ANN ARBOR, MI — President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan, gaining 15 electoral votes and nearly completing the sweep of the battleground state.
According to the Associated Press, Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris, 49.8% to 48.3%, with 98% of votes counted.
Before voting began, election guru Nate Silver claimed that if Trump wins Michigan, the 2024 presidential election is all but confirmed.
With his victory in the Midwestern state, Mr. Trump succeeded in repeating his 2016 victory when he turned the state red for the first time since George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988.
As Michigan is a competitive state, it was a close race.
In 2016, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by about 11,000 votes. In 2020, Joe Biden beat Trump by about 154,000 votes.
Through their campaigns, both parties reached out to working-class voters in Michigan, where much of the U.S. auto industry is based.
This was evident from the venues chosen by both candidates. Mr. Harris urged v.While Detroit's Labor Day rally had the option to “thank union members,” President Trump chose a factory floor as the rally's backdrop.
Mr. Trump also appealed to Michigan voters by appealing to complaints about the decline of the auto industry and the outsourcing of the state's once-thriving manufacturing industry.
Both candidates offered working-class Michiganders a clear vision of the future, debating electric vehicle mandates and tax issues.
President Trump lamented the situation in Detroit, saying it “never came back” from the hardships, but the vice president and his surrogates insisted there had been positive developments under Democratic rule.
The Israel-Hamas war also had a greater impact on campaign rhetoric in Michigan than in other battleground states.
The “Free Palestine” movement has been a sore point for the Democratic Party since the beginning, as more than 100,000 Democrats voted “irresponsible” in February's presidential primary election to protest President Biden's handling of the war.
Those issues were not blown away, as polls showed Muslims and Arab Americans gravitating toward third-party candidates, such as the Green Party's Jill Stein.
The Trump campaign also tried to use the issue to its advantage. A team led by former ambassador Rick Grenell and Tiffany Trump's father-in-law, Massad Boulos, organized several community events targeting Muslim voters disillusioned with Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war. I planned it.
These efforts within Muslim and Middle Eastern communities are part of a broader strategy the Trump campaign has undertaken to expand its coalition to traditionally Democratic voting blocs such as black voters, Arab Americans, and union members. is reflected.
Democrats have tried to make abortion a central issue in Michigan's campaign, but starting in 2022, abortion is protected under the Michigan Constitution.
Many Democratic candidates ran attack advertisement against Republicans who claim to support a nationwide ban on the procedure.
In the end, Michiganders narrowly voted to elect Trump as president in a referendum on the Biden-Harris administration.
