WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning to visit Michigan next week, timing his appearance to coincide with the start of early in-person voting in the battleground state’s upcoming primary election.
According to a source with knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about the event, the rally is scheduled to be held in Oakland County on Monday.
Early voting gets underway Saturday in advance of the August 4 primary, when Michigan voters will pick nominees for an open U.S. Senate seat, the governor’s office, U.S. House seats, and other statewide positions. On the Republican side, Mike Rogers is running unopposed for the Senate nomination, while the GOP race for governor has grown increasingly heated between Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. John James and businessman Perry Johnson.
The trip gives Trump an opportunity to carry his message beyond Washington at a time when Republicans are expressing anxiety about how climbing gas prices and an unpopular war in Iran could hurt their chances in the 2026 midterm elections. The party is currently defending narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Trump won Michigan in both 2016 and 2024, and both major parties consider the state a key battleground heading into the midterms.
The White House did not respond when asked for comment.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed are locked in a competitive contest for the party’s Senate nomination. Whoever wins will go on to face Rogers, who narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
The Republican gubernatorial primary has also been contentious. With Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer term-limited and unable to seek re-election, James has Trump’s backing, but Johnson has poured millions of dollars into television and digital ads attacking his rival.
Johnson’s campaign has already promoted a “Trump Tailgate” event for Monday.
Oakland County, the site of Trump’s planned appearance, has historically been viewed as one of Michigan’s top political bellwether counties. However, Democrats have been steadily widening their margins there, even as Trump carried the state in both 2016 and 2024.
Republicans had viewed 2026 as a prime opportunity to reclaim power in a state that has largely been under Democratic control over the past decade, outside of Trump’s victories. But a combination of rising gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran, and tariffs that have hit Michigan’s auto industry hard have all raised concerns about a deteriorating political landscape for the state’s Republicans.
A recent special election in May offered a warning sign for the party, when a Democrat won a state Senate district by nearly 20 percentage points — a seat that Kamala Harris had carried by less than 1 point in 2024, and that the previous Democratic officeholder had won by 6 points in 2022.
