Hillary Clinton adds Michigan stop to campaign schedule
Hillary Clinton is including Michigan among her final campaign stops the day before the Nov. 8 election, the campaign announced Saturday, in a sign of how tight the White House race has become in its final moments.
Clinton will campaign in Grand Rapids on Monday, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters traveling with the candidate.
Michigan was thought to be a sure bet for Clinton, but the latest polling from the Detroit Free Press has her in the lead by just 4 points. This will be her second stop in the Great Lakes state in recent days — she held a rally at Eastern Market in Detroit on Friday — in a final blitz of campaign stops. A late October Free Press poll had her up in Michigan by 7 points.
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It was in Michigan that Clinton was caught off guard during the Democratic primary campaign against Sen. Bernie Sanders. Polls had showed her with a comfortable lead, but Sanders carried the state. While Clinton is leading Trump in national polling and in a number of critical battlegrounds, Trump has been going on the offense to try and steal away a blue state, which is bringing him to Michigan, Wisconsin and even Minnesota in the campaign's final stretch.
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Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said that, while polls have tightened in general in the Midwest, Michigan is just a “hard state to poll.” Along with Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, it is among the states where almost all voting occurs on Election Day.
“Looking at Trump’s schedule versus our schedule is pretty emblematic of how we’re approaching this strategically,” said Mook. While Trump is “cramming in every single state,” the Clinton campaign is hitting states where the largest numbers of voters have yet to cast their ballots.
The campaign also announced that President Obama will travel to Ann Arbor to further bolster the campaign.
“This is a natural tightening of the race,” said Mook. “I feel confident,” he said, “but we’re spending a lot of time there because most of the voters are going to make the choice at the last minute.”