MICHIGAN—Tyler Sterling says he already knows what the morning after Election Day will look like. Pundits who “don’t necessarily look like me,” he said, will be on TV explaining how Black men voted. And this year, he wants Black men across Michigan to tell that story first.
Sterling, the NAACP’s director of campaigns, is helping lead a push by five Black-led organizations to reach 100,000 Black men before early voting opens statewide on Oct. 24. The NAACP, the National Urban League, Black Men Vote, Woke Vote, and 100 Black Men are anchoring the effort, with organizers stationed in Detroit ahead of Election Day.
“We’re really telling our story about the issues that matter to Black men, why we’re engaging, even if begrudgingly, why that vote matters so much, and the collective power in numbers,” Sterling told The ‘Gander in an exclusive interview this week.
The NAACP’s Michigan program is part of a $20 million national campaign to mobilize 6.5 million Black voters across 14 states. In Michigan, the group is actively targeting about 280,000 Black voters who rarely cast ballots but could sway the state’s US Senate race and four key US House races in the 4th, 7th, 8th, and 10th congressional districts, according to the NAACP.
Neighbors talking to neighbors
The backbone of the effort is 2,600 volunteers, each matched with a list of 30 infrequent Black voters who share their gender and age range and live within about five miles. Volunteers are encouraged to call and knock on doors rather than lean on text messages.
“Your phone’s probably blowing up right now,” Sterling said. “So we’re trying to break through some of that noise and [be] trusted messengers in [the] community.”
New this year are extra layers of volunteer support.
“Volunteering is hard,” he said, noting that some voters just want someone to listen.
The NAACP also just approved a mailer to about 192,000 Black voters comparing Michigan’s US Senate candidates on the economy and healthcare, Sterling said. The NAACP is nonpartisan, so it doesn’t endorse candidates; Sterling just wants voters to stay informed.
“We let the voters decide,” he said. “We put the issues out in front of [them].”
Party at the polls
On Oct. 24, the coalition will also hold “Black Men Vote Day” events at early voting sites, while the NAACP, When We All Vote, and Civic Nation host “Parties at the Polls” pop-ups in Oakland, Macomb, Saginaw, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, with DJs, food, and face painting.
The whole idea, Sterling said, is to make voting “fun” and not just another responsibility.
“Many voters right now, and particularly Black voters, often see it as an obligation and a duty,” he said. “And when you think about that, there’s not necessarily fun attached to it.”
‘Nonpartisan but not blind’
The economy, jobs, fair wages, and affordable housing top the list of concerns for Black men living in Michigan this year, Sterling explained. Healthcare keeps surfacing, too.
In 2025, Republicans passed legislation that’s projected to cut federal Medicaid spending by about $1 trillion over the next decade, and they allowed enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire at the end of the year, raising premiums for many enrollees.
NAACP officials have described the midterms as a chance to “put a stop to Trump’s madness.” Sterling echoed another line from NAACP leadership: The group is “nonpartisan but not blind.”
“It’s sad that we’re at this point as a country where what is happening does seem so one-sided on who wants to see progress,” Sterling said. “We don’t hide from the facts. … Facts are facts.”
Still, the NAACP has “no permanent friends and no permanent enemies,” he added.
“You’re not saved by the letter in front of you,” Sterling said. “If there are folks on either side of the aisle that are not voting and/or advancing the issues that we need, they’re a target.”
Early signs are encouraging, he said. With less than three weeks until Election Day, more than 440,000 Michigan voters (about 6% of all active registered voters) have already voted. More than 2 million people have requested an absentee ballot—up about 20% from this time in 2022.
Sterling’s ask for Black Michiganders this week:
Visit naacp.org/vote, look up what’s on your ballot, and make a plan. Then, vote. Absentee voting is underway. Early, in-person voting opens statewide on Oct. 24. Election Day is Nov. 3.
From the US Senate race to the US House elections, Sterling said he sees this election as a rare chance for Black voters to demand that their issues make it onto policy agendas.
“It is not often that we as Black voters are put in a driver’s seat,” he said.
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