Michigan-- Senator Kid Rock? I Wouldn't Count On It

Earlier today we looked at the results of the Marist poll for NBC News in Wisconsin. I didn't mean to slight Michigan. Much of the attention the Michigan poll got was because it shows some kind of viability for possible GOP Senate candidate Kid Rock.

NBC News' Carrie Dann asked in a provocative headline whether Kid Rock is popular enough in Michigan to win, referring to him as "the provocative musician who calls himself the 'Pimp of the Nation' and peppers his lyrics and political rhetoric with unprintable language." The poll found Kid Rock's popularity ratings aren't in line with other Michigan political figures. Hasn't that poor state suffered enough?

Shockingly, Trump won Michigan's 16 electoral votes last year-- by a whisker: 2,279,543 (47.5%) to 2,268,839 (46.3%), a margin of 10,704 votes. Like in Wisconsin, Clinton was the wrong candidate. Although Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the corrupt Kings Landing Democratic establishment had rigged the process so that Hillary was able to walk away with 73 convention delegates to Bernie's 65, Bernie beat her statewide by almost 20,000 votes. Primary day totals:

• Bernie- 595,222
• Hillary Clinton- 576,795
• Señor Trumpanzee- 483,751
• Ted Cruz- 330,015

Let's look at 10 key counties that Trump won in the general against Hillary, but that Bernie had won against Clinton. The bolded counties are the ones that had voted for Obama in 2012 and flipped to Trump last year. It's very likely that had Bernie been the candidate in November, he would have beaten Trump, probably substantially.

• Allegan Co.- Bernie- 5,545; Trumpanzee- 5,327
• Bay Co.- Bernie- 6,363; Trumpanzee- 5,738
• Calhoun Co.- Bernie- 5,810; Trumpanzee- 5,800
• Eaton Co.- Bernie- 7,007; Trumpanzee- 5,386
• Grand Traverse Co.- Bernie- 8,091; Trumpanzee- 5,891
• Isabella Co.- Bernie- 4,024; Trumpanzee- 2,180
• Kent Co.- Bernie- 43,375; Trumpanzee- 22,742
• Midland Co.- Bernie- 4,568; Trumpanzee- 3,909
• Ottawa Co.- Bernie- 14,334; Trumpanzee- 11,600
• Shiawassee Co.- Bernie- 4,452; Trumpanzee- 3,864

As far as current favorable/unfavorable numbers among Michigan registered voters:

• Trumpanzee- favorable-34%; unfavorable- 59%
• Debbie Stabenow- favorable- 39%; unfavorable- 32%
• Kid Rock- favorable- 36%; unfavorable- 34%
• Rick Snyder- favorable- 37%; unfavorable- 48%
• Obama- favorable- 63%; unfavorable- 31%
• Bernie- favorable- 58%; unfavorable- 32%
• Democratic Party- favorable 43%; unfavorable- 43%
• Republican Party- favorable 30%; unfavorable- 55%

As far as control of Congress, 48% of Michigan's registered voted would like to see the Democrats in control and just 35% would like to see the Republicans maintain control. The DCCC, as they always do, is busy recruiting and supporting crappy status quo candidates that are unlikely to generate much enthusiasm, like doing everything they can to discourage candidates running on the issues that made Bernie so popular in the state.

Michigan 6th congressional district is still occupied by out-of-touch Republican multimillionaire, a Paul Ryan rubber-stamp, Fred Upton. It's a swingy district that Obama won in 2008 (53-45%) and lost in 2012 (50-49%). Last year Trump beat Hillary there 51.3% to 42.9%. She drastically underperformed Obama. And this is Bernie country. There are 6 counties in the district. Trump beat Hillary in each one except Kalamazoo. But Bernie wiped out Hillary in the primaries there:

• Kalamazoo- Bernie- 20,146; Hillary- 12,593 (Trumpanzee- 8,655)
• Berrien- Bernie- 5,942; Hillary- 6,546 (Trumpanzee- 7,817)
• Allegan- Bernie- 5,545; Hillary- 3,489 (Trumpanzee- 5,327)
• Van Buren- Bernie-3,656; Hillary- 2,484 (Trumpanzee- 3,287)
• St Joseph- Bernie- 2,219; Hillary- 1,382 (Trumpanzee- 2,528)
• Cass- Bernie- 1,683; Hillary- 1,657 (Trumpanzee- 2,859)

The DCCC refused to help Paul Clements last year. In Michigan, they were too busy spending money on reactionary Blue Dogs, all of whom, waiting for Hillary's coattails to sweep them into office, lost. For example, the DCCC + Pelosi's House Majority PAC spent $2,367,918 on worthless Blue Dog Lon Johnson in MI-01. He lost the open seat to Republican John Bergman 201,153 (55.3%) to 144,319 (39.7%). In the 6th, the DCCC refused to spend any money on Paul Clements whatsoever and Pelosi's PAC chipped in a grand total of $10,971. Clements lost to Upton by around the same numbers that Johnson lost to Bergman but who knows what would have happened if the DCCC hadn't wasted their money on the reactionary Blue Dog and spent it on the progressive instead?