FOIA Friday: Trump's Detroit support
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President Donald Trump got more Detroit votes in November's election than any Republican candidate since 2000, per data obtained by Axios.
- Kamala Harris, meanwhile, garnered fewer votes in the city than any Democratic candidate in the same period.
Why it matters: The results put Trump's victory in a new context; the city's presidential results available to the public online somehow only go back to 2008.
Driving the news: We're bringing back our FOIA Friday series to show how the state's public records law works — or doesn't — and to shine a light on public information that's harder to get than it should be.
Catch up quick: In the days leading up to Nov. 5, we attempted to compile city results for the past several presidential elections.
- Our in-person inquiries at the city and county clerks' offices failed, so we had to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Oct. 30 with the Wayne County clerk's office.
- While some FOIA requests can be costly, we got these records for free about six weeks later, on Dec. 17.
The intrigue: Trump's 2024 Detroit vote total of 19,638 narrowly exceeded former President George W. Bush's 19,343 when he was reelected in 2004.
The bottom line: This is another example we've encountered of public information that has been inaccessible without working knowledge of Michigan's cumbersome FOIA law.