Republican Ronald Reagan won Kent County by 34.7 percentage points in 1984. Joe Biden won Kent County by 6.1 percentage points in 2020. That's quite a flip!
Election results: Wikipedia
3rd party votes: 18.5% in 1992, 7.2% in 1996, 7.7% in 2016
(Alabama segregationist George Wallace received 7.6% of the vote in 1968)
In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney won Kent County by 8.3 percentage points. He received 155,925 votes.
In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won Kent County by one percentage points. He received 148,180 votes -- 7,745 fewer than Romney did in 2012. Democrat Hillary Clinton, received 5,275 more votes than Barack Obama did in 2012, a 4% increase.
In 2020, Republican Donald Trump lost Kent County by 6.1 bpercentage points. He received 17,567 more votes than he did in 2016, a 12% increase.
In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden received 49,232 more votes than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, a 35% increase.
Based on these numbers, it seems clear that Grand Rapids and Kent County are not going back.
Headline: mlive, 10/30/2024 (print)
While it’s still too early for both campaigns to confirm where they’ll be on or the day before Election Day, chances are high that at least one of them could once again make West Michigan the last stop of their campaigns next week.
What makes Grand Rapids – and the West Michigan region – such a huge draw for both campaigns? Experts say the demographics of the area, plus the large local media presence, makes it a prime spot.
“Anywhere where there’s a large concentration of voters in a large media market, if it’s a swing state, that is going to attract candidates,” said Donald Zinman, a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University.
Not to mention that Trump's MAGA message hasn't resonated all that well there.
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