Van Buren County in Michigan is a rural area situated in the southwestern part of the state. Politically, it leans towards conservative values and its electorate is predominantly Republican. The county board of commissioners is comprised of five members, all of whom are elected by the people of Van Buren County. The commissioners vote on a variety of local issues that are important to the residents, including taxation and land use regulations. In addition to the county board, there are several local cities and villages with their own governments, elected officials, and committees that help manage these jurisdictions. These municipal governments provide services like police protection, infrastructure maintenance, and recreational programs to its citizens. Overall, Van Buren County's political landscape is mostly conservative and generally respects the rule of law.
The political climate in Van Buren County, MI is somewhat conservative.
In Van Buren County, MI 42.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 55.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Van Buren county remained strongly Republican, 55.2% to 42.9%.
Van Buren county voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Van Buren County, MI is somewhat conservative.
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.
Van Buren, Michigan: r r d d 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 Van Buren County, MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,519 contributions totaling $162,396 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $64 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 586 contributions totaling $157,733 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $269 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)