Yahoo Finance 2020 election: 'Red waves and blue walls may be a thing of the past,' says Michigan Congressman
The battleground state of Michigan is once again in the spotlight as President Trump aims to repeat his 2016 upset —and former Vice President Joe Biden works to flip the state and its 16 electoral college votes back to blue.
Polls show Biden leading in Michigan, but experts also expected Hillary Clinton to take the state in 2016. Rep. Dan Kildee (D., Mich.) told Yahoo Finance he’s “fairly optimistic” Biden will take Michigan back.
“What I see and hear is so dramatically different than what we heard in 2016, where people — obviously erroneously — were confident that Hillary Clinton would win. Among Democrats, there's no false confidence,” said Kildee. “No one is taking this election for granted and I think, for Democrats, that bodes well.”
Democratic lawmakers have long spoke about the importance of the “Blue Wall,” made up of states in the industrial Midwest — but that wall crumbled in 2016, when Trump narrowly won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Kildee told Yahoo Finance politicians should no longer consider any state a guarantee.
“I think ‘red waves’ and ‘blue walls’ may be a thing of the past. Identification based on party is diminishing. I think people are much less oriented toward parties than they are toward individuals or movements or issues,” said Kildee. “I think we may have to kind of, get past the idea that there are so many predictably red or blue states.”
Kildee pointed to speculation that Texas could be competitive this year, even though it is historically a solid Republican stronghold.
“I remember a couple of decades ago when California was essentially a red state and now it's a reliably blue state, but I don't think any of that sticks forever,” said Kildee.
‘This is insane’
Officials say it could take a few days to count all of the votes in Michigan and several other states, like Pennsylvania. More people voted by mail this year amid the pandemic — and those ballots take time to count.
Trump has repeatedly bashed potential delays in results, saying the results should be known on Election Day. He’s threatened legal action in response the tabulation of ballots arriving after Election Day, which is allowed in some states.
“You can't have these things delayed for many days and maybe weeks. You can't do that. The whole world is waiting. This country is waiting,” said Trump on Tuesday.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Kildee quoted former President Barack Obama, who on Monday compared his successor to a “two bit dictator.”
“This is insane,” said Kildee. “We have a pretty long tradition in this country of actually counting votes before determining what the outcome is. Candidates don't get to decide who wins. I expect he'll do something ridiculous and stupid —at least in that sense, he'll be consistent.”
Jessica Smith is a reporter for Yahoo Finance based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @JessicaASmith8.
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