Presidential campaigns ‘invisible’ in critical swing state of Michigan: report

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Communities across rural Michigan that could play a pivotal role in determining the next president have not shown much visible enthusiasm just three months before voters head to the polls.

"I’m actually seeing a lot less campaign signs and advertisements," Brandy Jones, a Michigan resident, said in a Los Angeles Times report discussing the seemingly "invisible" campaigns. "Usually this time during an election year, we’re being bombarded with it, and I’d be over it and irritated. This year it’s just nothing."

According to the report, large stretches of rural roads and small towns in Michigan show little sign that a presidential election is around the corner, lacking the usual indicators of enthusiasm such as campaign signs, flags bearing the name of candidates or campaign advertising.

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Vice President Harris and former President Trump (Getty Images)

One Los Angeles Times reporter "who drove hundreds of miles across a broad swath of the state" reported seeing only 16 presidential campaign signs across mostly rural streets and country roads. Experts in the state told the outlet that the lack of visible campaign enthusiasm is much different in the state than it was in the lead-up to the 2016 and 2020 elections, where the same areas were filled with pro-Trump yard signs and flags.

"I am beginning to see just a few here and there in the last couple weeks, but it has been noticeably different than 2016 or 2020," Thomas Ivacko, the retired executive director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, told the Los Angeles Times.

In one 42-mile stretch of back roads in Ingham and Livingston counties, located east of Lansing, only one flag supporting former President Trump and no flags bearing the names of President Biden or Vice President Harris were visible.

One local, who said she plans to vote for Trump, told the outlet the election is "just not as big this time around."

"People know who they’re voting for, and they are sick of the games," the local, Joan Saunders, told the Los Angeles Times.

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But the Trump campaign remains confident in the enthusiasm of the voters it will likely need to win the election, pointing to a growing operation in Michigan that has resulted in multiple new offices spread across the state and thousands of volunteers stepping up to help the former president.

In Michigan and other key swing states, the campaign hopes to have over 100,000 volunteers and attorneys, a small army of supporters that could only be made possible by voter enthusiasm.

More than 12,000 people piled into Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024, to see former President Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance at their first joint rally. (Fox News Digital/Brandon Gillespie)

The campaign is also banking on running against the current administration’s record, a message it believes will resonate with voters in Michigan.

"Dangerously liberal Kamala Harris is responsible for every struggle Michiganders have faced over the last three and a half years," Team Trump Michigan Communications Director Victoria LaCivita told Fox News Digital. "Her policies led to skyrocketing inflation, inability to afford gas and groceries, violent crime at the hands of illegal immigrants, and a California-elitist obsession with electric vehicles." 

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

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Both campaigns will likely continue to spend significant time pitching their case and mobilizing supporters in the state, which figures to once again feature a close race that could ultimately decide who wins the election.

Trump rode a wave of enthusiasm to break the famed "Blue Wall" and take Michigan by less than a half of a percentage point in 2016, the first time the state had voted for a Republican candidate since 1988. But Trump would lose the state four years later to Biden in another close race, besting Trump by just under three percentage points.

Thousands line the streets of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024, to attend former President Trump's first rally since the failed assassination attempt against him. (Fox News Digital/Brandon Gillespie)

This year’s race promises to be close again with the Real Clear Politics polling average showing Harris with a two-point lead as of Monday.

But LaCivita remains optimistic, arguing that Michiganders will push back against the Biden administration’s record.

"Nothing has been worse for Michiganders than the Biden-Harris agenda, which is why voters are going to overwhelmingly support Donald J. Trump in November," LaCivita said.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.