Michigan 2020 election results: Trump takes early lead in ‘blue wall’ state

Residents cast their votes on November 3 at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan

Credit: AFP

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Joe Biden, searching desperately for states to recapture from Donald Trump, has been eyeing Michigan, one of the so-called "blue wall" that sent Mr Trump to the White House in 2016.

Mr Trump holds an early leads in the ‘blue wall’ states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but much of that has been built on Republican-heavy Election Day voting. The counting of mail-in ballots in all three states is expected to take hours or days.

On Saturday Barack Obama and Joe Biden took to the stage at a drive-in rally at Northwestern high school on the outskirts of Flint, Michigan, a struggling former car manufacturing hub known as "Vehicle City”.

But due to Mr Biden’s Covid safe campaign only 179 cars were admitted to see Mr Obama speak in Flint, and no undecided voters.

Demographic changes

In 2016, Michigan saw the closest race of any of America’s 50 states. Mr Trump won by just 0.2 per cent — less than 11,000 votes out of over 4.5 million cast.

Hillary Clinton won the heavily Democrat Genesee County, which includes Flint, but there was a swing of nearly 20 percentage points to Mr Trump as disgruntled former manufacturing workers switched sides. That Genesee County swing alone was enough to give Michigan to Mr Trump.

The Democrat vice president of Flint City Council in Michigan announced he was endorsing the president.

Early voting

Michigan — along with Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Florida North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin — is among the states that will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

With 51 per cent of the estimated vote tallied so far in Michigan Mr Trump has 54.3 per cent and Mr Biden has 43.9 per cent, according to Edison research.

What issues are at play?

In 2014 thousands of children in Flint were exposed to elevated lead levels in drinking water, in what became a national scandal. Mr Obama declared an emergency before he left office, freeing up funding to fix pipes.

But in response to Mr Obama’s speech in the city, Mr Trump tweeted from Air Force One: "Biden & Obama owe a massive apology to the People of Flint. The water was poisoned on their watch.”

He went on to attack Mr Biden over trade policy in the Obama years. “HALF of all Michigan auto manufacturing jobs were ELIMINATED after the Biden-Backed NAFTA and China Disasters,” he said. “At every turn, Biden twisted his knife into the back of Michigan workers."

Mr Trump has also been critical of Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer who was a candidate to be Mr Biden’s vice-presidential nominee for months.

The President has attacked her policies to curb the coronavirus outbreak calling her “dishonest”, and also made light of a right-wing plot uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her.

When is a result likely?

There are concerns that Michigan and Wisconsin (both predicted +8 Biden)  and Pennsylvania (predicted +6 Biden) and will not be declared for some time as election staff count votes submitted by post.