Vice President Mike Pence to visit Oakland County on Thursday

Craig Mauger
The Detroit News

Vice President Mike Pence will be back in Michigan on Thursday as a string of high-profile visits to the state continues ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Pence will appear at a Thursday noon rally at Barnstormers near the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township. Doors for the event will open at 10:30 a.m. It will occur the same day as the second presidential debate and 12 days before Election Day.

Vice President Mike Pence holds an outdoor campaign stop at Lacks Enterprises Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan on October 14, 2020.

Pence, the former governor of Indiana, was last in Michigan last week for a rally in Grand Rapids.

"The road to victory runs right through Michigan," Pence said in his speech. 

President Donald Trump held a rally in Muskegon on Saturday, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke at events in Southfield and Detroit on Friday. Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, his smallest margin of victory nationally against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Biden led Trump 48% to 39% in a Detroit News and WDIV poll of 600 likely voters who were surveyed over the four days following the Sept. 29 presidential debate in Cleveland.

Oakland County is a key battleground this fall that's been trending against Republicans. Three state House seats, currently held by Republicans, are up for election in the county that Democrats are hoping to flip on Nov. 3.

Trump lost Oakland County by 8 percentage points to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Two years later, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette lost the county by 17 percentage points to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

After the Waterford Township event, Pence will appear at a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana at 4 p.m. at the Fort Wayne Aero Center

cmauger@detroitnews.com