Michigan puts Biden, Trump on path to rematch in November
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are barreling toward a rematch in November after each Tuesday won their respective Michigan primary races.
Their victories came a week before the crucial Super Tuesday elections when more than a dozen states have primary contests and four days before Michigan Republicans will hold conventions Saturday to help decide which GOP presidential contender will win most of the state's delegates.
Biden carried 81.1% of the Democratic primary vote, followed by about 13.3% uncommitted, 2.7% for Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and 3% for self-help guru Marianne Williamson, with 98% of precincts reporting.
Trump won 68.2% of the Republican primary vote over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's 26.5%, with 98% of precincts reporting. About 2.2% of GOP voters casted ballots for candidates who had already dropped out of the race and about 3% said they were uncommitted.
"We've got our nominee," former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the new chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said at a Tuesday night election watch party in Grand Rapids.
Trump called into the gathering, telling supporters: "I am so proud of the results because they're far greater than we anticipated."
In the face of an "uncommitted" protest vote over Biden's support for Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, supporters of the incumbent president in Michigan were buoyed by the outcome.
"Now we will bring this energy forward to the general election where the choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump couldn’t be more clear," Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said.
In a statement, Biden thanked "every Michigander who made their voice heard today."
"Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great," Biden said.
Haley, who served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, is the last major candidate continuing in the GOP presidential primaries against Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House.
Haley's campaign said the number of Michigan GOP primary voters who didn't pick Trump in Tuesday's election should be a warning sign.
"So long as Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, Republicans will keep losing to the socialist left," said Olivia Perez-Cubas, Haley's campaign spokeswoman.
Trump all but declared victory several hours before the polls closed Tuesday, labeling his lone Republican rival still in the race "a joke" during a mid-afternoon radio interview on WJR-AM (760).
"I mean, Nikki's not even a factor," Trump said. "She's gonna lose like by 80 points tonight. She's become a joke."
But across the state, there were signs of discontent with the choices voters had in both primaries.
In Shelby Township, Dave Galer, 64, cast his ballot for Biden in the Democratic primary, despite describing himself as a lifelong Republican.
"Trump is a crook, and he needs to go to jail," Galer said. "He calls me a RINO (Republican in name only). He's no Republican."
In Van Buren Township, 36-year-old Matt Heisenberg said he voted for Biden, despite having misgivings about the 81-year-old president's "age thing" and his handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“I still have a little bit of guilt about it," Heisenberg said.
Haley campaigned in Michigan on Sunday and Monday ahead of the primary, arguing that nominating Trump would spell electoral disaster for Republicans seeking other elected offices in November.
Trump and Biden both visited Michigan just once this winter before the primary, the earliest the state has held a presidential nominating contest in modern history.
Biden visited Metro Detroit on Feb. 1 in the wake of his endorsement by the United Auto Workers union to court Black voters at a sports bar in Harper Woods and Macomb County union voters.
Uncommitted makes a dent
Biden campaigned virtually unopposed until three weeks ago when political activists in Metro Detroit's Arab American and Muslim community started urging Democrats in the state to select "uncommitted" on the ballot to register their anger at Biden's disregard for calls within the party for a cease-fire and restrictions on military aid for Israel in its military assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Organizers of the protest vote campaign chalked up their double-digit vote tallies as a victory Tuesday.
"Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations," organizer Layla Elabed said in a statement.
At a Dearborn polling site Tuesday, more than a dozen people told a Detroit News reporter they were basing their votes solely on Biden's approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Arab Americans make up about half the city's population of roughly 107,000. With all but one Dearborn precinct reporting as of 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, the "uncommitted" protest vote trounced Biden's tally 56% to 40% and a total vote of just under 11,200, according to unofficial results.
"I hope the uncommitted turnout is huge — beyond expectations — and it sends a direct message to the president," said Ali K. Bazzi, 41, of Dearborn, who described himself as an independent voter.
Organizers of the uncommitted effort planned to fan out volunteers at 20 polling locations in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Hamtramck and Detroit on Tuesday to speak with voters and hand out literature in English and Arabic on the effort, Elabed said.
The campaign said it made over 500,000 calls and sent 650,000 texts to spread the word, including 62,000 calls placed Tuesday alone, in addition to a YouTube ad, mailers distributed in Metro Detroit and an aggressive social media campaign. Prominent Democrats like U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hamoud and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Bloomfield Township endorsed the movement.
Biden's campaign on the ground in Michigan also worked to turn out supporters at the polls, stressing a message that emphasizes protections for abortion rights and priorities like student debt relief.
Notably, the president, on the eve of Election Day in Michigan, told reporters that negotiators were close to an agreement to cease military operations in Gaza by Monday in exchange for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas.
"My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet," Biden said. "My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Surrogates like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and California U.S. Reps. Sara Jacobs and Ro Khanna stumped for Biden on the trail in Michigan. Vice President Kamala Harris and first gentleman Doug Emhoff both visited the state separately last week.
Whitmer acknowledged Tuesday that a "sizable" number of voters from the Arab American and Muslim communities would voice their opinion on Gaza by voting uncommitted, though Whitmer herself has discouraged voters from doing so because it might help Trump.
The second-term Democratic governor also warned the political backlash against Biden may not be over.
"So I think it's going to be important that the administration continue to engage with leaders and individuals in the Palestinian community, the Muslim community, the Arab American community, as well as the Jewish community," Whitmer said on MSNBC. "... It is raw and it is genuine pain that people are in."
While much of Tuesday's focus was on Wayne County, in the Oakland County suburbs that state Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, represents, it feels like support for Biden has been growing, including in African American communities like Pontiac and Southfield that have benefited from Biden policies and initiatives, he said.
Moss said the narrative that an uncommitted vote is a response to Biden’s "unwillingness" to engage in cease-fire talks is "not grounded in the reality" that Biden's administration is actively working on achieving such an agreement.
"There’s a missing narrative here of the people who want to see a two-state solution, an eradication of Hamas, a release of all hostages and understand that that is what the Biden policies are trying to achieve, too," said Moss, who is Jewish and represents a large concentration of Jewish voters.
"It’s why I’m much more focused on the general election rather than the results of this primary will be."
'We were in a better place'
Trump focused his messaging in recent weeks on his administration's handling of the southern border, alleging that Biden hasn't safeguarded it amid in spike in crossings.
Jerry Babcock, 40, who said he has lived in Dearborn’s west side his entire life, voted for Trump on Tuesday because he feels the country was better off during the Republican's presidency.
"Is Trump the best? No," Babcock said. "But we were in a better place ... and I can’t see how Biden can run the country for four more years.”
John Nye, 69, of Sterling Heights, said he voted for Haley because he thinks Trump will be convicted of at least one of the crimes he's accused of, and he doesn't like Biden's age or the issues some of Biden's family members have allegedly created.
"She's an honest person," Nye said about Haley. "She's been a governor, an ambassador and I think she'll tell it like it is. That's what I like about her."
Trump's one campaign stop in Michigan in the weeks before Tuesday's primary election came on Feb. 17 at a chilly rally inside an airport hangar in Waterford Township, where he said he wanted to send Democrats "a message" by winning big in his race against Haley.
"We have to let them know that a freight train is coming in November,” said Trump, later adding, "If we win Michigan, we win the election."
Michigan is expected to be one of a handful of battleground states that decide which party controls the White House for the next four years. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in Michigan by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48%.
But four years earlier, in 2016, Trump became the first Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988 to carry the Great Lakes State. Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes, 47.5%-47.3%, on his way to winning the presidency.
Trump has long prioritized Michigan. He held his final campaign rally of both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns in Michigan. On Tuesday morning, about 90 minutes after polls opened, Trump called in for a radio interview on a WFDF-AM (910) Superstation show hosted by conservative commentator Justin Barclay.
Barclay asked Trump what his "final message" was to the people of Michigan on the day of the primary.
Trump lobbed barbs at two likely general election punching bags — Whitmer and Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW.
"Well, you have a terrible governor who sold you out, and you have a terrible head of the United Auto Workers. Just absolutely atrocious," Trump said.
"And I'm the one that hasn't. We put America first. They don't put America first," Trump added.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
mburke@detroitnews.com
Staff Writers Louis Aguilar, Beth LeBlanc, Charles E. Ramirez, Sarah Rahal and Carol Thompson contributed.