Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump returns to Michigan on Friday with an event set in Grand Rapids.

Making his first visit back to the state after scoring a stunning victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump will hold a 7 p.m. rally at the 7,000-seat DeltaPlex Arena in west Michigan. Doors open at 4 p.m.

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The event is part of a victory tour that Trump, a Republican businessman, developer and TV reality star, is holding. On Tuesday he is holding an event in Fayetteville, N.C., and, on Thursday, he and Vice President-elect Mike Pence will be in Des Moines.

Public tickets are available to the event. To register for up to two tickets each, go to https://www.donaldjtrump.com/schedule/register/grand-rapids-mi4.

Trump, a political newcomer, not only surprised the nation by beating Clinton, who had been favored in the polls, he did so by winning in Michigan as well as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states which had been considered part of a Democratic "firewall" because they hadn't backed a Republican in decades.

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Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes out of nearly 4.8 million cast, or less than one-third of 1% of the vote. He was the first Republican presidential nominee to take Michigan since George H.W. Bush won the state in 1988.

Contact Todd Spangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.