Kalamazoo, MI is situated in Kalamazoo County and has a population of around 77,000 people. Local politics in the city are overseen by the City Commission which consists of nine members who are elected by citizens of 49048. The Commission meets on a regular basis to discuss and determine the best course of action to address the issues facing Kalamazoo. Additionally, the Commission also appoints a City Manager who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of municipal services. There are also several other elected offices such as mayor, treasurer, clerk and assessor. In addition to local political representation, Kalamazoo's residents have access to state representatives from Michigan's 6th congressional district and US senators from Michigan. Overall, local politics in 49048 Kalamazoo play an important role in determining how the city runs on a daily basis and how it develops into the future.
The political climate in Zip 49048 (Kalamazoo, MI) is somewhat 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
Zip 49048 (Kalamazoo, MI) is somewhat liberal.
Kalamazoo, Michigan is somewhat 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.
Kalamazoo, 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 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 zip 49048 (Kalamazoo)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 931 contributions totaling $28,542 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $31 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 160 contributions totaling $28,259 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $177 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)