A tight race in Florida and results coming from Georgia and North Carolina thrust the night into a critical stage
Michigan was the perfect storm for Democrats in 2016 — a surge in rural turnout, White union voters flipping to Donald Trump and depressed turnout among Black voters — leading the President to break through the so-called “blue wall” on his way to an unexpected victory.
Joe Biden needs to take back the state to have almost any shot of winning in 2020 and polls show he is on his way to do that: A CNN survey released in late October found Biden with a 12-percentage point lead in the state.
The former vice president committed his campaign to re-building that blue wall in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Republicans admitted when Biden was nominated that his appeal with White working-class voters made him far more formidable in states like Michigan, and the former vice president has focused his campaign on making that come true.
The Biden campaign is clearly taking nothing for granted in Michigan, however. Former President Barack Obama joined Biden for two events in the state on the final weekend of the campaign, aiming squarely to turnout young and Black voters who stayed home in 2016.
