The members of the Ottawa County Board haven't read the memo, apparently.
The county's population has increased 40% since 2000.
Their victory marked the latest turn in a civil war between two factions of Republicans in the traditionally conservative west Michigan county that has not voted for a Democratic president since 1864. With 296,000 residents, the county is the seventh largest in the state and growing fast, adding 32,000 people — or 12 percent — over the last decade.
Eight Ottawa Impact members now dominate the 11-member board. The board has 10 Republicans and a single Democrat.
The new board members ran largely on culture war issues, such as protesting mask mandates in schools, opposing diversity training, demanding more parental control over school curriculum and health decisions and increasing election security.
Meanwhile.....
3rd-party candidates received 17.9% of vote in 1992, 7.3% of vote in 1996, 7.2% in 2016;
(Segregationist George Wallace received 7.2% of the vote in 1968)
In 1984, Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale by 59.8 percentage points.
In 2000, George W. Bush beat Al Gore by 44.4 percentage points.
In 2020, Donald Trump beat Joe Biden by 20.4 percentage points.
That shows a clear trend in presidential voting behavior in Ottawa County, which is clearly not as 'deep red' as it used to be.
Looking more closely at the 2020 election:
Trump received 12,546 more votes than he did in 2016, a 14% increase.
Biden received 19,732 more votes than Clinton did in 2016, a 44% increase.
Trump's share of the vote decreased by 1.6 percentage points. Biden increased Clinton's share of the vote by 7.1 percentage points.
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