Even though MI seems like fairly sure lock for Clinton in the 2016 election, the fact that this is the first time in recent history that the race for the state’s 16 electoral votes has been so close means that it is absolutely worth paying attention. MI has secured its position as a battleground state.
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His final appeal in MI returned him to his base, the Rust Belt white voters and former Blue Dog Democrats who had lifted him to victory in the Republican primaries.
The auto industry did shed jobs during and after the Great Recession, though. He has argued that he can put MI in play, hoping his working class, anti-trade deal message will resonate with voters there and in other Rust Belt states. In 2000, the auto industry accounted for one in every 13.5 jobs in MI, but just one in 24.5 jobs in 2014.
A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump’s 235. “We will stop the jobs from leaving your state”. “I feel confident”, he said, “but we’re spending a lot of time there because most of the voters are going to make the choice at the last minute”.
“It’s a totally rigged system”, said Trump, who has declared that he might not accept the results of the November 8 presidential election if there is evidence it was rigged. The 48-year-old works in finance with the Army and said there has been wasteful spending on things like vehicle equipment and that “when Donald Trump started talking about fraud and waste and abuse” his antennae “went up”.
Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.
So the top players from each side are hitting MI hard with virtually every major player coming to the state Sunday and Monday. It’s in play for us.
“I’ll be honest I will be voting tomorrow and I am not 100% certain for who I’m voting for yet.”, Ben Marietta said. “I don’t think he knows working people, except for the folks who clean up in his hotels and the folks who mow the fairway on his golf course”, Obama said. The prohibition on exposing completed ballots has been in place for 125 years, but a judge ruled last month it is a free-speech violation in the era of cellphone cameras and instant social media posts. For her part, Clinton planned a 2-4 p.m. rally in Allendale, in the greater Grand Rapids area.
One self-described undecided voter was hoping to attend both the Clinton and Trump events Monday before casting her vote on Tuesday.
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Clinton was joined in the key swing state by her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea. It felt like a rock concert, as Trump has boasted before, but there were no guitars, only the candidate and his inner circle: his three eldest children, running mate Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, and ardent supporter Rudy Giuliani.
