Once solidly red, northwest Michigan offers fighting chance for Democrats

TRAVERSE CITY, MI — Less than a decade ago, northwest Michigan Democrats considered themselves lucky if they found people willing to run for offices, let alone win them.

Demographic shifts, local organizing efforts and friendlier legislative maps have since opened doors for Democrats: the once reliably conservative counties of Grand Traverse and Benzie joined neighboring Leelanau County in becoming more competitive.

“It’s really changed,” Pat Haber, a Democrat who has lived in Grand Traverse County for 15 years, told Bridge Michigan, joking that “it’s getting to be like Ann Arbor here now.”

Former President Donald Trump won all three counties in 2016, and Leelanau County was the lone county to flip for President Joe Biden in 2020, though Biden outperformed 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton in Traverse City and flipped some coastal communities like Benzie County's Lake Township.


https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/once-solidly-red-northwest-michigan-offers-fighting-chance-democrats