(2/26/2020) - Mid-Michigan will play a huge role in the upcoming presidential election and candidates on both sides of the aisle are taking notice.
Vice President Mike Pence was back in Michigan on Tuesday trying to rally re-election support for President Donald Trump. Pence sat with for an exclusive one-on-one interview with ABC12.
He said Michigan will continue to see visits from Pence and Trump leading up to the November election.
"Oh, we're going to go everywhere in Michigan," Pence said. "Michigan always plays an outsized role in presidential politics. But I have to tell you when Michigan said yes to President Donald Trump in 2016, it was part of the equation that launched this administration, as it made it possible for us to advance policies."
He touted those policies throughout his visit Tuesday morning with the Michigan Farm Bureau in Lansing and then to supporters Tuesday evening at a Keep America Great event in Troy.
"Rolling back federal red tape, unleashing energy, negotiating new trade deals like the USMCA with Canada and Mexico that have resulted in a booming economy," Pence said. "Here In Michigan and across the country, almost 8 million jobs across America today, but more than 100,000 jobs created by business all across Michigan."
He also pointed to federal grants, loans and other support offered to Flint and other communities facing water quality crises.
"Obviously, Ann, from early on in our administration, we made more than $100 million available to flint as they continue to find their way back from that crisis of so many years ago," Pence said.
He pointed out the EPA's new rules established last fall should ensure properly tested, clean water.
"And we're working right now on approving that new set of rules," Pence said. "We want to make sure that in municipalities, in states around the country that we're properly testing and that there's enough advance notice so that communities are able to prevent the kind of contamination that flint had to endure so many years ago."
He said the Trump administration's record separates them from the several Democrats trying to win the presidential nomination.
"And I promise you, the president and I are going to be back to Michigan again and again, carrying that positive message," Pence said. "We think we've made America great again in three short years."