Name: Biggest issues in Michigan ahead of the Democratic primary
Uploaded: 2020-03-16T20:59:31.000Z
Duration: 8 min 14 s
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You know, I've been watching this campaign play out, and there's been sources of inspiration and a variety of candidates.

But as we go into Michigan's election on Tuesday, I am going to be voting for Joe Biden.

That was Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsing former Vice president Joe Biden.

And Thursday morning, Michigan is the biggest prize of next Tuesday's primaries, with 125 delegates up for grabs.

Biden previously endorsed Whitmer for governor and 2018 going forward.

She will be the Biden campaigns fourth co chair.

She'll also serve as the top adviser and surrogate.

He is a Michigan politics reporter for Bridge magazine.

Thanks so much for being with us, Jonathan Senator Sanders won Michigan over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary.

Why did Governor Whitmer choose to endorse Biden instead?

She initially was planning to sit out the primary, but I think once it winnow down to a much narrow, narrow our field, she felt it was time to jump in here.

Certainly you know what she talked about today and endorsing the vice president, and she thinks he can appeal to voters who she won over in 2018 by focusing on a she calls a kitchen table issues.

You know, Governor Whitmer ran here in Michigan on plans to, for instance, fix the roads something that isn't necessarily the most exciting topic.

But it happens a lot of people under pocketbook.

Joe Biden is a pragmatist who's gonna focus on real and concrete solutions.

Now, Is it clear what kind of influence her endorsement will actually have on voters?

I mean, you know, I think it's debatable how big of a deal endorsements are.

But if there was one endorsement get in Michigan, this was it, Um, Governor Whitmer won Michigan and 28 King by nearly 10% points over a Republican challenger.

This is a state that Donald Trump had won just two years earlier.

Opiate by a no more narrow margin s So this is a governor who has, you know, essentially one back of state.

That's gonna be a key battleground this fall.

So I think certainly it's a notable endorsement, and one that could give the vice president a little boost here heading into the primary.

Of course, in recent days we've seen the Democratic field narrow, significantly affecting many voters who have already sent in their absentee ballots.

It is not the easiest process in the world, but voters here can essentially spoil the absentee ballots that they've already filed.

So what they can do is either by mail through Saturday at about 2 p.m. can request.

Or they can go to the clerk in person through 4 p.m. On Monday.

So just the day before the primary on, then they contribute to either get a new absentee ballot or decide to vote at the polls instead.

So Michigan has actually a new absentee voter law, in effect for the first time this year.

That allows no reason absentee ballot, ballot voting.

So there's a lot more folks voting by absentee this year than ever have before.

The numbers are almost double what they were last year.

A lot of people have already sent in their ballots, but as of today, I believe the latest figures were something like 15,000 people had already asked to spoil ballots they sent in.

I believe it was 15,000 lives of day today, which is Thursday, So I expect we're going to see some more of that.

Over the weekend, Elizabeth Warren had a pretty significant presence here.

She was on the ground early in Michigan and I think had a lot of backers here.

So I think a lot of those folks are gonna be spoiling their ballots and coming days to try and weigh in and pick one of the other candidates left in the race.

So we know that Senator Sanders narrowly beat Hillary Clinton and 2016 after barnstorming college campuses and dominating among young voters.

But with many of the state's universities and colleges on spring break this week, how might that affect his support?

Well, that's gonna be really interesting to see is far as I understand, and some of the exit polls from Super Tuesday states he hasn't, you know, seen that huge enthusiasm gap with young voters that he saw here in 2016.

Unlike 2016 hey is not speaking at college campuses this week.

As you mentioned, not all of them are in session, so might have been speaking to an empty campus anyways.

Hey will be in Detroit on Friday and then in Grand Rapids on Monday that they're the two biggest cities in the state.

Ah, but he's not speaking directly to use voters in the way he did in 2016 or doesn't have that opportunity anyways.

Ah, those youth voters are part of the reason he really outperformed pools here.

A lot of the pollsters had under projected how many young voters would turn out, and when they did in droves, he really proved pundits and polls wrong for years ago.

So Senator Sanders has been hitting Joe Biden hard, saying that his past record is going to hurt him in Rust Belt states like Michigan.

Let's listen to Biden's response to that Now.

I'm the guy to help bail out the automobile industry.

So, Jonathan, what exactly has Biden done for Michigan's automobile industry?

Well, it seems like ancient history, perhaps to the rest of the country.

But here in Michigan, you know, we're on the little more than a decade removed from near collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, two of the biggest auto companies in the state now Biden, of course, didn't directly bail out the auto makers.

But he was, of course, the vice president in the Obama administration that did significantly expanding auto bailout.

That bailout actually began under former President George W.

Bush, but Obama accelerated it and put a lot more money into the industry than end up being a roughly $80 billion auto bailout.

Ah, those companies did roar back to life, and they are now profitable and seemed to be on relatively stable footing.

And in fact, both of them ended up paying back a significant portion of the taxpayer funds that were used to prop them up.

So you know Biden, you know, Democrats essentially have been running on that Obama auto bailout here for several years.

He just has a more direct connection to that.

Gotta risk it and Jonathan You for reported that climate change plans of the Democratic candidates would have major implications for Detroit automakers, suppliers and workers.

I mean, especially, you know, Senator Sanders.

He's talking about mandating all electric vehicles by the year 2030.

That's less than a decade away, UH, now and would require huge amounts of spending.

General Motors is currently retooling a Detroit facility to Bruce Electric vehicles.

That facility alone is gonna cost $2.2 billion to retool to build electric vehicles.

Michigan builds a lot of internal combustion engines.

It puts those internal combustion engines and cars it felt here and around the country.

Senator Sanders is proposing, Ah, lot of spending to help the automakers get there.

It's my understanding that's not a mandate.

Ah, but his spending proposals a little more modest.

He wants to spend significant money to build a series of electric vehicle charging stations around the country.

But he hasn't talked specifically about whether he had actually pump money into the industry to help them make that transition themselves.