Traverse City, Michigan is a vibrant, engaging city home to numerous unique activities, attractions, and opportunities for its citizens. Although the population of Traverse City is not known specifically, it is estimated to be around 15,000 people. The political landscape in Traverse City is quite interesting with several local candidates running for various positions. Residents have the opportunity to vote for candidates who best represent their values and ideas. Notable candidates include incumbent Mayor Jim Carruthers and City Council Member Alan Gillott who are running for reelection. Both have spent many years in the community and have long-standing commitments to improving the quality of life for all of its citizens. There are also other notable candidates such as Sara Geschke, who is running for her first term on the council and has been heavily involved in the city's public safety initiatives. No matter which candidate wins this election season, it's clear that Traverse City residents will remain engaged in their city's politics and progress going forward.
The political climate in Traverse City, MI is leaning conservative.
Grand Traverse County, MI is leaning conservative. In Grand Traverse County, MI 47.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 50.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Grand Traverse county remained Republican, 50.5% to 47.5%.
Grand Traverse county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Traverse City, MI is leaning conservative.
Grand Traverse County, Michigan is leaning conservative.
Traverse City Metro Area is leaning conservative.
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.
Traverse City, Michigan: R R r R R r
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 Traverse City, MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 9,357 contributions totaling $1,215,061 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $130 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,556 contributions totaling $460,124 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $296 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)