Fred didn’t campaign in Michigan. Why is that?
Fred is making his stand in South Carolina.
He doesn’t have the money, and he doesn’t have the base of support such as that the other three have in MI, in order to scattershot all the primaries. His name is on the ballot, as it has been in the other states. But you will note that he tried hard in Iowa, finishing third, skipped NH and MI and is in SC as big as he can go into that state. It’s all he is able to do right now.
And his aim is straight at Mike Huckabee, right there. If he does poorly in SC, I think Fred knows it augurs poorly for his future in this campaign. Diverting to MI would REALLY be off target.
The man is billing himself as the most conservative in the race, is a Tennessean who comes across like a Southerner and has nothing to recommend him in a state like MI, compared to the others.
Romney was born there and his father was governor. McCain won the MI primary against Bush in 2000, and Huckabee has a big base of support in W. MI among evangelical Christian homeschooler types, along with his populism aimed straight and the “woe is us, the little guys” in MI.