Grand Rapids, MI is a city full of political activity. The local government consists of the mayor and eight city commissioners who are elected at-large for four-year terms. Grand Rapids also has two representatives in the Michigan State House as well as one senator in the Michigan Senate. In 2018, Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss was reelected into her second term after running against three other candidates in the city’s nonpartisan election. Additionally, the city council members who were elected to serve four-year terms include Ward 1 Commissioner Jon O'Connor, Ward 2 Mercy Martinez, Ward 3 Senita Lenear, Ward 4 Joe Jones and At Large Commissioners Ruth Kelly, Dave Shaffer, Nathaniel Moody and Kurt Reppart. All of these individuals continue to work hard to make sure that their city remains a great place to live with strong economic growth and development opportunities.
The political climate in Zip 49546 (Grand Rapids, MI) is leaning liberal.
Kent County, MI is leaning liberal. In Kent County, MI 51.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 45.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kent county flipped moderately Democratic, 51.9% to 45.8%.
Kent county flipped Democratic in 2020, after voting Republican in four of the last six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 49546 (Grand Rapids, MI) is leaning liberal.
Grand Rapids, Michigan is leaning liberal.
Kent County, Michigan is leaning liberal.
Grand Rapids-Kentwood 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.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: R R d r r 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 49546 (Grand Rapids)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,920 contributions totaling $380,830 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $97 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 961 contributions totaling $526,036 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $547 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)