Mayor Johnson hopes to reach Black voters while campaigning for Vice President Harris in Detroit

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has already campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in Nevada.

This weekend, he is headed to the battleground state of Michigan with a message that Harris' campaign hopes will resonate with Black men, in particular.

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Johnson was at the Garfield Park Conservatory on Friday, talking West Side investments, but this weekend, he is slated to hit the Detroit pulpit circuit, visiting several prominent Black churches there as a surrogate for Harris.

"Affordable housing, her position there to create homeownership. Those are values that we agree on. Her investment for public education. Speak about those values, particularly," Johnson said.

Earlier Friday, Harris held a rally in Grand Rapids, and among those there, knocking on doors for her, was Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner. He says the mayor can be an effective voice for her.

"I think the role in the history and the journey of Black men in this country is a very specific and nuanced one. And as we, folks like myself and the mayor and the Attorney General Kwame Raoul are having these conversations with other Black men that we can speak directly to that experience, and I know he will," Johnson said.

With former President Donald Trump gaining some ground among Black men, the Harris campaign is concerned about losing any support, and some of the reluctance to back her is, perhaps, connected to feelings about former President Barack Obama.

"I think they're disappointed and disillusioned and they feel that the Democratic Party in general has let them down and if an African American president, the first African American president couldn't change that, why can we why can we expect it from a second?" said ABC7 Political Analyst Laura Washington.

But Johnson plans to remind those Detroit churchgoers on Sunday that Harris is their best bet.

"What I would say, specifically to Black men, is what I've been saying, is that it's our responsibility to provide, to prepare, to protect our democracy," Johnson said.