Trump victorious in Michigan GOP primary
Grand Rapids — Former President Donald Trump easily won Michigan's Republican primary Tuesday night, moving a step closer to the party's nomination and defeating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Trump won 68.2% of the Republican primary vote while Haley had 26.5% with 98% of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results compiled by The Associated Press.
The heavy support for Trump in a key battleground spurred new pushes for Republicans to unify behind him for the general election.
"I am so proud of the results because they're far greater than we anticipated," Trump said on Tuesday night as he called into a Michigan GOP election night watch party.
Michigan is one of a handful of states that will decide which party ultimately holds the White House for next four years. A large show of support for Haley in the primary could have been a sign of trouble for Trump in a potential rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in the fall.
Biden cruised to victory in the largely uncontested Democratic primary, where he faced backlash from Arab and Muslim voters over his support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that put a double-digit dent in his vote tally.
More:Michigan puts Biden, Trump on path to rematch in November
More:Get presidential primary election results from across Michigan here
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At the election results watch party in Grand Rapids, Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said he wasn't focused on the percentage of the vote Trump ends up with Tuesday. Trump has essentially already won his race against Haley after winning contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Hoekstra said.
"We've got our nominee," Hoekstra said. "I think he'll do well. I'm not going to worry about the number."
Michigan has 55 delegates to the Republican national convention in Milwaukee in July. The primary election will decide how 16 of those delegates are awarded. The other 39 will be allocated through Michigan GOP caucuses that occur on Saturday.
Michigan state House Minority Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, congratulated Trump in a statement Tuesday night.
"It’s time for all Republicans to unify behind President Donald J. Trump so we can lead our great state and nation back to prosperity," Hall said. "Together, we will win up and down the ticket this November.”
But Haley's campaign said the number of Michigan GOP primary voters who didn't pick Trump in Tuesday's election should be a flashing 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.
More:Early voting. Absentee. Election Day votes. How ballots are counted in Michigan
'We were in a better place'
Jerry Babcock, 40, who said he has lived in Dearborn’s west side his entire life, voted for Trump in Michigan's primary on Tuesday. Babcock said he feels the country was better off during Trump'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.”
Trump made one campaign stop in Michigan in the weeks before Tuesday's primary election. He spoke at a Feb. 17 rally 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,” Trump said, later adding, "If we win Michigan, we win the election."
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 WFDF (910 AM) Superstation radio 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.
"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 replied of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW.
In another radio appearance Tuesday, Trump said he was going to beat Haley "like by 80 points tonight."
'Deter Donald Trump'
Haley made two campaign stops in Michigan in the final two days of the primary campaign. She had been focusing on the election in her home state of South Carolina, which she lost to Trump, 40%-60% on Saturday.
In her appearances in Michigan — one in Troy and one in Grand Rapids — Haley argued that Trump had spurred divisions within the Michigan Republican Party, has driven people away from the GOP and wouldn't be able to win a general election race.
"If Donald Trump is the candidate, Republicans will once again lose the election," Haley said in Grand Rapids on Monday.
Forrest Pasanski, of East Lansing, a Democrat, said he cast a vote for Haley Tuesday. He said “democracy” was the most pressing issue driving him to the polls.
“I think the No. 1 threat to our country is Trump,” said Pasanski, 39, as he walked into his polling place at the Hannah Community Center. “Anything that leaves open a possibility of somebody else being the Republican nominee, that’s what I support.”
Likewise, in Dearborn, Sam Vansen, 55, voted for Haley on the Republican ballot as a strategy against Trump, he said.
"Voting Nikki will make it more competitive and deter Donald Trump," said Vansen, who has lived in Dearborn for 29 years. "There are multiple issues at hand from abortion, to women’s issues that I don’t agree with him on across the board."
Counties to watch
Since Trump won Michigan in 2016, he and other Republicans have struggled in general election races in suburban areas of the state and in those with large numbers of college-educated voters, like Oakland and Kent counties.
More:In Trump-leaning Macomb County, voters weigh in again
In Oakland County, Michigan's second largest county, Trump lost to Clinton by about 54,000 votes, 43%-51%, in 2016.
Two years later, in 2018, Democrats won a majority of the seats on the Oakland County Commission for the first time in a half century. And in 2020, Trump lost the county to Biden by 108,000 votes, 42%-56%.
In Tuesday's primary, Trump was getting about 62% of the vote in Oakland County with about 76% of the precincts reporting. Haley had 34% of the vote.
Kent County, a longtime Republican stronghold and Michigan's fourth largest county, has also moved away from Trump.
He won the county by 3 percentage points in 2016 against Clinton but lost it by 6 points to Biden in 2020.
cmauger@detroitnews.com