Here’s what Michigan means to Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
President Joe Biden made it official on Tuesday via video: He’s running for a second term and you can bet holding onto Michigan is a big part of his plans for winning reelection in ’24.
Fact is, it’s hard to see how he succeeds without fending off a Republican challenge in the Great Lakes state. Fortunately for him, he’s got a pretty good record in Michigan, having walloped Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the 2020 Democratic primary and then defeating then-President Donald Trump by three percentage points — or 154,188 votes to be exact.
True, but you’d have to go back to Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 1968 election to find a sitting, eligible president (who wasn’t term limited) who wasn’t his party’s nominee for reelection — and Johnson took himself out of the running. So, barring a health issue, Biden’s almost certain to be the Democratic nominee.
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At age 80, Biden is already the oldest president in U.S. history but the White House physician says he’s up to the job. Of course, he’s at an age when health concerns can and often do arise suddenly. That said, Trump, who is also in the running, is no spring chicken at age 76.
Think back to 2016: Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by clinching three states in the industrial Midwest — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — by less than 80,000 votes in all, fewer people than it takes to fill the Big House in Ann Arbor.
