Trump wins Michigan on back of Muslim discontent with handling of Israel-Hamas war

By AP 6 November 2024, 8:42 pm

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Paul Manni, from left, Sam Alasri, Wasel Yousaf, Waseem Makani and Abrahim Tamimi, cheer as Republican presidential nominee and former US president Donald Trump's speech is broadcast during an Arab Americans for Trump watch party at the Lava Java Cafe, a hookah lounge, in the early hours of November 6, 2024, in Dearborn, Michigan. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Former president Donald Trump wins Michigan, reclaiming the battleground state and its 15 electoral votes for the Republicans after Joe Biden flipped it in 2020 on his way to the White House. Trump won Michigan in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate had secured the state in nearly three decades.

Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, faced concerns that discontent among Democrats in metro Detroit over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could jeopardize her campaign. Michigan is home to the US’s largest Arab-American community.

With Trump’s victory in Michigan, he completes a sweep of the Great Lakes “Blue Wall” states that Harris had considered her smoothest path to victory.

Trump managed the same sweep of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton. President Joe Biden outpaced Trump in those states in 2020.

Unlike Clinton’s campaign in 2016, Harris campaigned heavily across the region through September and October. The vice president spent all day Sunday in Michigan, but she was unable to match Biden’s level of support, most notably in Wayne County, where Detroit offers a trove of Democratic votes.

Trump was active in the region, as well, and he improved on his 2020 margins across the three key states.