Michigan is a prime flip opportunity for the GOP, and it looks as if the Democrats are engaging in shenanigans to try to steal it.
Start with the motive. Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are fighting to replace retiring two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and recent polling shows the contest in a dead heat. The last two surveys that RealClearPolitics tracked put El-Sayed ahead by a single point, well inside the margin of error. Cook Political Report rates Michigan as the only Democrat-held seat in the toss-up column, in a state President Donald Trump carried in two of his three runs.
Democrats did this to themselves, frankly.
The seat became a pickup opportunity the moment Michigan Democrats passed over the more electable candidate, Haley Stevens, and nominated a socialist radical instead. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) obviously doubted his party could hold Michigan with El-Sayed on the ticket.
Then came Thursday night's debate, and it did not go well for El-Sayed.
Rogers dominated, exposing his opponent's hypocrisy and dishonesty on Israel, terror ties, his foreign property, and health care. El-Sayed faced questions about his ties to terrorist groups, about supporters who cheer Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, and about his mother's role in wiring money to Osama bin Laden. Social media reaction overwhelmingly scored it for Rogers, and the verdict wasn't limited to Republicans.
"Rogers showed up tonight and exceeded expectations," wrote Michael LaRosa, a former spokesman for Jill Biden. "He spoke with absolute moral clarity about who Abdul El-Sayed actually is, he hit the right notes clearly and forcefully, and he didn't flinch when going in on the attack."
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There's more evidence of a campaign in trouble. El-Sayed plans to campaign with Barack Obama later this month, a sign of desperation and an acknowledgment that black voters aren't sold on him. A candidate cruising to victory in a state Democrats have held for years doesn't need that kind of rescue mission four weeks out.
Naturally, Democrats are panicking and resorting to rigging.
On Friday, the Republican National Committee sued Lansing election officials, accusing them of illegally packing poll worker positions with Democrats, shutting Republicans out, and hiding election records from the public.
The law here leaves no room for creative interpretation. Under subsection (2) of MCL 168.674, "The board of election commissioners shall appoint at least 1 election inspector from each major political party and shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party."
Now look at what Lansing did.
The city appointed 140 Democrats and just 71 Republicans to Election Day poll worker slots, handing Democrats a nearly two-to-one edge. Officials can't claim they had nobody to pick from, because Republicans gave the city a list of qualified candidates. When Republicans asked to review the poll worker records, which should be open to the public, Lansing officials refused. The GOP tried repeatedly to resolve the problem with the city before going to court, and got nowhere.
"Democrats stacked the deck, pushed Republicans aside, and then tried to hide the paper trail," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said. "That's exactly why voters are losing confidence in our elections. Michigan has become ground zero for election integrity violations, and the RNC is watching this state like a hawk. When left-wing officials break the rules, we'll take them to court and stop them."
The RNC says it wants transparency restored, bipartisan oversight guaranteed, and Michigan election officials held to the statute as written.
Beyond the poll workers scheme, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is fighting to uphold a rule requiring electronic poll-book files to be deleted within seven days after an election is canvassed and certified — a policy Republicans argue could erase evidence needed to investigate suspected voter fraud. Republicans joining the court challenge contend that federal law requires covered election records to be preserved for 22 months, raising questions about whether Michigan’s deletion rule would undermine scrutiny of disputed elections.
“Why is Jocelyn Benson fighting to delete election records after just seven days when federal law requires them to be preserved for 22 months?” asked Gruters. “The RNC has been fighting this election record purge from the start, and now we’re taking that fight directly into court. Michigan voters deserve transparency and accountability, not secrecy and less oversight.”
Make no mistake about it, this is what a party does when it knows its candidate can’t win on the merits. It stops trying to persuade voters and starts managing the process instead. Republicans are right to fight this in court now, because once the election is over, the damage is done and the evidence is gone.