The Clinton campaign appears to be in full-blown panic mode over a state that hasn't gone red in 2 decades
Former President Bill Clinton was set to campaign in Lansing on Sunday, while President Barack Obama will head to Ann Arbor on Monday. And the Democratic nominee herself will make a swing through the state later Monday in Grand Rapids amid a furious cross-country push in the final hours. She has spent only four days in Michigan since July's Democratic National Convention, far below other swing states.
"The numbers there have tightened," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Saturday. But he also said the campaign's strategy is to rally supporters at the right time in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, none of which feature early voting.
On the other side, meanwhile, Trump is set to make a swing through Sterling Heights, Michigan, on Sunday evening. And he will close out his campaign with an 11 p.m. Monday evening rally in Grand Rapids.
Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence has visited Michigan each of the last three days, and he plans to do so two more times Monday, according to the Trump campaign's schedule.
"It's truly remarkable the Clinton campaign is burning their final chip with President Obama by sending him into a state long viewed as deep blue, and this is yet another indication of how strong this movement is boosting Mr. Trump," Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller told Business Insider.
Michigan, part of the Democratic "blue wall," has not voted for a Republican candidate since 1988, and Obama won the state in both 2008 and 2012 in comfortable fashion with at least 54% of the vote. But polls there have tightened, along with other battleground states, in recent days. The RealClearPolitics average of surveys in the state gives Clinton a 4-point lead.
The Great Lake State has been a thorn in Clinton's side throughout the campaign, as she lost it in shocking fashion to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. The state's higher percentage of white, working-class voters fits with Trump's base of support, seen in other Midwestern states like Iowa and Ohio.
Capturing Michigan's 16 electoral votes could open more paths for Trump, who has seen mixed results in swing-state early voting, so far. One top political analyst in the battleground state of Nevada, for example, said Saturday that Trump would need a "miracle" to win the state based on the early-voting numbers.
After the Monday swing through Michigan, Clinton will end her campaign with a midnight rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.