Hastings, Michigan is a small city in the southeastern part of the state, with a population of just over 7,000. It has a rich political history and is currently governed by an elected mayor-council form of government. The current Mayor is Rich Carlson, who was elected in 2020 and previously served on the Hastings City Council. The City Council consists of seven members who are elected to four-year terms from three wards. Every two years, residents elect representatives to serve on the planning commission and Board of Zoning Appeals. In addition to local politics, Hastings also proudly participates in federal elections as part of Barry County and sends delegates to Lansing for state legislative events. Residents have always been involved in their government and have actively driven an agenda that works towards ensuring locals are represented well at all levels of government in Hastings.
The political climate in Zip 49058 (Hastings, MI) is strongly conservative.
Barry County, MI is very conservative. In Barry County, MI 32.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 65.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Barry county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 65.3% to 32.8%.
Barry county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 49058 (Hastings, MI) is strongly conservative.
Hastings, Michigan is strongly conservative.
Barry County, Michigan is very conservative.
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.
Hastings, Michigan: R R r 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 zip 49058 (Hastings)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 490 contributions totaling $16,578 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $34 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 249 contributions totaling $105,121 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $422 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)