President Donald Trump will visit Battle Creek, a conservative-leaning town in southwestern Michigan, on Dec. 18. The visit is part of a re-election campaign rally, titled “Merry Christmas”, and will take place at Kellogg Arena.
This will be Trump’s second visit to Michigan this year. Vice President Mike Pence also campaigned for Trump in Portage and Holland two weeks ago. Trump lost the city of Battle Creek by 7 percentage points in 2016, though he won Calhoun county, whic Battle Creek is situated in, by 13 points.
LSA senior Austin McIntosh, president of the University of Michigan’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative group on campus, said Trump’s visit shows the importance of Michigan in the 2020 elections.
“It’s exciting,” McIntosh said. “It’s always cool when any president visits your state. Also, I think it’s evidence that in 2020 Michigan is going to be a highly contested state. I think in the last couple of elections, we’ve seen Michigan starting to trend to more of a purple state.”
Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox said in a statement that she is excited to welcome Trump to Battle Creek.
“Over his three years as President, Donald Trump has stood up for the people of our state,” Cox said. “While Democrats play partisan political games in Washington, President Trump is fighting for Michigan’s workers and farmers who have too long been hurt by failed trade policies. I can’t wait to welcome him to Battle Creek.”
McIntosh predicts that Trump will talk about fulfilling a campaign promise of bringing additional jobs to Michigan.
“When any conservative comes to Michigan, they’re going to talk about keeping jobs, or creating new jobs, or talk about agriculture,” McIntosh said. “I would foresee Donald Trump talking more about agriculture.”