Bernie Sanders Won Michigan in 2016. Tuesday's Primary Looks Much Tougher.

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1. Kick

Mr. Biden, despite having a thin operation in Michigan, appears likely to do well with black Democrats and college-educated white voters, two groups that handed him decisive margins in Virginia, North Carolina and several other states on Super Tuesday. And the exit polling and voting trends in some of those states indicate that Mr. Sanders has declined in strength with working-class white voters, who, uneasy with Mrs. Clinton in 2016, delivered him landslide wins across much of central and northern Michigan that year.

Recognizing the stakes here, Mr. Sanders is assailing Mr. Biden for his support of what he called “disastrous trade agreements like Nafta.” And his campaign is airing a commercial in the manufacturing-heavy state that features a former autoworker highlighting the former vice president’s lack of regret for supporting the pact while pointing out that Mr. Sanders has opposed free trade deals.

As he addressed supporters in Dearborn, Mr. Sanders devoted about a third of his stump speech to attacking Mr. Biden, lashing him not only on trade but also over entitlement programs, support for the war in Iraq and a willingness to take donations from wealthy donors.

But recent election trends in Michigan are not encouraging for Mr. Sanders. In 2018, Michigan Democrats rallied behind a number of moderates — most notably Gretchen Whitmer in the governor’s race, and Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin in congressional races — and ended up winning Republican-held seats and loosening the G.O.P.’s grip on the state.