Gratiot County, Michigan is a rural county located in mid-Michigan. It is governed by a five-member Board of County Commissioners, who are elected on a nonpartisan basis for four-year terms. The county is divided into townships, each of which has its own elected township board. Gratiot County also has a number of local authorities and organizations that serve the citizens of the county, such as an Economic Development Commission, Planning Commission, and Health Department. Local elections are held every two years for state representatives, sheriffs, and other offices. The current political landscape in Gratiot County reflects much of the state's current political views; however, there have been changes in recent years with some races becoming more competitive than in the past.
The political climate in Gratiot County, MI is strongly conservative.
In Gratiot County, MI 35.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 63.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Gratiot county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 63.2% to 35.0%.
Gratiot county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Gratiot County, MI is strongly conservative.
Alma Metro Area is strongly 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.
Gratiot, Michigan: R R d 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 Gratiot County, MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 465 contributions totaling $46,648 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $100 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 279 contributions totaling $47,159 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $169 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)