In the final push, Donald Trump is bringing his presidential campaign to two cities in Michigan on Monday afternoon.
The Macomb County Republican Party still has not posted information about the Trump visit on their website but, according to media reports, Trump will campaign at the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids at noon followed by an appearance at 3 p.m. at Macomb County Community College South Campus in Warren.
Trump has been in the state five times since accepting the Republican nomination for president, though not for several weeks.
The two-stop visit on Monday fits the new narrative by the Trump campaign that says Michigan is a key target in final days of the presidential contest.
A top campaign aide to Trump said Friday that the campaign will target two Blue States – Michigan and New Mexico – in the final 10 days of the presidential election. Other reports indicate that Colorado and Pennsylvania are key locations on Trump’s radar.
Trump’s senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, said:
“Both in New Mexico and in Michigan we’re showing dead heats in those states. For all of the talk of Hillary Clinton supposedly going on offense with Red States, she’s campaigning in Blue States, and we’re making a play for Blue States.”
But Miller’s assertion contains a fair amount of the usual Trump style of bluster.
Polls in Michigan and New Mexico don’t show the candidates tied. Hillary Clinton leads Trump by 6.2 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average in Michigan and 8 points in the New Mexico average. In Michigan, four mid-October polls show Clinton with double-digit leads wile the four most recent polls show the gap closing to between 5 and 8 points.
In addition, while the candidates make campaign hops from one swing state to the next, New Mexico is hardly a plum acquisition. The Land of Enchantment has just five electoral votes up for grabs, equal to Nebraska. Michigan has 16 votes in the Electoral College.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton’s average lead among polls is 5.8 points; in Colorado the margin is 4.5 points.
However, no polling results have come forward, as of Sunday afternoon, that reflect the latest information about the FBI taking another look at State Department emails that may have a connection to Clinton.
“We feel very good about where the tide is turning here, and we’re just going to stay on offense all the way through,” Miller said.
