Democratic presidential candidate Biden set to visit Michigan on Wednesday

Former Vice President Joe Biden will visit Michigan on Wednesday, his first stop here since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, according to campaign staff.

Biden's schedule of in-person events in battleground states has become more crowded in recent days. He visited Wisconsin on Thursday for a community meeting in Kenosha. On Monday, he spoke in Pittsburgh.

His visit to Michigan next week will be his first stop here since the state's March 10 primary election that Biden won over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. On the eve of the primary, he held a rally at Detroit's Renaissance High School that featured U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who went on to become Biden's running mate, and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

President Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, becoming the first Republican presidential nominee to carry the state since 1988.

Biden's campaign hadn't released any other details of his Michigan stop as of Thursday afternoon.

The news comes as restrictions on public gatherings aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 remain in place in Michigan. However, there are exemptions for First Amendment-protected events, and Vice President Mike Pence held a rally last Friday at an airport in Traverse City that had about 400 people in attendance.

At the end of his Friday speech, Pence said he looks forward to being back in Michigan "again and often."

"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," the vice president said.

During a Michigan-themed fundraiser Friday night, Harris called the state "the main event in this fight."

"We saw it slip to Donald Trump in 2016, and we're not gonna let that happen again," she said. "Even if we see polls looking good. We need to run this race and we will run this race in Michigan like our future depends on it, because it does."

Trump made an official White House stop in Michigan on May 21, when he visited Ford Motor Co.'s Rawsonville Components Plant.

cmauger@detroitnews.com