People In Flint Are Still In Crisis.

June 2019

Residents of the Michigan city are tired of politicians showing up for campaign stops and then disappearing. They want to be taken seriously going into 2020.

Five years after Flint’s water turned brown and acrid, leaching lead out of old pipes and carrying other contaminants into people’s homes, Carma Lewis still can’t bring herself to drink from the tap. There’s a filter on her faucet, but her pipes have not been replaced, and she isn’t risking her health again after being lied to repeatedly by officials at all levels of government about the water’s safety.

“There may be people who might not trust the water ever again. That’s just a part of reality,” she told BuzzFeed News.

The people of Flint have, in every presidential cycle for the past two decades, seen their city used as a campaign stop for candidates looking to boost their credibility by showcasing the working-class grit of the Midwest.