Trump’s ‘EV Mandate’ Message May Have Helped Him Win Michigan
By Kristoffer Tigue – Inside Climate News
Excerpt:
In the race that would result in former President Donald Trump’s reelection, Michigan voters were bombarded with two competing and often contradictory messages.
In one corner, a transition to electric vehicles, galvanized by federal aid, would lead the American automotive industry into a new golden era. In the other, EVs would be a death sentence to U.S. carmakers as China continued to dominate the global clean energy market.
In their nearly 50 visits to the Great Lakes State this year alone, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, hammered Michiganders with their opposing visions for the nation.
“If I don’t win, you will have no auto industry in two to three years,” Trump said at a September rally in Flint. “China’s going to take all of your business because of the electric car.”
Harris visited Flint the following month to defend the Biden-Harris administration’s work, telling attendees of her rally that she would “ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles, are not only invented but built right here in America by American union workers.”
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In Michigan, where Trump won by nearly 80,000 votes, Republicans were relentless in their attacks on EVs ahead of the election.
“It was consistently a top five issue in Michigan politics in candidates for federal office and candidates for state office,” Rabe said.
Republican candidates in Michigan—like former Rep. Mike Rogers, who ran unsuccessfully for the state’s open Senate seat against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin—railed against Democrats for supporting a federal rule that required newly built cars to emit less pollution, dubbing the rule an “EV mandate.”
In one ad, which the Trump campaign spent nearly $1 million to air in Michigan in the weeks leading up to the election, it said: “Attention auto workers: Kamala Harris wants to end all gas powered cars. Crazy, but true!”
