How did George Wallace win the 1972 Michigan Democratic Primary in a Landslide?

[SingingAnalyst]

Sympathy because he had just been shot, plus opposition to busing.

Wallace/McGovern/Humphrey

MI: 51/32/17
Oakland Co: 54/32/14
Wayne Co: 60/20/20
Macomb Co: 67/19/14
Washtenaw Co: 30/61/9

So it was hardly uniform.

[SingingAnalyst]

Oakland County only had a few upscale suburbs in '68, and I suspect those were the communities that voted against Wallace. Southeast Oakland County as well as central Oakland County was very working class and probably voted a lot like Macomb or suburban Wayne.

[SingingAnalyst]

Primary voters are hard to predict. In 1988 Jesse Jackson won the MI Dem primary despite Detroit Mayor Young's endorsement of Dukakis. In 2000 McCain won an open GOP primary despite Gov Engler's backing of Bush. Crossover voters are an issue. In 1990 Clark Durant, a conservative activist especially in education and an ally of the Christian right, lost 40-60 in the GOP Senate primary in MI--but won 71% of Jewish voters. You just never know.