DETROIT — In a nod to Michigan’s importance among swing states, Donald Trump will hold his last campaign event in Grand Rapids late election eve Monday.
That’ll make River City the former president’s final stop in all three of his campaigns.
A nine-year journey that started with an escalator ride at Trump Tower will end at downtown’s Van Andel Arena in Michigan’s second-largest city.
Donald Trump’s journey in politics started with an escalator ride in June 2015. It will end in Grand Rapids early Nov. 5, 2024. AP“Michiganders love a late-night rally, and President Trump loves Michigan,” Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s Michigan spokeswoman, told The Post. “From the beginning, Team Trump has known that the path to the White House runs directly through Michigan, so there’s no better place to conclude a historic and momentous campaign season.”
Trump has visited Michigan 17 times during this campaign, while running mate J.D. Vance has visited 11 times.
The ex-prez’s July rally, also at Van Andel Arena, was his first after Thomas Crooks shot him — killing one rallygoer and injuring two others — at a July 13 event in Butler, Pa.
“I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here,” Trump declared in Grand Rapids.
“I took a bullet for democracy,” he said, making the audience erupt in cheers.
Trump is returning to Van Andel Arena, where he appeared in July. David Rodriguez Munoz / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesMonday’s rally will carry over into Election Day. Tuesday morning, polls open in Michigan at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
The Harris campaign will appear in Michigan Monday night as well. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, is speaking in Detroit.
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The final surveys show the candidates tied or within the margin of error in the Great Lake State.
Polling guru Nate Silver has found Michigan is essential to both campaigns. The Wolverine State is part of Harris’s Midwest blue wall, while Trump taking Michigan’s 15 electoral votes from that wall could hand him the race.
That said, Henry Olsen’s electoral map for The Post shows Trump losing Michigan but winning the White House, with 297 electoral votes to 241 for Harris. The Electoral College casts 538 votes, and it takes a majority, or 270, to win the presidency.
