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Pence Brings Presidential Campaign to Portage

Sehvilla Mann
/
WMUK

Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence says it’s time for any Republicans not supporting nominee Donald Trump to “come home” to the party’s ticket.

At a campaign stop in Portage on Thursday Pence outlined what he said would be Trump’s first priorities as president. They include a swift repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a shift in trade policy and an end to what Pence called ‘the war on coal.’ Pence told the crowd their vote could make a difference.

“If you go make sure that Michigan is ready we will elect Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States of America and we will make America great again,” he said.

The crowd cheered as Pence slammed President Obama’s record on everything from trade to security. Pence especially targeted the Affordable Care Act, which he said had caused health insurance costs to rise untenably. Pence compared the Act with the explosion-prone Samsung smartphone the company recently recalled.

“That’s just what we’re going to do with Obamacare! We’re going to pull it off the market so it stops burning up our wallets!” he said.

Pence was introduced by Republican primary candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who only recently put his support behind the Trump campaign.

An EPIC-MRA poll commissioned by the Detroit Free Press last week found Clinton had a 7-point lead over Trump in Michigan. That was down from an 11-point lead about a month ago.

Sehvilla Mann joined WMUK’s news team in 2014 as a reporter on the local government and education beats. She covered those topics and more in eight years of reporting for the Station, before becoming news director in 2022.