Michigan: As the US presidential race nears its climax, Michigan is looming large as one of the states that will largely determine who will fill the White House when Americans vote on Nov. 5 to elect a president to succeed Joe Biden (Democrat), who has announced his withdrawal from the race in support of his running mate Kamala Harris to face former President Donald Trump (Republican). Michigan, whose name means “big lake” in the indigenous language, is the 10th largest US state by population and the 11th in terms of area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, the capital of the US automobile industry and for a long time the largest center of this industry in the world.
According to Qatar News Agency, in American political literature, they say that you can’t be President of the United States if you don’t win Michigan. What makes Michigan so important in presidential elections after Pennsylvania is that any Democratic candidate needs to win the so-called blue wall states, which are Pennsylv
ania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which guarantee them victory (along with the other blue Democratic states) with the minimum required to win from the electoral college votes, which is 270 votes out of a total of 538.
The Republican candidate needs to win at least one of the blue wall states to break the 270-vote barrier and win the election after securing their victory in the red Republican states as well as the swing states in the Sun Belt (Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada) that Biden won in the 2020 elections. With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is the most important state, with Michigan second with 15 and Wisconsin third with 10. So, there is a lot of anticipation in these three key battleground states, and the people who turn out to vote in them will likely determine the next President of the United States.
Although “Arab and Muslim” Americans make up no more than a third of the million people in a state with a population of more than 10 million, according to the US Census Bureau, Michigan was a close race,
with Trump winning by around 11,000 votes in 2016 and Biden winning by 154,000 votes in 2020, so small shifts can mean a lot to the final outcome. Michigan Arabs constitute one of the largest Arab communities in the United States, and the community is mainly concentrated in the cities of Dearborn and Detroit.
Their history dates back to the early 20th century when many immigrated in search of work opportunities. Today, many restaurants, shops, and cultural centers can be found that reflect Arab heritage, in addition to cultural celebrations and events that promote Arab identity in the United States. Historically, the votes of Michigan’s Arabs and Muslims tend to lean towards the Democratic camp, and by the numbers, all Democratic candidates have won Michigan since the 1992 elections, except for Hillary Clinton, from whom Donald Trump took the state in 2016 before Joe Biden regained it in 2020 by a difference of 154,000 votes.
As evidence of the weight of this state, whoever Michigan voted for won the White
House nine times in the last 12 presidential elections, but the 2024 race might be a surprise. This year’s presidential race has seen several ups and downs, from President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race and his endorsement of his vice president, Harris, as the Democratic Party’s candidate, to Trump surviving two assassination attempts as he looks to return to the White House.
As the United States awaits the end of the presidential race, Trump (78 years old) and Harris (59 years old) appear to be close in the polls, making it difficult to predict the winner of the presidential race. A Michigan poll showed Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump with 46.8 percent, while Michigan was Trump’s first stop after the assassination attempt, but it seems that this has not helped him so far.