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People Mover
The Republicans held their convention in Detroit in 1980. They had a presidential debate earlier this year at the Fox Theatre and they've been known to deliver key speeches here during presidential campaigns even though the mayor, the council and state and Congressional lawmakers are Democrats.
Emily Badger writes in the Washington Post:
But Republican aspirants keep turning up there — as Donald Trump plans on Monday to give an economic address — to explain what ails America and how they can fix it. The GOP held one of its primary debates in Detroit in March. Jeb Bush went there early last year to give his first major policy speech back when it looked like he could still become president. Rand Paul did the same in 2013, on a trip that coincided with Republican Party fanfare opening a local "African-American Engagement Office."
Detroit is a convenient place for Republicans to argue that Democratic ideas have failed even hard-core Democratic voters. Or, as Ted Cruz put it at the March debate: "Let me start by observing that Detroit is a great city with a magnificent legacy that has been utterly decimated by 60 years of failed left-wing policy."
This notion that liberalism itself destroyed Detroit (and, now, nearby Flint) is common among conservative commentators. And if you ignore the promising signs, the city certainly serves up enough dire images to buttress the claim. Those ghost factories. The boarded-up homes. The once-grand but abandoned train station.
