Superstition or strategy?
Trump ends campaign in same city as in 2016
Normally, Republicans don’t win Michigan — but Donald Trump took the US state in a shocking upset four years ago. On Monday evening he headed back to the city of Grand Rapids — exactly like in 2016 — for the last rally of his reelection campaign, and possibly his political career.
Is it superstition? Well... yes. “We finished up there four years ago,” the president said at a rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin, ahead of his appearance in Grand Rapids. “I’m a little bit superstitious. Let’s do it the same way.” Supporters concurred.
“I heard he might be a little of that,” said Melanie Thorwall, 63, who had been waiting since
the morning so as not to miss the grand finale of the Trump 2020 campaign.
Along with her son, an engineer like her, Thorwall had been unable to enter the rally four years ago. Both nostalgically recall the emotion that night, the sense of watching a phenomenon.
Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to take Michigan — historically one of the sturdiest bricks in the Democrats’ “blue wall” — since 1988.
“Did you ever think you’d be hearing a major speech like in around close to one o’clock in the morning? Are we crazy? Is this crazy? It’s crazy,” he said at the time.
“You’ll get up after about two hours, you’ll vote and you’ll go to work. I know my Michigan people,” he added. And his people came back Monday, hyped up by the idea of dealing the world another surprise four years on.
In a field, under cold sunlight, voters young and old waited in line, decked out in proof of their loyalty that has become de rigueur at Trump rallies: hats, T-shirts, flags. “He’s the only man I would go straight for,” joked the hoodie’s owner, Abi
gail Wall. The 27-year-old came with her wife, and her mother Kolleen. Mother and daughter also attended the 2016 rally. “Whether he wins or loses, this is history,” said Kolleen.
But “when you come to one of these rallies, all you think is, how could he not win?”
2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was so sure of winning Michigan that she barely set foot in the state.
She had added a last-minute rally in Grand Rapids on the last day — prompting Trump to schedule his own.
Unlike in the American South, there is no Michigan county that votes 90 per cent Trump. The electorate is more evenly divided, more moderate. —
You’ll get up after about two hours, you’ll vote and you’ll go to work. I know my Michigan people
Donald Trump, US President