Michigan is not looking good for Democratic nominee Joe Biden with less than two months to go until Election Day, according to filmmaker Michael Moore.
Biden leads in most polling, but the Michigan native and prominent liberal activist said there’s an absence of a ground game in the crucial swing state that’s weaker than what Hillary Clinton had in 2016 when she lost the state.
“It’s actually worse than Hillary,” Moore told the Hill. “At least there was a ground game, even though she didn’t show up. There were Hillary offices in many towns, campaign offices, there was door to door campaigns.”
One of the most memorable factors of 2016, Moore recalled, was the lack of available yard signs for Clinton. He said after speaking with people who worked on her campaign, not having yard signs was intentional in order to avoid reminding supporters of President Trump to get out and vote.
Much to his dismay, Moore said the Biden campaign appears to have adopted this same strategy.
“Yard signs may seem like a simple thing to people, but it says a lot because you’re driving up and down the roads in Michigan, and you see Trump sign after Trump sign, Trump flags, banners, people driving around in their pickup trucks with Trump flags. It’s everywhere,” Moore said. “There’s no Joe Biden.”
Moore added that he believes Biden’s campaign and Democrats need to zero in on minority communities over conservative Democrats who may be on the fence.
“I don’t know how to get this message through to the Biden people because basically it’s just making my job and everyone else who is trying to remove Trump harder,” he said. “We will not survive four more years of this. We all need to get in there and get Biden in there.”
Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016 by just under 11,000 votes, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state since 1988.
Clinton didn’t visit Michigan until the final weeks of the campaign after polls showed the state swinging towards Trump.
Prior to Trump’s victory, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were viewed as the Democratic stronghold, or “blue wall,” of the country when it came to presidential politics. In 2016, all three went to Trump, and they are expected to be vital to the outcome of the 2020 election come November.
