Here’s the percentage numbers for the five-county Detroit metro area (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston) in the 2008 Republican primary between Mitt Romney and John McCain and the latest figures for Romney and Rick Santorum in current returns, with about 50% of precincts reporting statewide. I’ve listed the counties in order of number of votes cast in 2008.
County Romney-McCain Romney-Santorum
Oakland 47 27 50 30
Wayne 44 26 44 32
Macomb 45 25 43 34
Washtenaw 37 34 45 35
Livingston 45 26 44 35
In other words, Romney seems to be doing as well as 2008 in these counties or even better (we’ll see if the Washtenaw numbers hold up when all the precincts report).
In 2008 Romney carried the five-county Detroit area, which cast 35% of the statewide vote, by a 45%-27% margin, while carrying the rest of the state by only a 35%-32% margin.
Republican voters in metro Detroit, despite all the talk of blue collar workers, are relatively upscale, and Romney clearly is doing best, as he has throughout 2008 and 2012, upscale voters. It looks, at this writing, like Romney will carry Michigan, and on largely on the basis of the metro Detroit vote.
