Traverse City, MI, located in Grand Traverse County, is an area known for its great lakeside views and abundant outdoor activities. Home to numerous parks and trails, Traverse City has a vibrant and growing community. Politically, the city is represented at the local level by Mayor Jim Carruthers and a seven-member city council that are elected to serve four year terms. At the state level, residents vote for Michigan State Senators and House Representatives for two year terms. As of 2020, Michigan's Governor is Gretchen Whitmer. In addition to local and state politicians, Grand Traverse County is also represented at the federal level by U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow as well as U.S Representative Jack Bergman in Congress. Ultimately, Traverse City residents have a variety of political representation at all levels of government ensuring their voices are heard on important issues such as education reform, tax legislation, infrastructure development, health care reform and more.
The political climate in Zip 49686 (Traverse City, MI) is leaning conservative.
Grand Traverse County, MI is leaning conservative. In Grand Traverse County, MI 47.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 50.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Grand Traverse county remained Republican, 50.5% to 47.5%.
Grand Traverse county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 49686 (Traverse City, MI) is leaning conservative.
Traverse City, Michigan is leaning conservative.
Grand Traverse County, Michigan is leaning conservative.
Traverse City 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.
Traverse City, 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 49686 (Traverse City)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,195 contributions totaling $502,907 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $157 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 662 contributions totaling $221,840 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $335 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)