
Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell told CNN on Wednesday she is growing more confident that Joe Biden will pull out a win in Michigan once all the votes are counted. But the Democratic congresswoman said that the narrow margin, and continuing urban-rural divide, should deeply worry Democratic leaders.
Dingell, who represents Ann Arbor and areas south of Detroit, has been far more skeptical of the likelihood of Biden winning Michigan over the last month, in large part because of the level of Trump support in rural parts of the state.
“I do believe he is going to win,” Dingell said. “I didn’t say that until Sunday for the first time. I think it is going to be close, but I do believe Joe Biden will pull it out.”
Rural pockets of Michigan used to be home to so-called Dingell Democrats, more conservative and independent voters who backed the late Michigan congressman John Dingell, Debbie Dingell’s husband. But many of those voters slipped away from Democrats over the last decade, highlighted by Trump’s overwhelming win of places like Monroe County, Michigan, in 2016.
The fact that this trend continued with Biden, a candidate who was seen as the best positioned Democrat to woo these voters, should worry top Democrats, Dingell said.
“I think both Republican and Democrats have to look at the divide in this country and both do some serious soul searching,” she said.
“For Democrats, we have to look at working men and women… who think we turn our nose on them at times. And Republicans have a very serious problem with women.”