The Daily Signal - Michigan Is a Road to the White House, Rep. Huizenga Says

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., said he has seen a political shift in the swing state of Michigan. “It's interesting to see how Michigan has just grown in importance, and as a crossroads,” Huizenga told The Daily Signal, “quite literally the road to the White House, the road to the Senate [Republican] majority, and the road to our own majority in the House of Representatives, I think runs right through Michigan.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, November 1st. I'm sitting down with Representative Bill Hisinga of West Michigan, and we're discussing the political scene in Michigan heading into the election on Tuesday. But first, the Daily Signal podcast has a big announcement. For years now, we've been bringing you the news of the day every weekday evening around 5 p.m. We know you are busy and want to get your news succinctly. And that's why, starting Monday, we are rebranding the Daily Signal, top news, to top news in 10. We will still bring you the news you need and want to know, but we will do it

in 10 minutes. So every weekday evening, you know you can get up to speed on the day's events in only 10 minutes. We are also changing up our morning show. Instead of an interview edition of the Daily Signal podcast every weekday, we are now going to bring you one in-depth interview every weekend. But if you love Daily Signal interviews, don't worry. The Daily Signal podcast is actually one of four podcasts we produce every week. So if you miss our morning weekday interviews, check out the Tony Kinnettcast, Problematic Women, and The Signal Sitdown. Here on the Daily Signal podcast, we will see you every weekday at 5 p.m. for top news in 10, and every weekend for our interview edition. And please don't forget to subscribe so you never

miss our regular show or our bonus episodes. Thanks for listening to that announcement. And now I'm sitting down with Representative Bill Hisinga of Michigan. The counties that you represent in Michigan have recently had a lot of VIII. visits from the presidential candidates and the VP nominees. Why are those counties important in determining how Michigan votes in the election and then who ultimately wins overall? Well, we're the vote producers. You know, that's the interesting thing is you have to go where the votes are, right?

And there's saturation in many ways in southeast Michigan. that is, I think, indicative, though, of the importance of Michigan as a whole is you have candidates going to places like Kalamazoo, coming to places like Holland. We're going to be having J.D. Vance in Kalamazoo tomorrow on Friday, for example. And we're hoping that President Trump is going to finish his campaign in Grand Rapids for the third time. So, you know, it's interesting to see how Michigan has just grown in importance and as a crossroads, you know, quite literally the road to the White House, the road to the Senate majority, and the road to our own majority in the House of Representatives, I think runs right through Michigan. And some people have said that there has over the last few years been a party realignment in Michigan. Have you seen that? Absolutely. And this actually harkens back to my. own family. My mother was a good Irish Catholic girl from Flint, Michigan. And I've got cousins

who are UAW retirees and communication workers of America and that kind of thing. And certainly their attitudes have shifted. And this notion of ever voting for a Republican, much less calling yourself a Republican, never would have crossed their minds 20 years ago. And that has certainly grown and it is it's it's something to watch then you look at what's been happening within uh afghan american and Hispanic communities uh they certainly have been looking around saying you know what maybe our maybe our morals and our sort of center of gravity of our beliefs doesn't quite fit with the with the democrat party the way we've been told that it does and uh you know the same thing frankly is happening with it

in the Arab American community, you know, seeing, seeing very prominent Democrat, Muslim elected officials in Hamtramic and Dearborn and other places around there, either staying neutral or in some cases even coming out and endorsing Donald Trump. I mean, that's pretty powerful and quite a powerful indictment of what's been happening on the Democrat side is they've just, not just drifted leftwards. They've taken a hard. turn leftwards and many of their stances and platforms and that kind of thing. And you're, you're now seeing, I think, this whole notion that the Democrats were for the working man. Well, really, go ask Mark Cuban about that, right? I mean, go ask the billionaires that are

part of the Democrat Party. And it's really become a party of the elites in many ways. What have you been hearing from your constituents in Michigan about what issues are most important to them in this election? Yeah, the main thing that we continually hear about is the economy, inflation, and basically quality of life. It's just been crushing. Michigan's been over 20% in inflationary increases in everything from eggs and groceries to gasoline to home prices, insurance, car insurance is skyrocketed here in Michigan. And some of those are state decisions and some of those are federal decisions. But at the same time, it doesn't matter to that person who's pulling up to the gas station or the mom who's filling her grocery cart and saying, you know,

I don't have this in the budget. And you know, you think about this, you know, gas was below $2 with Donald Trump. And we're here we are celebrating that it drifted below $3. some case. I just went past the gas station on the corner near my house and it was back up to $3.25. But let's call it $2 versus $3. Well, you know, guess what? Instead of spending $50 a week in fuel and for gas, you're now spending $75 a week and not getting another drop of gasoline in the tank. Well, that's instead of $200 a month, that's now $300 a month. And where is that money come from, right? Certainly, wages haven't kept pace with that. So that means you've got to make decisions about either your recreational dollar, like maybe you're not going out to the movies,

maybe you're not going out to eat, maybe you're cutting back on the type of meat that you're buying at the grocery store, you know, those kinds of things are real-world implications to the decisions that the Democrats have been making. So, you know, that's the importance, I think, of the economy on everyday Americans as they sit around the kitchen table trying to figure out how to balance their checkbook. A new poll came out today from Steve Mitchell, Mitchell Research and Communications showing that Trump is one point ahead of Harris and Mike Rogers is ahead of Alyssa Slotkin, which I think is a difference from his last poll. Does that surprise you? And do you think Republicans are going to ultimately have a lot of wins in Michigan this year? Yeah, it certainly has

felt like momentum has been moving in the Republicans' direction, both for the president, for Mike Rogers, I think for our U.S. House candidates as well, as you look at whether it's my own race or whether Tom Barrett, who is running to replace Alyssa Slokkin, who's running for Senate against Mike Rogers, that should be a pickup. You know, the Flint seat that has been in the hands of a Kildee family has been elected there for decades. We've got a real shot there with Paul Young in the Grand Rapids area. We've got a strong candidate with Paul Hudson. So I think there's some real statements being made here in Michigan. And same, it's trickling down to also the state house races. The person who's the Republican leader now who is anticipated to become the next speaker

is a constituent of mine, and so we stay in close contact. And so we've got people like a guy named Steve Frisbee out of Battle Creek, Kevin Whiteford over on the east side, I'm sorry, the west of my district, who have a real chance down, we call it downriver south of Detroit. There's some great downriver candidates. There's some McComb County candidates. There's a candidate in Lansing that Tom Barrett used to represent that area. That's House seat could flip. So there's some real changes, not just for the federal level, but state level and even the county level. I've heard that Battle Creek, which I believe is part of your district, has some demographics that are typically Democrat that have kind of been moving more

Republican over the past few years under the Biden-Harris administration. Is that something that you've seen happen? Elizabeth, absolutely. Battle Creek is home to both Kellogg. and post-serial. There's manufacturing. It's pretty heavy union town. Interestingly enough, when I first got elected, the woman who is the chair of the Republican Party, her husband was the union representative for the line workers, the electrical line workers. And the Republican Party in Calhoun County, which is where Battle Creek resides, actually walked the picket line with Kellogg, that were striking against Kellogg. So, you know, that's again, kind of going back to your earlier question about, has there been a demographic switch and flip here? And Battle Creek is absolutely part of that canary in the coal mine situation for the Democrats, that they've been losing their grip in some areas that traditionally had been pretty solid in their camp. And in fact, I've got a guy who's working on my campaign, who, who grew up in the area in a little part of the county called Springfield, which is right inside

of Battle Creek. And a couple of Saturdays ago, Ken and I and a number of others went door to door in his old neighborhood. And he was just floored about what has happened, and it was just Trump sign after Trump sign after Trump sign. And I remember one lady who kind of stands out in my mind, she was a retired Teamster and retired postal worker. And she was out there and she had Trump sign out there. I asked her if I could put a sign out there. And she was like, absolutely, you support the president,

then you can have a sign in my yard. I mean, these are not wealthy suburbs by any stretch of the imagination. These are hardworking salt of the earth taxpayers who are just sick of it. You know, they're sick and tired of having their tax dollars abused. They're sick and tired of having inflation, just run rampant. And they feel like, you know, governments controlling them rather than them controlling government. And that's a recipe for disaster in a neighborhood like that. Democrats in Michigan have been putting a lot of emphasis on abortion in this election. How do you think that message is being heard by?

the large evangelical population in West Michigan? Well, not just the evangelical population. I think everybody is seeing this as, frankly, an act of desperation because they have nothing else to talk about. They can't talk about energy policy. They can't talk about economic policy. They can't talk about foreign policy. So they're really kind of stuck on this.

And here's the thing in Michigan. We had a very contentious, tough-fought battle over this issue to, years ago. It was called Proposal 3, and it put an unfettered access to abortion into the state constitution. And regardless of how people voted on that, that is the law. That's in fact, that's in the constitution now of the state of Michigan. So this question in many ways has been settled here in Michigan, yet my own opponent is trying to somehow spin this as I'm anti-IVF, for example, which is completely 100% true, and she clearly doesn't have any idea what my own family's story is about having children and friends that we have had that have been affected,

not just adoption and IVF. But, you know, this is something so many people have dealt with. But it's the only thing that they've got to hang and cling on to. So, you know, you're seeing them run that playbook. And here's what I'm finding from people. It's fall. It's falling. further and further and further down the list of priorities for them, not because they may not be passionate about it, but because they understand that we've kind of dealt with this one already. And that, that I think is something that's going to end up maybe ringing hollow as they've gone to this well, one too many times, desperate for votes and for motivation. And people are starting to look beyond that and saying, yeah, but what about that a

thing again, you know, let's talk about that. And whether it's African-American males or Hispanic families or whether it's union workers, that's what they're concerned about. And do you expect election results to take some time to be released from Michigan, or do you think it will be pretty prompt? I'm afraid it's going to probably take longer than I would like it to, or frankly, anyone would like it to. We just don't know how quickly what I really hope doesn't happen again is the city of Detroit just shuts down counting. That's the kind of stuff that breeds cynicism and suspicion and all those types of things. One thing that has been a bit of a curve ball for us here in Michigan is Prop 2, which was voted on two years ago, brought about

early voting, no reason to absentee voting, a number of other things that are getting teed up. And we're having a significant turnout right now, both in terms of absentee ballots that have not only gone out but have been returned, as well as early voting happening. And each county is required to have a certain number of sites open nine days beforehand. So I talked to someone yesterday morning who she was in line at 7 o'clock. She's a schoolteacher, and she was in line, went in and voted. early on yesterday morning and now it's kind of done and over with. And what's also kind of interesting is as people are starting to do that and figure out how to use that system, they're able to kind of tune out a lot of those political ads that are just

assaulting all of us on TV, radio, on our cell phones, that kind of thing. So, but back to your question, we're just not sure exactly what the turnout is going to be, because Election Day isn't just Election Day anymore. It's nine days beforehand. And Michigan law, as I understand it, yet does not allow early counting of those ballots. It's kind of pile up. So we'll see.

But every clerk that I've talked to, and I've talked to a couple of them in the last week, they understand the job at hand and they are taking this very, very seriously and are going to try to expedite this as fast and as accurately as possible. But, you know, we just don't need something like what happened in Detroit four years ago again. In Kent County in the Grand Rapids area has seen a kind of party shift from being Republican stronghold to being more blue over the past couple decades. And I've heard that it's going to be a pretty close race in that area. do you think that, do you think Trump or Harris is going to ultimately come out on top in that area?

And do you think it's going to be a close race? Yeah, I think it's going to be very, very close. You're right. It has trended that way. Kent County used to be a solid, reliable, Republican vote area. And that has shifted. East Grand Rapids and some of the other suburbs of the city of Grand Rapids have certainly drifted leftwards. Now, the interesting thing is the city of Grand Rapids, which is quite heavily

African American and Hispanic, contrasted with East Grand Rapids, which is your good old-fashioned white liberal, you know, wealthy white liberal to characterize it that way. Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see what happens within the city of Grand Rapids proper again, you know, with sort of that shift of Hispanics and African Americans, especially African-Americans. American males. So we'll see. I do believe that the more rural and suburban areas probably are going to be coming back a little more Republican. So is it possible for Donald Trump to win Kent County? Yeah, it is. There's a reason, you know, I mean, having him for potentially, hopefully for the third time wrapping up a campaign in Grand Rapids, I think that's a pretty big statement. And I think, you know,

the surrounding areas, whether it's Muskegon County, out on the lake, which I used to represent, Ottawa County, which I currently do, Allegan County. Kalamazoo will be a solid blue dot in southwest Michigan. There's no doubt. But then, as we talked about, a place like Battle Creek certainly seems to be shifting. So it's a big giant chessboard that everybody's trying to move those pieces around on. What will life be like in Michigan if Trump wins and then, On the other hand, what would it be like if Harris wins? It'll be nothing but sunshine and puppy dogs if President Trump wins, of course. No, in all seriousness, yeah, I think what we have, many of us here in the state have been frustrated with is seeing manufacturing slip away from us.

You know, Michigan has a proud, long tradition and history of building things, not just cars. You know, I represented the three largest office furniture makers. I represent two of them now, Hayworth and Herman Miller. We build things here. We make things here in Michigan. Not every state has that history and that tradition. It's slipped away. Part of that is because we are a peninsula state, which energy is a real issue for us,

getting energy in and out. So federal energy policy has a significant impact on the state of Michigan. again, for example, our overall tax environment and regulatory environment. By the way, when we talk about how to turn this economy around, it's not just about tax rates. It's about the regulations, this avalanche of regulations that have been coming down on manufacturers and others, especially small businesses that just simply don't have the capacity to deal with many of these things. That's the kind of rebound that we could have because at its core, Michigan not only builds things, but it's an entrepreneurial spirit. We're the home of Henry Ford. We're the home of

Thomas Edison, so many others that have been part of the growth of the automobile automobile industry and other manufacturing that has happened here. I mean, we truly are. And, uh, I think a state that's full of an entrepreneurial spirit. And that's kind of been getting squashed under the thumb of government in many ways. And so I think it'll be very positive. You know, as far as the Harris administration, I don't think there's going to be any kind of change from what we have been seeing under the Biden Harris administration unless it's worse. You know, I think this whole line of story that she's trying to sell here of her being a change agent,

day one, I'm going to come in and I'm going to change, you know, how middle income America has been impacted by, oh, me as vice president. Now, it just rings hollow for so many of those people. And, you know, I don't see that there's going to be any significant change in energy policy. I don't see that there's going to be any kind of, in fact, she has said she's going to be raising taxes on not just big corporations. That's an easy one to beat up on. But it's those entrepreneurs that I was just talking about who usually are a first or maybe a second generation family-owned company that's, you know, an LLC or that's as a sole proprietorship, those folks could get absolutely hammered. And, you know, this whole notion of having attacks on unrealized

gains, well, what is that? I mean, there's no even definition, not just legal definition, accounting definition of what that would be. And so that that's the kind of thing that I think would continue this slow, slow motion failure of the United States, much like what we've seen in Europe. And, you know, with the less than 2% economic growth of Barack Obama, I believe it was 1.8 or 1.9%. And Donald Trump was up at more like 4%. Well, that's not a 2% increase. That's a doubling of the economic growth, you know, going from 2% to 4% increase in. growth is a doubling of that growth. And that's how we really restore the American dream and that confidence that people need to have in our economy and in our country.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right. That was our last weekday interview before we transitioned to interviews on the weekends. So we hope you enjoyed. And we'll be back with you at 5 p.m. for Top News in 10. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of Listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Katrina Trinco. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.