Top Michigan Republican operative Jamie Roe tells Breitbart News that, based on his internal polling and the mood of the state’s voters, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is about to win Michigan’s 16 electoral votes.
“Trump is rocking and rolling here,” said Roe, who after working on Capitol Hill returned to Macomb County, Michigan to start his own consulting firm, Grand River Strategies. Roe and his partner are working on three Michigan congressional races, a state Supreme Court justice race and two county-wide contests.
“I was at a Trump rally in Warren, right down the street from me here Monday–he packed them in and enthusiastic crowds like you’ve seen everywhere else,” he said.
The former congressional chief of staff said polls done for a client running for Congress in Macomb County had good news for the New York City developer.
“In Macomb County, Trump is winning big,” he said. “Trump’s number are great, they are great. I would say double-digits. If you look at the public that’s been put out from Macomb County, every one of them shows Trump with a big lead.”
Macomb County is a critical county for Republicans running statewide, he said. “Most people are comfortable saying that Trump is going to win here–the only question is how big the margin’s going to be.”
In the battle for the states that turns America into a national chessboard, there was speculation that Trump was making feints into states that were solid for President Barack Obama in 2012, such as Maine or Michigan, in an attempt to draw Clinton away from states he really needed to win.
Roe dismisses any talk of Trump making Michigan a diversion tactic.
“You know? I personally believe he is doing it because he believes he’s got a chance to win this this–across the industrial Midwest,” he said. “Look at Pennsylvania, he is making a play for Wisconsin–Trump believes it and I think he is right.”
Roe said, “You don’t deploy your top to places you don’t think you can win. All the top surrogates and Trump himself are coming here.”
In addition to Clinton’s rally Friday, her husband President Bill Clinton has been a constant visitor to the state, including his private meeting Wednesday in Detroit with African-American ministers, he said.
“They are totally concerned here–as they should be–and across the country that African-American turnout is not what it needs to be for Hillary Clinton,” he said.
“The Democrats are scared to death right now and the Republicans are on offense,” he said.
In the 2012 election cycle, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney told Republicans that he would put Michigan in play, because he grew up in the state, where he father was the governor in the 1960s. But, when the ballots were counted, President Barack Obama beat Romney with 54 percent of the vote to the governor’s 45 percent.
Roe said despite his promises and his family history in the state, Romney did not contest the state.
“You’d think that a guy would make a play for the state where he was born,” he said.
“Romney didn’t play for Michigan,” he said. “He did not visit Michigan one time post-convention. Ryan came here once in September and that was the only visit that we got.” Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-WI) was Romney’s running mate in 2012. “I don’t think Romney spent any money in Michigan.”
The big difference between 2012 and 2016 is that Trump is making a solid effort to win a state Romney ignored, he said.
Another part of it is that Romney did not resonate with Michigan residents, while Trump is completely in synch with them, Roe said. “Particularly on trade and secure borders and national security, he is in line with where the people of Michigan in a big way, particularly where I live, Macomb County, the home of the Reagan Democrats, very blue collar and they are embracing Trump hugely here.”
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