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DNC Hangs Anti-Vance Banner Over Michigan Stadium Ahead of Texas Game

Vaseline September 7, 2024

Could college football rivalries motivate Michigan voters to oppose a GOP ticket featuring Ohio State great J.D. Vance? Democrats continue to test the theory — this time with a plane that flew a banner over the Big House on Saturday highlighting Vance’s loyalty to his alma mater.

The Democratic National Committee flew a plane to broadcast its anti-Vance message over Michigan Stadium for four hours during the tailgate for fans before the noon kickoff at UM’s game against Texas. In addition to noting Vance’s support for Ohio State, the banner attempts to briefly tie Vance to Project 2025, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s playbook for the next Republican presidential administration.

“Just as the Wolverines ended Ohio State’s season three years in a row, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will end Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s election season when they defeat them in November,” Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “The words ‘Go Blue’ have never meant more than they do now.”

Since Trump named the Republican senator from Ohio as his running mate, Democrats have taken every opportunity to remind voters in the crucial state that Vance supports Ohio State on game days.

It’s a political burden that Vance himself joked about during his speech accepting his party’s vice presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. When the GOP delegation erupted in chants of “OHIO,” Vance joined the chorus before attempting to calm the Ohio fans. “You guys, we’ve got to chill with the Ohio love. We’ve got to win Michigan here, too,” Vance said.

Democrats’ attacks on the GOP ticket have also focused on Project 2025 and its proposals to overhaul the federal government, including a plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, weaken protections for government workers, and restrict access to abortion. The playbook’s authors include several former Trump administration officials, and Vance has previously defended the work of the Heritage Foundation.

“The only truth here is that Senator Vance is an Ohio State fan. Kamala would say ‘Go Green’ in East Lansing and then ‘Go Blue’ in Ann Arbor because her pollsters told her to,” Victoria LaCivita, communications director for Team Trump Michigan, said in a statement Saturday. “While Michigan may not like OSU, they respect Vance and that is why the Trump-Vance ticket will win the ultimate trophy on November 5th.”

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Trump’s campaign has repeatedly tried to distance itself from Project 2025’s proposals. At a rally in Grand Rapids in July, Trump told supporters he didn’t know what Project 2025 was but criticized it anyway, calling some of its ideas “seriously extreme.” A CBS News investigation published late last month found that at least 270 of the more than 700 proposals outlined in Project 2025 overlap with Trump’s previous policies and campaign platform.

In 2016, Trump won Michigan by a margin of 10,704 votes, or 0.3 percentage points — the smallest of any state — giving Michigan its first GOP presidential nominee since 1988. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by more than 154,000 votes, or 2.78 percentage points, in Michigan.

According to the Cook Political Report, the leading organization for evaluating elections, the Michigan presidential election is a toss-up with both parties having a good chance of winning.

Contact Clara Hendrickson: [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @clarajanehen.

Contact Liam Rappleye: [email protected]

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