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Donald Trump will again hold his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald J. Trump holds his first public campaign rally with his running mate, Vice Presidential nominee U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) (not pictured), at the Van Andel Arena on July 20, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America/TNS)
By Craig Mauger The Detroit News

DETROIT — For the third straight presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his final rally before polls open on Election Day in Grand Rapids, according to a spokesperson for his campaign.

The revelation points to the former president’s continued emphasis on the battleground state of Michigan. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump culminated his pushes for the White House with events in Grand Rapids that lasted into the early morning hours of Election Day. Thousands of people attended each of the stops.

In 2016, Trump won Michigan over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes or 0.2 percentage points. In 2020, he lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 154,188 votes or 3 percentage points.

“I kept saying we have to finish off here … we can be a little superstitious, right?” Trump said during his 2020 rally from the Grand Rapids airport.

Grand Rapids is located in Kent County, Michigan’s fourth largest county and a one-time Republican stronghold in west Michigan that’s been trending in Democrats’ favor.

In 2016, Trump beat Clinton in Kent County by 9,487 votes, 48%-45%. But in 2020, Biden defeated Trump there by 22,174 votes, 52%-46%.

Trump’s final rally in 2016 was at the DeVos Place convention center in downtown Grand Rapids.

“Michigan stands at the crossroads of history,” Trump said during the 2016 event. “If we win Michigan, we will win this historic election and then, we will truly be able to do all of the things we want to do.”

Trump is campaigning in Michigan on Friday, with a rally in Macomb County. His opponent, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will make her final swing through the state on Sunday with a series of stops, including a church service in Detroit and a visit to Michigan State University.

Michigan is one of seven battleground states that are expected to decide whether Harris or Trump leads the country for the next four years.

A late October poll of 600 likely Michigan voters, commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV (Channel 4), found Harris was beating Trump by 3 percentage points, 46.7%-43.7%, with 7.3% of the participants saying they planned to vote for a third-party candidate. Another 2.1% said they were undecided.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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