Local 1 Detroit Janitor Markita Blanchard Amongst Black Women Pushing for Voter Turnout this Election Season

 As the end of election season approaches, SEIU Local 1 janitor Markita Blanchard is using her voice to drive voter engagement in her community.  For months, essential workers like Markita have stood together to mobilize infrequent voters in her battleground state of Michigan, lifting up the voices of workers to make sure their issues are front and center when decisions are being made, starting with sending Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House. Markita also had some choice words for President Donald Trump when asked about his self-proclaimed support for Black communities.

The following is an excerpt from a story from CNN featuring Detroit Public School janitor and SEIU Local 1 member Markita Blanchard: 

“...Sitting out any election is something 63-year-old Markita Blanchard simply does not understand.

"’I've always voted straight down the street,’ she says while sitting in her backyard filled with the plants and flowers she shows off with pride. ‘There is no justifiable excuse not to.’"

"’People died for that right for us to have the opportunity to vote,’ she added.

“Like Caldwell-Liddell, Blanchard has also lived in Detroit her whole life. She and her three brothers still live in the house they grew up in, now all taking care of their 93-year-old mother.

“Blanchard works as a janitor at a local public school. While she describes her childhood in the westside of Detroit as a ‘fairytale,’ she describes life today as a struggle.

"’We're not exactly living paycheck to paycheck. I consider myself living paycheck and a half to paycheck,’ she said.

“The main street in her neighborhood looks nothing like how Blanchard describes it from her childhood. A ‘ghost town’ now sits where grocery stores, dry cleaners, Black-owned gas stations and a movie theatre once stood. This economic collapse is one reason Blanchard is voting for Biden. She says she's with him ‘100%,’ reserving more colorful language to describe Trump.

“To Detroiters who don't like President Trump but didn't vote in 2016, 63-year old Detroit native Markita Blanchard says, ‘If you did not vote, you did vote for him.’

"’He's full of s***. I'm saying he has done nothing,’ Blanchard says with an apology. "It's like we're living in a sitcom and it's not funny. It's not funny at all."

"I've had people say, well, he's not my President. I didn't vote,’ Blanchard recalls with visible anger. ‘I say, if you did not vote, you did vote for him."

Read the full story here.