Rapid River, MI is a small rural community located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The town has a long history of political engagement and activism, with citizens actively involved in local decision-making and public service. Local elections are held regularly to determine the mayor and members of the city council, who form the government responsible for shaping the town’s future. In recent years, these positions have seen strong competition as candidates from all political affiliations vie for power. Issues such as infrastructure improvement, job creation, environmental sustainability, and economic development have been at the forefront of each campaign season. Rapid River residents take their civic duty seriously, ensuring that their voices are heard in all decisions impacting their local community.
The political climate in Rapid River township (Kalkaska County), MI is strongly conservative.
Kalkaska County, MI is very conservative. In Kalkaska County, MI 28.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 69.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kalkaska county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 69.9% to 28.2%.
Kalkaska county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rapid River township (Kalkaska County), MI is strongly conservative.
Kalkaska County, Michigan is very 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.
Rapid River township (Kalkaska County), 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 Rapid River township (Kalkaska County), MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 849 contributions totaling $43,177 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $51 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 93 contributions totaling $12,853 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $138 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)