Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election. Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.
Quick Read
- Donald Trump is set to campaign on Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin, continuing his focus on recapturing key battleground states he won in 2016 but narrowly lost in 2020.
- Trump will begin his day with a rally in Potterville, Michigan, followed by a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
- Both events are strategically located in swing congressional districts, with Potterville in Michigan’s 7th District and La Crosse in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, areas expected to be highly competitive in the upcoming fall elections.
- Trump’s visit to these states is part of a broader battleground offensive as he and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, intensify their campaigning ahead of the election.
- The Democratic Party, rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is also focusing on energizing their base, with Harris and Walz embarking on a two-day bus tour in Georgia.
The Associated press has the story:
Trump to visit swing districts in Michigan & Wisconsin as battleground campaigning increases
Newslooks- LANSING, Mich. (AP) —
Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election. Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.
Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time. It will be his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a 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.
Along with Pennsylvania, which Trump will visit on Friday, these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Trump won them in 2016. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.
Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well. The battleground offensive comes as a reinvigorated Democratic Party rallies around Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris and Walz are aiming to leverage the surge in enthusiasm among the party’s base since her campaign launch just over a month ago. They hope this excitement — which was on full display at last week’s convention in Chicago — will extend to more moderate areas as they embark on a two-day bus tour in Georgia, including events in the state’s rural southern regions.Trump’s events in Michigan and Wisconsin are both in swing congressional districts.
Potterville is in Michigan’s 7th District, which features a mix of Republican-dominated counties like Clinton and Shiawassee, and Democratic strongholds such as Ingham, home to the state Capitol and Michigan State University. This district is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive this fall following incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. La Crosse, meanwhile, is a hub within Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where Republican Derrick Van Orden won narrowly in 2022. Democrat Rebecca Cooke won the Aug. 13 primary to face him in November.
