governor from New Mexico, is coming to Detroit on Sept. 14 to speak to the Detroit Economic Club.
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