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LANSING (UNITED STATES), June 25 (AP) – Donald Trump will appear in Michigan on Sunday, hoping to reclaim the territory that helped get him to the White House but slipped away from him four years later.
Trump, who is campaigning to return to the presidency as he faces federal indictments over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, will speak in suburban Detroit. He lost ground there between 2016 and 2020 and will need to win it back if he becomes the 2024 Republican nominee. He must reverse recent trends in Michigan, where Democrats have made some of their biggest gains nationally since Trump’s re-election defeat.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Lincoln Day dinner of the Oakland County Republican Party, where he was named “Man of the Decade.”
It will be his first campaign appearance in Michigan, one of three Michigan states, the others being Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that flipped to bring Trump to the White House in 2016, Turn to Democrat Joe Biden four years later.
Trump’s approval ratings in Michigan have taken a hit since 2016.
“By Trump’s calculations, he needs to win Michigan again to become president. But he’s very disruptive here,” said Dave Trott, a former Republican congressman. “Trump is largely responsible for the demise of the Republican Party in Michigan.”
Last year, the candidate Trump endorsed in Michigan was among the loudest to repeat his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matthew DePerno, has been under investigation in the final months of the campaign to determine whether he should face criminal charges for trying to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election. Kristina Karamo, a former community college professor and secretary of state candidate, was handpicked by Trump to run for secretary of state after claiming she believed a Detroit poll challenger had committed election fraud.
In November, statewide candidates he supported lost in a landslide, including Tudor Dixon, who lost by more than 10 points to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer).
Michigan Republicans controlled all levels of state government from 2011 to 2019. Now, for the first time in 40 years, they are powerless. The shift is particularly pronounced in Oakland County, which has the largest number of Republican voters in the state.
“People who understand electoral politics in Michigan will say that if the Republicans are going to win control of the state, they need to win Oakland County, which is very important,” Trott said.
While Trump lost the county in 2016 and 2020, Biden won there by nearly 100,000 votes over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and by about 155,000 votes, or 2.8 percent) won the state.
Trott, who represented Oakland County in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, initially supported Trump in 2016 but later said Trump was “unfit for public office.” Trump’s support among Republicans in the Legislature has slipped, with 25 lawmakers publicly backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president.
Among state Republican officials, however, support for Trump has not wavered. In February, Karamo lost midterm elections by a margin of 14 percent, and Republican district representatives chose her as party leader.
One of the first moves by the new party leadership is to vote to change the state’s traditional process of assigning all presidential delegates based on primary elections that are open to the public.
Under a new plan widely expected to favor Trump, Michigan would 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 at a closed-door caucus meeting chaired by the same party members who chose Karamo to lead the party.
“The plan gives Trump a significant advantage in the race. He’s a grassroots favorite in the state, and he’s turned Michigan into his political playground for the past seven years.” Former Michigan Republican executive Director Jason Cabel Roe said.
Karamo said in an interview with The Associated Press that she will remain impartial in the primary. She argued the party was forced to make changes after Michigan Democrats voted to delay the state’s primary from the second week of March to Feb. 27, a violation of RNC rules that could result in a loss of delegates.
Asked whether Trump or his team had lobbied for changes in the presidential primary, Karamo declined to answer. She said she would not “discuss the conversation with the different campaign teams”.
“We want to protect the voices of Michigan voters. So whether or not this will help one candidate is completely irrelevant,” Karamo said.
Karamo said the Michigan Republican Party “co-developed” the plan with the Republican National Committee and expects the National Party to approve the new primary package.
The RNC said its conversations with the states “focused on the rules and procedures, rather than the substance and language of Karamo’s specific plan — what they provide to each state as it begins to chart its individual path forward in the election of its representatives.” guide”.
“We look forward to reviewing each state and territory’s plans,” RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn said in a statement. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the latest staff may not have modified or edited the body of content)
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