The newest Michigan poll showing Hillary Clinton opening up an 11-point lead over Donald Trump across the state is potentially devastating news for Republicans.

Beyond the 43-32% gap in the new Detroit Free Press/WXYZ-TV survey (and a 7-point lead in The Detroit News poll), Clinton has the TV ads, the ground game and the high-profile surrogates in Michigan to maintain a lead through Election Day.

The Democratic cheerleaders who have made their way to Michigan (some will be back for more) include former President Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Bernie Sanders and even N.Y. City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Yet, columnist Dennis Lennox believes that Trump still has a road to victory in the Great Lakes State if he choose his targeted areas wisely. In his newest piece, Lennox points out that Trump has failed to confine his campaign appearances entirely to his strongest areas in the state. Recent Trump visits to the Democratic strangleholds of Detroit and Flint seemed to have no lasting impact.

Lennox, a freelance writer and GOP activist, asserts that Trump should concentrate almost entirely on the blue-collar voters who agree with the Republican nominee on trade and economics. These are the victims of a long, slow slide in Michigan manufacturing that was accelerated by the recession of 2008-10.

While Trump’s numbers in Macomb County are solid, he has pretty much ignored southern and western Wayne County, as well as other working-class areas.

Follow history, Lennox writes, and it could lead to a path toward a Trump victory:

Westland, Wayne, Redford Township, Allen Park, Canton and other blue-collar or middle, middle-class suburbs rewarded Ronald Reagan for stumping there with their votes in 1980.

The same is true for other mostly white, blue-collar constituencies along the I-75 corridor from Monroe north to Bay City and West Branch.

I was in Bay City recently and couldn’t believe the number of Trump yard signs in Bay City proper, not the Republican-leaning townships of Bay County.

Sure, yard signs don’t vote but one can’t ignore the fact that they dotted the yards of voters in this traditional Democratic bastion.

These are the Trump Democrats: White voters of Polish or German Roman Catholic extraction, who are generally culturally conservative on issues of the Second Amendment. They have been literally and figuratively left behind by the Democratic Party in recent years.

 

Photo: CNN screenshot

Recent Posts: