Global Courant
Donald Trump traveled to Michigan on June 25, 2023 as part of his 2024 presidential campaign. Oakland County, Michigan named Trump Man of the Decade ahead of his speech, despite his losses in both 2016 and 2020. Many Trump supporters in Michigan reiterated these are claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Former President Donald Trump was honored as the Man of the Decade in a Michigan county he lost twice as he returned to the state in search of reclaiming territory that helped him to the White House, but that slipped four years later his grip.
Trump campaigned for a return to the presidency as he faced a federal indictment for alleged mishandling of classified documents. He should reverse the recent trend in Michigan in which Democrats have made some of their biggest gains nationally since Trump’s re-election loss.
Trump spoke at the Oakland County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner, where he was honored as Man of the Decade by the party. Trump frequently attacked President Joe Biden during his speech Sunday, saying the Democrat was a “catastrophe” for Michigan and auto production in the state. Trump also criticized Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, for approving state funds for a foreign company.
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It was Trump’s first campaign appearance in Michigan, one of three states along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that flipped in 2016 and placed him in the White House and Biden four years later.
Trump’s popularity in Michigan has taken a hit since 2016.
“According to Trump’s calculations, he needs to win Michigan again to be president. But he’s been very disruptive here,” said Dave Trott, a former GOP congressman. “Trump is largely why the Michigan Republican Party is dead.”
Last year, Michigan’s Trump-backed candidates were among the loudest in repeating his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Oakland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on June 25, 2023 in Novi, Michigan. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)
Trump’s choice of attorney general, Matthew DePerno, spent the final months of his campaign investigating whether he should face criminal charges for attempting to access voting machines after the 2020 election. Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo, a former community college professor, was selected by Trump as the Republican nominee for Secretary of State after she claimed she saw voter fraud as a challenger to the Detroit polls.
In November, the statewide candidates he supported were overwhelmingly defeated, including Tudor Dixon, who lost to Whitmer by more than 10 percentage points.
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Michigan Republicans controlled all levels of state government from 2011 to 2019. Now they are powerless for the first time in 40 years. The shift was especially evident in Oakland County, home to the largest number of Republican voters in the state.
“People who know Michigan electoral politics would say it’s pretty important that if Republicans are going to carry the state, they have to win Oakland County,” Trott said.
While Trump lost the county in 2016 and 2020, Biden garnered nearly 100,000 votes more than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton there, winning the state by about 155,000 votes, or 2.8 percentage points.
Trott, who represented Oakland County in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2019, initially endorsed Trump in 2016 but later said Trump was “unfit for office.” Trump’s support among Republicans in the legislature has waned, with 25 lawmakers already publicly supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president. Trump said on Sunday that DeSantis has “no personality” and his campaign “is falling like a rock”.
However, support for Trump has not waned among state GOP officials. In February, deputies from the Republican district elected Karamo to lead the party after losing by 14% in the interim. One of the new party leadership’s first moves was a vote to change the state’s traditional process of allocating all presidential delegates based on a public election.
Under a new plan widely expected to help Trump, Michigan will award only 16 of the state’s 55 delegates based on the results of the Feb. 27 primary. The distribution of the remaining 39 delegates will take place four days later in closed caucus meetings, led by the same party members who selected Karamo to lead the party.
“The plan gives Trump a significant advantage over the rest of the field. He is a grassroots favorite in the state and he has made Michigan his political playground for the past seven years,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan GOP. .
In an interview with The Associated Press, Karamo said she will remain impartial in the primary. She claims the party was forced to pass the change after Democrats in Michigan voted to move the state’s primary from the second week of March to February 27, a violation of Republican National Committee rules that had could result in a loss of delegates.
When asked if Trump or his team had lobbied for the presidential primary, Karamo declined to answer. She said she “doesn’t discuss conversations with the different campaigns”.
“We want to protect the vote of Michigan voters. So whether it can help one candidate over another is completely irrelevant,” Karamo said.
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According to Karamo, the Michigan GOP has been “working on” the plan with the RNC and expects the national party to approve the new primary lineup.
The RNC said its talks with the state party “focused on rules and processes rather than the content and language of Karamo’s specific plan — the kind of guidance they offer each state party as they begin formulating their individual avenues for selection.” of deputies.”
“We look forward to reviewing each state’s and territory’s plans,” RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn said in a statement.
