NW Michigan moving left politically while U.P., mid-state shifting right
Todd Spangler
Detroit Free Press
November 11, 2022
Elections aren't always just about the candidates or the issues but about political trendlines as well.
Some regions moved further left politically
We've been tracking this for some years now and there seems to be a pretty clear trend that some parts of Michigan that were more traditionally Republican-leaning are moving more toward the Democrats.
This is particularly pronounced in Kent County in west Michigan, for instance. It not only voted to reelect Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (after backing her in 2018 and voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election), it also went for Hillary Scholten, the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. House seat based in Grand Rapids — when as recently as 2018, it was squarely in the Republican corner in congressional races.
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Another area where we continue to see a clear shift is in northwest Michigan in and around Traverse City. The two counties Whitmer won this year that she lost in '18 were Grand Traverse and Benzie, she won again in Leelanau and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon's margins were worse than '18 GOP nominee Bill Schuette's in Emmet, Charlevoix and Antrim counties, though Dixon still won there.
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Full article
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I ran into paragraph problems, but the other areas turning right are Shiawassee, Montcalm, Ionia, Monroe, and Tuscola Counties. However, Governor Whitmer did well in Trump Country, which was a surprise. Interesting article. There's a county breakdown chart of how the gubernatorial vote went, and I was happy to see that my county, Ingham, went for Governor Whitmer 69% to 29%. I checked the county I grew up in, Charlevoix, only to see Dixon winning 52% to 46%. Now I know I did the right thing by getting the hell outta there, lol, even though I miss Lake Michigan.
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