Stateside

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has filed more than a dozen lawsuits in Michigan that aim to stave off the state’s certification of election results. The campaign’s attorneys have mostly focused on what happened inside of the TCF Center in Detroit, where the city’s ballots were tabulated. Today, we talk about the allegations laid out in the latest filings and the strength of the legal arguments behind them.   GUESTS: Rick Pluta is Capitol bureau chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network...

Michigan and other key swing states that delivered Donald Trump the presidency in 2016 swung back to blue this year. But like it or not, Donald Trump has changed what it means to be a Republican. So what does that mean for members of Michigan’s GOP after he leaves office?  We talked to two political veterans and former chairs of the Michigan Republican Party. Susy Avery was party chair in 1995 and 1996 when John Engler was governor...

The real star of this year’s election in Michigan might be the voters. A historic turnout resulted in some small, but significant, shifts in voters' presidential choices. Today, we dig into what the demographic breakdown of Trump and Biden voters tell us about a shifting political landscape in the state. Mark Grebner is a longtime political consultant and election observer in Michigan. He’s also a Democratic Ingham County Commissioner...

Michigan’s COVID-19 totals are surging again—this time in West Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. In Kent County, hospitalizations have increased and test positivity rates have reached nearly 12% at their high point. In more rural parts of the state, cases are rising in the areas least equipped to deal with a second surge—particularly when it comes to staff capacity. On today’s episode, we’ll hear about how two hospitals—one in West Michigan and another in the U.P.—are dealing with the spike...

We’re all paying a lot of attention to Detroit’s vote right now—and for good reason. But there’s more than one ingredient to Biden’s win in Michigan, including the county that flipped on the west side of the state. We talked to Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons about why she says voters should trust the elections process—and be skeptical about unfounded claims of voter fraud...

At the TCF Center in Detroit on Wednesday, hundreds of election workers were tabulating ballots. Election observers and poll challengers were inside to watch the work. But there was also a group of unofficial challengers gathering outside of the building. Protesters who support President Donald Trump began chanting “stop the count,” echoing the president’s calls to halt any additional vote counting...

As Election Day turns into days, the presidential race is still too close to call. Michigan was predicted to be a focal point of this election, along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and that prediction has held true. Today, we dig into what we know as the state wraps up its final vote tallies, and what the results mean for Michigan's political future. NOTE: This podcast was recorded in the 4 o’clock hour on Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Things may (and probably will) change in the next 12 hours...

For months, people have taken to the streets in Michigan—and across the country—to protest racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death. While social upheaval can definitely change how voters are feeling as they cast their ballots, it doesn’t always work in the way you might expect. Instead, says journalist and historian Ken Coleman, broad social movements can set the stage for political changes that happen after ballots are counted...

After one of the strangest election years in American history, Election Day is less than 24 hours away. Clerks across the state have received an unprecedented number of absentee ballot requests, and state officials are expecting that the contentious presidential race will drive record voter participation...

Michigan’s Arab American community is one of the largest in the nation, with people immigrating to the state from all over the Arab world. With such a diverse population comes a wide range of political beliefs. In 2016, around a quarter of Arab Americans in the U.S. said that they planned on voting for Donald Trump. A lot has changed since then. President Trump implemented a ban on travel to and from several majority Muslim countries...