ZEELAND, Michigan — Michigan has only gone Republican in the presidential election once since 1988. That was 2016, when Donald Trump very narrowly turned the Great Lakes State red. Every other time, it has been a reliably Democratic state in the Electoral College, including in 2020. Currently, Michigan is a winner-take-all state. The candidate with the most votes gets all 16 of Michigan's Electoral College votes.
But, in a Facebook post on Monday night, West Michigan Congressman Huizenga suggested that Michigan's Electoral votes be split up by congressional district.
Huizenga writes:
"If Michigan were to end the winner take all system of electoral college votes and instead break it up by congressional district, it would make campaigning in our state much more balanced.
This would remove Detroit’s outsized influence and encourage candidates to compete for votes in each congressional district across the entire state, not just the big cities.
The end result would make your vote here in West Michigan even more important."
Not everyone believes this would be best for the state as a whole.
Whether this is anything more than speculation on the congressman's part is unknown. But, there is an actual move on the part of Republicans in Wisconsin, a state that has gone GOP in the presidential election just once since 1984 (again, 2016 for Trump).
This has been tried before in Michigan. In 2015, Republicans offered a bill that would have given each of Michigan's congressional districts one Electoral vote, with the two remaining votes going to the statewide winner. Under that scenario in 2020, Trump would have won 7 Electoral votes in Michigan. Biden would have won 9. Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes.
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