LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain plans to tour Ford's Wayne Stamping and Assembly plant Thursday and meet with Detroit Three executives before heading to Troy for an evening fundraiser, his campaign confirmed Tuesday.

The Arizona senator has at times knocked heads with the domestic automakers — Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC — over tougher fuel efficiency and emission standards.

And McCain left himself open to criticism when he said before Michigan's Jan. 15 primary that some lost manufacturing jobs weren't coming back, one reason he was promising to do more to train displaced workers.

Michigan native Mitt Romney, whose father ran American Motors Corp. before becoming governor of Michigan in the 1960s, beat McCain in the primary in part because he promised not to give up on those jobs.

But the political landscape has shifted in the past month. Romney's now out of the race and McCain is closing in on the GOP nomination.

And if McCain is blunt when he speaks Thursday about disappearing jobs, he's going to be talking to hard-nosed domestic auto executives who know his assessment reflects the facts. All three companies have shed tens of thousands of workers and are trying to entice more to take buyouts so they can bring their U.S. work forces more in line with demand for their vehicles.

McCain calls his blunt talk an example of the "straight talk" that is an essential part of his political profile. He's a big proponent of free trade, noting before the primary that "if you go up and see the border between Michigan and Canada, you'll see truckers lined up for miles."

But McCain also knows he needs to be supportive of workers hurting in a state with the nation's highest unemployment rate.

"We have to take care of these displaced workers. That will be one of my highest priorities so they can have another chance to be part of the economy," McCain told reporters Tuesday in Ohio. "We cannot leave people behind in the heartland of America, whether it is Michigan, Ohio or Illinois or other parts of America that relied on a manufacturing base."

McCain's visit Thursday will focus on one of the domestic auto industry's bright spots, the Ford Focus, which is built at the Wayne assembly plant. The popular small car saw its January sales rise 44 percent above a year ago.

For McCain, it's all about reaching out to a powerful constituency in a state he hopes might finally go Republican this year, something it hasn't done since George H.W. Bush won Michigan in 1988.

McCain wants to meet with auto executives to discuss the challenges they face in meeting tougher fuel efficiency and emission standards. And he wants workers — some of them blue-collar, conservative Democrats who backed Ronald Reagan — to know that he understands their concerns about how shifts in the global economy threaten their way of life.

It's not a constituency he's going to have to himself. Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama last week stopped at GM plants — Clinton in Maryland and Ohio, Obama in Wisconsin — with promises to increase jobs and help rebuild the middle class.

McCain also has some work to do in Michigan healing rifts left over from last month's primary. During this past weekend's Republican state convention, many former Romney supporters agreed to back McCain at September's Republican National Convention, although they'll go there as uncommitted delegates. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also won some delegates.

Thursday's $1,000-per-person fundraiser at Troy's Somerset Inn hotel, expected to draw about 500 people, could give many donors who backed other candidates a chance to get on board with McCain.

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EDITOR's NOTE: Kathy Barks Hoffman heads the Lansing AP bureau and has covered Michigan politics since 1986.

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On the Net:

McCain campaign: http://www.johnmccain.com/

Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com/