Battle Creek, MI is located in Calhoun County and is home to over 51,000 residents. It is the county seat for Calhoun County and provides a strong local government with a Mayor/City Commission form of governance. The current mayor is Mark Behnke and is joined by commissioners Lynn Ward Gray, Susan Baldwin, Kaytee Faris, Jeff Domenico and Dave Walters on the City Commission. Each commissioner works together to ensure that all important political decisions are well thought out and implemented in order to benefit the city as a whole. Political issues addressed in Battle Creek are many and include topics such as economic growth, public safety, education reform, community development, environmental protection and more. The city also has several committees made up of citizens who make sure that their voices are heard throughout the process. These committees are regularly consulted on decisions that will affect the future of Battle Creek.
The political climate in Zip 49017 (Battle Creek, MI) is somewhat conservative.
Calhoun County, MI is somewhat conservative. In Calhoun County, MI 43.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 54.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Calhoun county remained strongly Republican, 54.6% to 43.6%.
Calhoun county voted Republican in 2020, 2016 and 2004, and Democratic in 2012, 2008 and 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 49017 (Battle Creek, MI) is somewhat conservative.
Battle Creek, Michigan is somewhat conservative.
Calhoun County, Michigan is somewhat conservative.
Battle Creek Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Battle Creek, Michigan: d 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 zip 49017 (Battle Creek)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 416 contributions totaling $18,069 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $43 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 162 contributions totaling $52,100 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $322 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)