Merrill, MI is a small town in Midland County with a population of just over 1,000 people. The local politics of Merrill are largely focused on issues surrounding education, transportation, and economic development. The town is represented by both the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate. In the House, Dan Lauwers from District 81 serves as the representative for Merrill residents. Senator Jim Stamas represents Merrill in the Michigan Senate as part of District 36. Both Lauwers and Stamas have been advocates for their constituents in challenging times and work to ensure that their voices are heard when it comes to important political decisions in Lansing. As a small community, Merrill relies on its elected officials to help make sure that it gets attention from state government and remains an important member of Midland County.
The political climate in Zip 48637 (Merrill, MI) is somewhat conservative.
Saginaw County, MI is leaning liberal. In Saginaw County, MI 49.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 49.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Saginaw county flipped narrowly Democratic, 49.4% to 49.1%.
Saginaw county flipped back to Democratic in the most recent Presidential election, after voting Republican in 2016.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 48637 (Merrill, MI) is somewhat conservative.
Merrill, Michigan is somewhat conservative.
Saginaw County, Michigan is leaning liberal.
Saginaw Metro Area is leaning 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.
Merrill, Michigan: D d D D 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 48637 (Merrill)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 5 contributions totaling $9,975 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $1,995 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 30 contributions totaling $1,200 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $40 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)