Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday — key states on the path to the presidency.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance also held events in both states today, underscoring the importance of reaching voters there. Harris is expected to be back in Michigan tomorrow.
Donald Trump won both of those states eight years ago but they have vexed Republicans ever since.
Along with Pennsylvania, Trump’s stunning 2016 victories in Michigan and Wisconsin produced a seismic crack in the so-called blue wall of states Democrats had relied on in every election going back to 1992. Trump’s particular success with blue-collar voters gave Republicans optimism for a political realignment that could turn the Rust Belt red for the foreseeable future. Instead, Republicans have struggled to replicate Trump’s initial success in subsequent elections, including in 2020 when Biden narrowly won all three states en route to victory. Democrats in that time also took over the governors’ offices in Michigan and Wisconsin and flipped a Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022 which proved crucial to maintaining control of the chamber.
In both states, efforts to subvert the 2020 election — including by enlisting fake electors — have also roiled Republican politics, at times aided by Trump.
Still, gone are the days when Democrats could comfortably count on these states to deliver in national elections. Biden won Michigan in 2020 by more than 150,000 votes. The margin was much tighter in Wisconsin, where he came out ahead by about 21,000 votes — a victory of about 0.7 percentage points.
