Michigan Democrats are celebrating the results of the local elections and state-level races across the country, seeing positive signs for their chances of victory in 2020.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes embarked on a statewide tour last weekend to drive turnout in local elections and convince residents to vote again next year. Increasing turnout among Democrats is a key part of the party’s strategy in its mission to flip a state that voted for Trump by a narrow 0.3% margin in 2016.

“The message with these elections is clear: our voters are fired up and we’re channeling that passion into action," Barnes said. "The Republican brand is toxic. With the strength of our organization and the investments we’ll continue to make, Michigan will be going blue again in 2020.”

The state party pointed to the positive result of elections in traditionally Republican areas like Livonia, where a Democrat became the first female mayor and turnout surged 44%; Troy, where two Democratic candidates won city council races; Farmington Hills, where former Democratic Minority Whip Vicki Barnett was elected mayor; and Sterling Heights, where Democrats won seats on the city council.

In Kent County, election results could indicate suburban areas are continuing to trend Democratic. Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who ran for a nonpartisan seat but ran on a progressive platform, earned a second term through a landslide victory, taking 83% of the vote, according to unofficial election night results.

Nationally, Democrats also flipped both chambers of the Virginia Legislature and narrowly replaced Kentucky’s Trump-backed Republican governor Tuesday. Republicans and President Donald Trump’s re-campaign are also optimistic about their performance after winning the Mississippi governor’s race and several statewide races in Kentucky.

Barnes said the gubernatorial victory in Kentucky, a state Trump carried by 30 percentage points in the 2016 election, is a good signal for Democrats in 2020. Meanwhile, Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale celebrated the president’s impact on elections in Mississippi and Kentucky.

David Dulio, head of the political science department at Oakland University, said it’s difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from the result of Tuesday’s races because turnout in off-year elections pales in comparison to presidential elections.

“No campaign manager would use data from 2018 and 2019 to predict what happens in 2020 in terms of turnout,” Dulio said. “We’re talking apples and oranges on multiple levels.”

Trump remains highly competitive in Midwest battleground states, according to a recent poll by the New York Times and Siena College.

The poll found Trump is within the margin of error with Democratic primary front-runner Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., among registered voters in Michigan and has a slight edge on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., leading by 4 percentage points.

The New York Times/Siena College poll found Democrats aren’t popular among white voters without college degrees, a demographic that largely supported Trump in 2016, but have a huge advantage with minority voters.

Outside his Lansing polling place, William Pringle, 34, said he isn’t sure which Democrat has the best chance to win in 2020. Pringle described himself as an independent voter unlikely to vote for Trump, who Pringle described as “corrupt.”

Lucas Al-Zoughbi, 24, said he’s supporting “Bernie Sanders all the way," but would be likely to vote for Warren if she secures the Democratic nomination instead. Al-Zoughbi was among a disaffected group of voters who chose to support Green Party nominee Jill Stein rather than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The MDP is touting an “unprecedented” effort to build on its success in 2018 elections. State party officials knocked on 76,843 doors and recruited 900 volunteers so far this year, according to a November memo shared with MLive.

“I’m really proud of the ground game that we’ve built all over the state and the fact that we’ve got good volunteers working in traditionally red areas, knocking doors, making phone calls and making the outreach,” Barnes said. “It’s still good to have sort of statewide operation already up and running, and we’re going to grow it bigger and bigger as we move into 2020.”

Democrats nationally also looked favorably at Tuesday’s results. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said the victories in Virginia and Kentucky “should send a chill down the spines” of Trump and Republicans. The DNC said it made a six-figure investment in Virginia and Kentucky races.

“Voters are tired of Republicans putting their own political agenda ahead of their constituents’ needs and are ready for representatives who fight for them,” Perez said in a statement. “Tonight’s results show that Democrats can take back our country, starting with Virginia, and begin the hard work of rebuilding the middle class and restoring the soul of our nation.”

Republican Tate Reeves was elected governor of Mississippi while five of six Kentucky Republicans won their statewide races. Kentucky Attorney General-elect Daniel Cameron will be the first black attorney general in the state’s history and the first Republican to hold the office since 1948.

Kentucky Democrat Andy Beshear claimed victory in Tuesday’s gubernatorial race, but Republican Gov. Matt Bevin did not concede defeat.

Trump held rallies in both states ahead of the elections. In a statement, Parscale said the President helped Bevin “run stronger than expected in what turned into a very close race at the end.”

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