Detroit Democratic debate: Free Press columnists break down Day 1
Free Press writers break down Day 1 of the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit.
Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press
DETROIT – Michigan is part of the US Midwest, most authorities agree, probably resting a major dispute that arose from Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate.
Amid a debate on Twitter about what kinds of political promises “play well” in the Midwest, New York Times Washington deputy editor Jonathan Weisman sent out a tweet that many interpreted as claiming that neither Detroit nor Minneapolis are part of the Midwest.
He later deleted the tweet after a war of words broke out on Twitter.
Both US Census Bureau and National Geographic include Michigan in the Midwest on their maps showing the various geographic regions of the US. They also guarantee Minnesota.
“There's no confusion about it,” Joe Darden, a geography professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said Wednesday. “I don't know why this is being discussed.”
But there's actually been a quiet debate for decades about whether not only Michigan, but other states like Ohio, should count as Midwestern states. Some note that much earlier in American history, Michigan was considered part of the Northwest. Others insist it is much more northeast than midwest.
Exactly how the geographic debate began as part of Tuesday's political debate is not exactly clear.
But at least two Democratic candidates — Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — referred to Michigan as a Midwestern state at various points.
“I'm winning in the Midwest,” Klobuchar said at one point. “I can win in states like Wisconsin and Michigan and Iowa.”
In his tweet, Weisman said that saying that U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, or U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is from the Midwest is like saying that Rep. U.S. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, is from Texas, or that U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, is from the Deep South.
What seemed to be missed by many who read the tweet was that Austin is actually the capital of Texas and Georgia is generally agreed to be part of the Deep South.
Wiseman later deleted the tweet, saying he was trying to “highlight the regional differences in politics between urban and rural areas” that were misunderstood.
But until then, a Twitter battle is raging, with FiveThirtyEight editor-in-chief (and Michigan native) Nate Silver accusing Weisman of saying “people from big cities in the Midwest aren't really from the Midwest.”
Democratic debate, night 2: Here's how to watch and what you need to know
Since both Tlaib and Omar are part of the “caucus” of women of color in Congress that President Donald Trump has said should go back to where they came from, some saw the exclusion of Tlaib and Omar as part of the debate over where is the midwest located. identified as racist.
But even earlier in the evening, among those arguing that Michigan is not part of the Midwest was Michigan Republican political consultant and travel writer Dennis Lennox.
“Note to Klobuchar,” Lennox tweeted less than 25 minutes into the debate. “#Detroit (and #Michigan) is not the Midwest.”
Lennox pointed to a 2008 Hour Detroit article that questioned whether Michigan should be considered part of the Midwest, said the Census Bureau didn't adopt the term “Midwest” until 1984, and cited a history professor at Miami University in Ohio to says that The term is a “cultural construct” that can mean different things to different people.
A Google search also turned up an article titled, “Why Ohio and Michigan Are Considered Part of the Midwest…” among others questioning the classification.
Lennox said he believes Michigan historically and culturally has much more in common with northern Ohio, northeastern and upstate New York than it does with the Midwestern states of Kansas or Nebraska.
“By default it's in the Eastern time zone,” Lennox said. “It's very difficult to say that any state in the Eastern time zone is the Midwest.”
“We're basically like New York, politically,” Lennox said.
But many seemed as confused by the debate as Darden.
“Apparently a heated debate about whether or not Michigan is really 'Midwestern' erupted on Twitter during last night's debates,” tweeted Jordyn Hermani, writer for the Lansing-based political newsletter Gongwer.
“I really have to ask: If we're not Midwestern, what are we? South Canadians?
Follow Paul Egan on Twitter: @paulegan4.
