Politics
See also: Elections in Michigan and Political party strength in MichiganVoters in the state elect candidates from both major parties. Economic issues are important in Michigan elections.
The three-term Republican Governor John Engler (1991–2003) preceded the former two-term Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm (2003–2011). The state has elected successive Republican attorneys general twice since 2003. The Republican Party currently holds a majority in both the House and Senate of the Michigan Legislature. Michigan supported the election of Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The current Governor Rick Snyder (2011–present) is a Republican.
| Year | Republicans | Democrats |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 45.20% 2,112,673 | 54.80% 2,561,911 |
| 2008 | 40.89% 2,048,639 | 57.33% 2,872,579 |
| 2004 | 47.81% 2,313,746 | 51.23% 2,479,183 |
| 2000 | 46.14% 1,953,139 | 51.28% 2,170,418 |
| 1996 | 38.48% 1,481,212 | 51.69% 1,989,653 |
| 1992 | 36.38% 1,554,940 | 43.77% 1,871,182 |
| 1988 | 53.57% 1,965,486 | 45.67% 1,675,783 |
| 1984 | 59.23% 2,251,571 | 40.24% 1,529,638 |
| 1980 | 48.99% 1,915,225 | 42.50% 1,661,532 |
| 1976 | 51.83% 1,893,742 | 46.44% 1,696,714 |
| 1972 | 56.20% 1,961,721 | 41.81% 1,459,435 |
| 1968 | 41.46% 1,370,665 | 48.18% 1,593,082 |
| 1964 | 33.10% 1,060,152 | 66.70% 2,136,615 |
| 1960 | 48.84% 1,620,428 | 50.85% 1,687,269 |
However, the state has supported Democrats in the last six presidential election cycles. In 2012, Barack Obama carried the state over Mitt Romney, winning Michigan's 17 electoral votes with 54% of the vote. Michigan's two U.S. Senators are both Democrats, while Republicans hold nine of the state's fifteen U.S. House seats. In 2000, the current Democrat U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow won narrowly over Republican U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham. Michigan's senior U.S. Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat, has been elected to six terms since 1979, after he defeated the Republican U.S. Senator Robert P. Griffin. Carl Levin serves as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Congressman Fred Upton, a Republican, serves as Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Congressman Mike Rogers, also a Republican, serves as Chairman of U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. John Dingell, a Democrat, is the Dean of the United States House of Representatives.
Republican strongholds of the state include the western, northern, cental and rural parts of the state, especially the Grand Rapids metro area. Republicans also perform strongly in most of suburban Detroit, which includes Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties as well as Grosse Pointe in Wayne County.
Democratic strongholds include Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), Ingham County (Lansing), and Genesee County (Flint).
Historically, the first county-level meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson on July 6, 1854, and the party thereafter dominated Michigan until the Great Depression. In the 1912 election, Michigan was one of the six states to support progressive Republican and third-party candidate Theodore Roosevelt for president after he lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft.
Michigan remained fairly reliably Republican at the presidential level for much of the 20th century. It was part of Greater New England, the northern tier of states settled chiefly by migrants from New England who carried their culture with them. The state was one of only a handful to back Wendell Willkie over Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, and supported Thomas E. Dewey in his losing bid against Harry S. Truman in 1948. Michigan went to the Democrats in presidential elections during the 1960s, and voted for Republican Richard Nixon in 1972.
Michigan was the home of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States. He was born in Nebraska and moved as an infant to Grand Rapids and grew up there. The Gerald R. Ford Museum is located in Grand Rapids, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is located on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Michigan does not recognize or perform same-sex marriages or other unions involving same-sex couples under a 2004 state constitutional amendment.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Michigan, Government
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when antiracism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other and both interests lose.”
—Kimberly Crenshaw (b. 1959)
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)