In a surprise to virtually nobody, former President Donald Trump won a decisive victory in the Republican presidential primary in Michigan on Tuesday.
Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his only remaining viable competitor for the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump did not campaign heavily in Michigan, holding his last event in the state ― a get-out-the-vote rally ― on Feb. 17 in Waterford Township.
In his remarks to the crowd in an outer suburb of Detroit, Trump hit on familiar themes, including the disastrous impact that he believes Biden’s pro-electric vehicle policies will have on Michigan’s economy. He also blasted United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain for negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that Trump claimed did not fight hard enough against the industry’s transition to electric vehicles that can be manufactured with fewer jobs.
“Michigan, you’re going to get so screwed, you can’t believe it,” he said.
Ahead of Haley’s loss in her home-state of South Carolina on Saturday, she promised to campaign onward to at least Super Tuesday on March 5. On that day, Republican primary voters and caucus goers in 16 states and the U.S. territory of American Samoa will decide on their preferred candidate for president.
Haley did not take Michigan for granted, despite polling that showed Trump leading her, on average, by almost 60 percentage points in the state. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations held two campaign events in Michigan on Sunday and Monday ― the prelude to an even busier campaign itinerary in the Super Tuesday states.
“I’m doing what I think is right,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “I’m doing what I believe 70% of Americans want me to do.”
But Trump’s win in Michigan brings the country that much closer to the outcome that has looked virtually inevitable for some time: a rematch between Trump, as Republican nominee, and President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee.
Trump leads Biden by four percentage points in Michigan with 14% of likely voters still undecided, according to an independent EPIC-MRA poll that came out on Wednesday.
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