Michigan House Speaker: ‘Democrats Should Be Scared About Michigan’ in November

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, left, speaks to reporters in Wilmington, Del., on Aug. 13, 2020. On right, President Donald Trump before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on June 27, 2018. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

The Republican Michigan state House speaker said that President Donald Trump could easily win the state again, as former Vice President Joe Biden prepares to visit the state this week.

“Democrats should be scared about Michigan,” the House Speaker, Lee Chatfield, told Fox News on Sunday, saying that it “went red in 2016” while adding that he believes “it will go red again” in 2020.

Chatfield noted out that voters Michigan cast their ballots for Democrats in previous elections stretching back to the late 1980s. But the 2016 election went to Trump.

“Michigan had not been won by a Republican on the presidential ballot since 1988,” Chatfield told the news channel on Sunday, adding, “There’s two main reasons for that: Number one how radical and progressive the Democrat left has been, but also Trump’s focus on an economic message.”

Chatfield added that GOP voters are enthusiastic to vote for Trump, adding, “I just think Democrats have taken our state for granted ... Michigan went blue in presidential elections for 30 consecutive years.”

“So they [Democrats] are scared, they are a little frightened, but their problem is they have to find out how do they give Michigan voters and Michigan workers attention while also proving that they’re the party not run by” progressive leftists, he argued.

Following the 2016 election, former Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton was accused of not paying attention enough to Michigan, which was seen as a battleground state. Trump won the state by fewer than 11,000 votes, or around 0.2 percent.

Last week, Biden’s campaign announced a stop in Michigan. Details about where he will visit are not clear, although reports said he was likely to visit somewhere in the southeastern portion of the state.

Trump last made a stop in Michigan in May, touring Ford Motor Co.’s Rawsonville Components Plant.

In late August, Vice President Mike Pence visited Traverse City and said that “Michigan said yes to President Donald Trump in 2016, and I know Michigan is going to say yes for four more years of President Donald Trump in 2020,” reported the Detroit News.

Trump’s campaign announced he would visit Michigan, going to the AvFlight Saginaw facility in Freeland, according to the Detroit Free Press.

State Democratic Party spokesman Christian Slater issued a statement about the event, saying, “A quick fly-by can’t fix the four years of chaos and crisis this president has created while Michiganders suffer from his failed leadership...This November, Michigan will reject his failures and elect Joe Biden and (vice presidential pick) Kamala Harris.”

The visits come as former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who served as a Republican, endorsed Biden on Sept. 3 for president.

“Having worked with Joe Biden and Donald Trump when I was Governor, I believe Biden is the clear choice to put our country back on a positive path,” he said in a statement.