Michigan is seen as critical in this year’s presidential election.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, won Michigan by a narrow margin in 2016. He was the first Republican to win the state since 1988.
Nationally, Democrats were criticized for not paying enough attention to Michigan, Wisconsin and other battleground states.
In the lead up to the 2020 election, the national Democratic Party is investing heavily to win states they lost in 2016 that were formerly believed to be reliably ‘Blue.’
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez says the party is spending millions of dollars on organizing, communications and data base building in Michigan and a half dozen other key states.
He says the “Battleground Build-Up 2020” effort is intended to build off the party’s efforts in the 2018 mid-term elections.
“We have been investing for some time in Michigan,” says Perez, “This is a continuation and a redoubling of our efforts to make sure that when we have a nominee…we’re handing him or her a really robust data and technology infrastructure.”
A Republican National Committee spokesman dismisses the DNC’s “Battleground Build-Up 2020” effort.
“The DNC is broke and will not be able to catch up with our permanent, data-driven ground game that has never left the State of Michigan since 2015,” says Michael Joyce, RNC spokesman.
Many Democrats chasing their party’s 2020 presidential nomination have campaigned in Michigan in the past year. But the bulk of their organizing efforts have been in early primary and caucus states.
