Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaking at the National Guard of the United States (NGAUS) General Conference in Detroit, Michigan. Photo Credit: Reuters
Former US President Donald Trump is set to campaign in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday (August 29, 2024), as the former president travels to the battleground state moving towards an autumn election ahead of the traditional Labor Day.
Mr Trump is intensely focused on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020. He will continue that campaign by stopping in mid-Michigan and western Wisconsin.
Mr Trump’s day begins with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital, Lansing. Mr Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time.
This will be his third visit to the state in the last nine days and his second visit this week after his speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.
Later, he will visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Together with Pennsylvania, which Mr Trump will visit on Friday (August 30, 2024), these three Midwestern states form a northern industrial bloc that Democrats held for two decades before Mr Trump swept them in 2016. Mr Biden regained them in 2020 on his way to the White House.
Mr. Trump and his vice presidential candidate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, have been crisscrossing battleground states in recent weeks, and Vance is in both states this week.
The attack in the battleground state comes at a time when the Democratic Party has united behind Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz aim to take advantage of a surge in enthusiasm among the party’s base since their campaign launched a month ago. They hope that this enthusiasm — which was on full display at last week’s convention in Chicago — will spread to more moderate areas as they embark on a two-day bus tour in Georgia, including events in the state’s rural southern regions.
Both Mr Trump’s Michigan and Wisconsin events are being held in key congressional districts.
Potterville is in Michigan’s 7th District, which includes Republican-dominated counties like Clinton and Shiawassee and Democratic strongholds like Ingham, home to the state Capitol and Michigan State University. The district is expected to be one of the most competitive districts in the country this fall after incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Meanwhile, La Crosse is a hub within Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where Republican Derrick Van Orden narrowly won in 2022. Democrat Rebecca Cook won the Aug. 13 primary to face him in November.