Democrats in one of Michigan’s top presidential battleground counties expressed their support for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as early voting is underway in the March primary.

U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, said Warren is the best choice for Democrats seeking to win back Macomb County, one of the key swing areas that put President Donald Trump in the White House in 2016. Macomb County Democratic Party Chair Ed Bruley also endorsed Warren this week and was included on a list of Michigan surrogates released by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee Monday.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said the endorsements help make the case that Warren can win back swing voters in key battleground states.

Macomb is Michigan’s third-largest county and the site of a dramatic electoral shift between the 2012 and 2016 elections. Trump increased Republican margins there by 16 percentage points, picking up nearly 33,000 more votes while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton dropped nearly 32,000 votes from 2012.

Levin represents Warren and other Democratic-leaning cities in the southern part of Macomb County. He predicted the eventual Democratic nominee will win his slice of the county by 20,000 votes or more.

“What Macomb County voters are best at is always surprising people,” Levin said. “That is their superpower. It won’t be a surprise to me -- they are going to deliver the presidency to Elizabeth Warren.”

Levin said voters in his district want to hear a “direct, strong economic message” from an authentic source.

“They want someone who’s going to tell it to them like it is and bring about the change they think needs to happen,” Levin said. “They don’t have a lot of faith in Washington. They don’t have a lot of faith in Lansing.”

The predominantly white, working-class county is considered a must-win area for Trump in 2016. Trump vowed to grow businesses associated with the automotive industry and condemned trade agreements that allowed manufacturing jobs to move across the U.S. border.

“(Trump) tapped into a very real ‘shake up the system’ anti-establishment sentiment that Democrats need to tap into if we want to win back swing voters,” Green said. “Someone like Elizabeth Warren, who used to be a Republican but came to the Democratic Party because she realized that Republicans were in cahoots with giant corporations to hurt working-class people and cheat them out of their jobs and money is a perfect messenger to win back swing states like Michigan.”

Green said Trump railed against corrupt trade deals and the “Washington swamp,” but hasn’t delivered. Warren has made fighting corporate interests one of the central themes of her campaign.

The president is set to deliver remarks at a Warren auto parts manufacturer this week after signing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a replacement for the universally scorned NAFTA deal. The trade rewrite makes good on one of Trump’s top campaign promises.

Levin said Trump will try to sell the USMCA as a “silver bullet” that will revitalize manufacturing, but the congressman said it ultimately amounts to “a modest rewrite” of one of the worst trade deals in the country’s history. Levin, who voted against the USMCA, said the new deal won’t prevent companies from taking advantage of cheaper labor outside the United States.

Levin hit the campaign trail for Warren in New Hampshire and the Republican-leaning Clinton Township. He said Warren’s background, rising from middle-class beginnings in Oklahoma to fight corruption and income inequality in the U.S. Senate, resonates with voters in Midwest states struggling to make ends meet.

State Rep. Bill Sowerby, D-Clinton Township, said Warren articulates a clear plan to restore the middle class and “make capitalism work for all people.”

Sowerby said Warren’s proposal to impose a 2% tax on the wealthiest Americans will open more opportunities for working Americans by funding universal child care and reducing student loan debt.

“She isn’t going to kowtow to the big billionaires who are trying to control this economy,” Sowerby said.

Warren’s ability to mobilize women voters is also significant, Levin said.

Women generally vote at higher rates compared to men and were a decisive factor in 2018 midterm victories by an all-female slate of statewide candidates. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, both narrowly won Macomb County in 2018.

Warren’s most transformative policy proposal is “Medicare for All,” which would put every American on a government-run health care system. The Democratic senator argues the government insurance plan would dramatically reduce costs for treatment and drugs.

Levin said voters are open to Warren’s ambitious agenda.

“I don’t think incrementalism works for this moment,” Levin said.

However, Republican National Committee Spokesperson Michael Joyce said voters will reject Warren’s health care plan because it eliminates their employer-provided insurance plans. Medicare for All is expected to be a tough sell for union autoworkers because they generally negotiated generous benefits packages over the years.

Other endorsements released by the Progressive Change Committee include former congressmen Sander Levin and David Bonior, Macomb County commissioners Elizabeth Lucido and Robert Mijac, several Democratic state lawmakers and local officials in suburbs north of Detroit.

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