LANSING — With just over five months from the general election, let’s check in on the state of Democrats and Republicans in Michigan.
It’s almost hard to keep up with everything happening with the Biden-Harris campaign here in Michigan. Last week, POTUS, FLOTUS, and the Second Gentleman visited Michigan and attended events starting in the UP and ending in Detroit with Biden’s speech to the NAACP. This week, the campaign announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the Legacy Dinner, the largest fundraising event for the Michigan Democratic Party, making it her second visit to Detroit in just over a month. Even just this Wednesday, the Biden campaign held the first event in a new series, “BBQs for Biden and Harris” in Detroit with Chair Barnes, Lt. Gov. Gilchrist, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
At the state level, Michigan Dems received well-deserved recognition in the Boston Globe for their months of organizing and outreach with the Biden campaign ahead of the election. The Boston Globe highlighted the stark contrast between Democratic and Republican state parties across the country that Michigan exemplifies. As the piece made clear, for the past year, Michigan Dems have been building out the ground game while the MIGOP has been embroiled in disaster after disaster.
And this week was no different for Republicans. In a damning examination of the schism in Republican state parties, ProPublica analyzed the “MAGA meltdown” happening in the MIGOP as they fail to fundraise, build campaign infrastructure, or even have a basic functioning party … Yeah, we wouldn’t want to be them either.
See more of the contrast between Michigan Dems and the MAGA MIGOP below:
As the President, First Lady, and Second Gentleman’s Michigan tour wrapped up, the Boston Globe released a report on the critical role state parties play in the general election.
The piece celebrated Michigan Dems’ world-class campaign infrastructure that has been knocking on doors, phone banking, and energizing voters for months already while the MAGA MIGOP has successfully … regained control of their own website. While we don’t do this work for the applause, it certainly doesn’t hurt:
Boston Globe: State parties play a critical role in elections— are Democrats or Republicans best positioned in 2024?
- As both political parties look for every advantage they can find in the lead up to the high-stakes November election, Democrats appear to be gaining on less-noticed turf: state party organization…
- Perhaps no battleground state better encapsulates all of the dynamics at play with state parties than Michigan. As the Michigan Democratic Party and the Biden campaign celebrated the opening of new joint campaign offices throughout the spring, the Michigan Republican Party was also setting up some critical campaign infrastructure: Its website.
- “Our team organized our volunteers to do door-to-door, to do phone calls, text messaging, long before the Biden campaign had anyone on the ground, and then … we were able to work with them to supplement those conversations and continue growing,” said state Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes. “It’s vital, not just in Michigan, but in all of our states that we have strong state parties that can take on that responsibility.”
The Biden campaign also confirmed the Vice President’s upcoming visit to Detroit for the Michigan Democratic Party’s Legacy Dinner on the heels of President Biden’s Detroit visit just this past weekend — in yet another example of the campaign’s continued commitment to Detroit. The Legacy Dinner helps ensure Michigan Democrats can do all the fantastic work mentioned in the Boston Globe to elect Democrats from the bottom to the top of the ballot. We are thrilled to have such strong partners in President Biden and Vice President Harris as we do this critical work:
Detroit News: VP Kamala Harris to return to Detroit in June to speak at party fundraiser
- Vice President Kamala Harris plans to return to Detroit on June 8 to speak at the Michigan Democratic Party’s annual Legacy Dinner, the state party’s largest fundraiser, the Biden campaign confirmed late Monday.
- “Vice President Harris knows that state parties are the backbone of winning Democratic campaigns. That’s why I am so thrilled to welcome her back to Michigan to speak at the Michigan Democratic Party’s Legacy Dinner,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement.
- “This trip once again underscores the Biden-Harris campaign’s commitment to Michigan, and to the city of Detroit. Time and time again, the Biden-Harris administration has had Michiganders’ backs, whether it’s delivering historic low Black unemployment, investing in our auto industry, or capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month…”
Because we never stop connecting with voters, the campaign held a “BBQ for Biden & Harris” event in Detroit on Wednesday. As the Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Lavora Barnes, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas highlighted, Democrats are going directly to voters and making the case for a brighter future for all. From now until November, we are going to keep showing up, knocking doors, and telling people what’s at stake to send President Biden back to the White House for another four years of investment in Michiganders:
Fox 2 Detroit: 1st ‘BBQ for Biden & Harris’ Held in Detroit
Despite being just five months from the general election, the MIGOP is still in full meltdown as the party fails to pull together any semblance of campaign infrastructure or party unity. As ProPublica reported, at this point, the MAGA MIGOP is considered a “national punchline.”
Maybe they’ll pull together a functional party by November, but we aren’t holding our breath:
ProPublica: Scenes From a MAGA Meltdown: Inside the “America First” Movement’s War Over Democracy
- What divides the Republican Party of 2024 is not any one policy or ideology. It is not whether to support Donald Trump. The most important fault line in the party now is democracy itself…This phenomenon is evident across the country…But it’s perhaps the starkest in Michigan…
- By the time Trump walked onstage in Waterford Township, Michigan, in mid-February with his red hat pulled low, the Michigan Republican Party was a national punchline…
Maybe by next week, the MIGOP will have gotten their act together and learned how to be a functioning state party … We doubt it, but one can always hope! Til next week.
Signing off,
Michigan Dems
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