Portage, MI is a city located in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. It has a population of over 50,000 people and is the sixth largest city in Michigan. The local politics in Portage are governed by the Mayor and City Council. The Mayor is elected every four years and serves as the executive leader of the city. The City Council is composed of six members who represent different wards and are responsible for making laws and developing policies that affect the local citizens. Currently, Mayor Patricia Randall-Rozow serves as mayor of Portage with Shawn Pfaff, John Fisher, Audrey Kane, Terry Urban, Jeff Schindler, and Richard Bray serving on the City Council. All these individuals work together to ensure that Portage remains a great place to live for its residents.
The political climate in Portage, MI is leaning liberal.
Kalamazoo County, MI is moderately liberal. In Kalamazoo County, MI 58.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 39.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kalamazoo county remained very strongly Democratic, 58.2% to 39.5%.
Kalamazoo county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Portage, MI is leaning liberal.
Kalamazoo County, Michigan is moderately liberal.
Kalamazoo-Portage Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
Michigan is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Portage, Michigan: d d D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Portage, MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,617 contributions totaling $516,419 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $112 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 800 contributions totaling $279,771 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $350 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)