With the 2024 election less than three weeks away, the state of Michigan looms large in the race for the Electoral College. In 2016, Michigan, by a slim margin, went for Trump. In 2020, the Wolverine State flipped for Joe Biden. As of this writing, according to multiple polls, Trump and Harris are effectively tied in Michigan—a key state in the Democrats’ “Blue Wall.”
Interestingly, at this point in the 2020 election, Biden held a sizable lead in Michigan, mostly because of his historical affinity for union workers. However, four years later, Biden’s policies have caused a schism between Democrats and their normally reliable union voting base.
To be fair, there are many reasons that union members are unimpressed with Biden’s record. For starters, the surge in the cost of everyday goods have hit union homes hard.
But, it isn’t just the sky-high cost of groceries and gas that has union households on edge in Michigan. Although the mainstream media has not taken an interest, the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle (EV) mandates are also a key reason behind Harris’ lackluster performance in Michigan.
For more than a century, Michigan has proudly billed itself as the nexus of the worldwide auto industry. The “Big Three” automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis) are all headquartered in Detroit, with several giant manufacturing plants littered throughout Michigan.
While it is certainly true that globalization and the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing has had a large effect on Michigan’s auto industry, the state still prides itself as being ground zero for the once-mighty U.S. automotive sector.
It is no secret that President Biden and Vice President Harris want to replace gasoline-powered cars with EVs. In fact, the Biden-Harris administration have gone to great lengths in their quest to eradicate internal combustion-engine vehicles. On the other hand, they’ve moved heaven and earth to incentivize Americans to purchase EVs, offering generous subsidies to those who can afford to purchase an EV.
The problem is that most Americans do not want to buy an expensive EV. And, just as importantly, autoworkers do not want to build EVs.
In Michigan, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) holds great sway. In 2023, the UAW made it crystal clear that they are not onboard with the Biden-Harris administration’s forced transition to EVs. Just to show how much the UAW opposes the EV transition, they went on strike over this very issue.
The primary reason that the UAW does not support the Biden-Harris EV transition is because EVs require fewer workers to assemble than traditional gasoline-powered cars. But, the UAW is also well aware that the Big Three are losing billions of dollars on EVs. Perhaps the UAW disagrees with the Big Three’s position on EVs because they are worried that these companies might not survive much longer if they keep producing EVs to appease the administration.
For far too long, autoworkers, and many other unions for that matter, have unblinkingly supported Democrats because Democrats supposedly cared about blue-collar, hardworking Americans. Well, it seems as if those days are long gone.
Even though the UAW has “officially” endorsed Harris for the 2024 election, a peculiar development that the mainstream media are totally ignoring is that most rank-and-file union members, including most UAW members, support Trump. Even more extraordinarily, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union leadership declined to endorse Harris and released internal polling of its members showing they support Trump 58 percent to Harris 31 percent.
It makes perfect sense that union members, and blue-collar workers in general, are leaving the Democrat Party in favor of the GOP. In recent years, the Democrat Party has embraced climate alarmism while pushing policies that are anathema to the working class.
Hardworking Americans want commonsense solutions to the problems that plague them. They want less regulations in the manufacturing sector. They don’t want to be told what type of car they can build and buy. They want clean air and water, like us all, but they don’t want their energy bills to double in order to subsidize so-called green energy.
Michiganders are practical people. They are proud to be the center of the automobile universe. They are also well aware that Kamala’s EV mandates will drive the heart of their state’s economy into the ditch. I don’t think they will allow that to happen. I think Michigan is going to switch lanes this November and make a rightward turn.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.