Republicans dominated in Michigan elections from 1972 through 1988. But the state became part of ‘blue wall’ that backed Democratic nominees in six straight presidential elections from 1972 through 2012.
"It’s still in the middle but slightly more likely to be on the Democratic side," Michigan based political scientist Matt Grossmann told Fox News.
Grossman, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, noted that Trump’s success wooing working class voters in 2016 helped the GOP pierce the blue wall.
"Michigan has a lot of the population that has trended towards Republicans nationwide," Grossman emphasized. And he added that the state’s "unionization rate is going down, which historically had kept the white working class vote closer to the Democrats."
But the Democrats’ successes in Michigan at the ballot box in 2022 may not be a barometer of things to come in 2024, when the state’s 15 electoral votes (down from 21 in the 1970’s) will be up for grabs in the presidential election and Democrats will be defending an open Senate seat as they try to retain their majority in the chamber.
"The governor’s race may not have been indicative of overall Republican strength in the state and all three of the statewide candidates were very Trumpy and associated with election denial and the sort of the extremes of the GOP," Grossman said.
And political strategists from both parties also spotlight that abortion won’t be on the ballot again in 2024, after the approval last year of a sweeping amendment to the Michigan constitution that guaranteed the right to abortion and other reproductive health services, and likely also fueled Democratic turnout.