Mitt Romney is expected to talk about the ingenuity that has driven U.S. prosperity in the past and how it can still create a bright future for American workers at The Henry Ford museum today in Dearborn to officially kick off his presidential campaign
And roughly 15 MSU students from the group Mitt for Michigan will attend the event in support, said Leo Madarang, one of the group's coordinators.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, gave a hint of what he'll be talking when he spoke to reporters Saturday at the Republican state convention in Grand Rapids.
"Michigan is … a place of innovation and technology. You think about the Ford museum and Greenfield Village — it's the place where Thomas Edison's laboratory is and where other great inventions are housed," he said. "Technology, innovation, has always been the heart of what propelled Michigan's success."
Romney says he worries that the downsizing and financial problems at the domestic automakers and some of their suppliers are a sign that more must be done to keep American economic dominance from slipping.
Romney's father, George, was president of American Motors Corp. before he successfully ran for governor in 1962, serving in that position until he left in 1969 to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1968, he launched an unsuccessful presidential bid. "I don't expect people to vote for me (in Michigan) because of my dad. But I expect that they'll know my dad's reputation for character and integrity and hope that some of that landed on my shoulders as well," Mitt Romney told reporters.
William Rustem of Public Sector Consultants, a Lansing think tank, said Romney is making a wise move by kicking off his campaign in the state where he grew up.
"It moves him away from what some would call the elite East Coast and back to the Midwest," Rustem said Monday.
Although most Michigan residents won't remember his father, who died in 1995, the Romney name "is still a highly respected name in Michigan," Rustem added.
Romney's brother, Scott, is a member of the MSU Board of Trustees.
Mitt Romney, 59, attended college at Stanford University and then Brigham Young University. Later, he simultaneously earned a master's degree in business administration and a law degree at Harvard University and settled with his wife — Ann, another Michigan native — in the Boston area three decades ago.
But even though he hasn't lived in Michigan for quite a while, the state looms large in his presidential plans. He has stopped by Michigan fairly regularly in recent years, making several visits last year to promote GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.
Whether those roots will help when Michigan Republicans vote for a favorite in February 2008 remains to be seen.
A recent poll by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA showed that 19 percent of likely Michigan voters statewide don't recognize his name.
Despite that, Romney sounded confident that if he got the GOP nomination, Michigan would back a Republican for the first time since 1988, potentially making him the first-ever Michigan-born president.
"I know the industries here. I've been to all 83 counties here. I've worked for the Republican Party here," he told GOP activists Saturday.
