Editing Kent County, Michigan (section)

==Politics==
{{PresHead|place=Kent County, Michigan|source=<ref>{{cite web |url = http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS |title = Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections |first = David |last = Leip |website = uselectionatlas.org |access-date = April 2, 2018 }}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|172,720|192,668|7,542|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|165,741|187,915|8,375|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|148,180|138,683|24,031|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|155,925|133,408|4,873|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|148,336|149,909|5,554|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|171,201|116,909|2,781|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|148,602|95,442|6,274|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|121,335|85,912|16,132|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|115,285|82,305|44,963|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|131,910|73,467|1,465|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|137,417|66,238|1,365|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|112,604|72,790|20,896|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|126,805|59,000|2,828|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|104,041|67,587|3,833|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|85,810|61,891|12,149|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|66,830|86,860|269|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|95,477|61,313|506|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|94,969|48,871|642|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|79,647|47,221|1,447|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|53,669|43,205|1,902|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|54,163|43,679|1,274|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|53,131|48,196|749|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|36,633|44,823|3,848|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1932|Republican|42,186|41,601|2,936|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|56,573|18,229|508|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|45,207|7,982|5,819|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|40,802|14,763|2,610|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|16,095|20,364|1,444|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|6,498|9,412|16,016|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|16,576|11,445|1,880|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|20,254|6,430|1,593|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|17,861|13,775|962|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|17,053|13,582|749|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1892|Republican|12,388|11,533|2,829|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1888|Republican|12,811|11,864|1,254|Michigan}}
{{PresRow|1884|Democratic|9,007|9,639|1,045|Michigan}}
{{PresFoot|1880|Republican|8,313|5,115|3,113|Michigan}}

Historically, Kent County, like West Michigan as a whole, was a stronghold for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. For most of the 20th century, it was rather conservative for an urban county. The GOP only lost the county in four presidential elections from 1888 to 2004, two of which saw the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] win over 400 electoral votes nationwide. However, the Democrats have received increased support since the 2000s, with Grand Rapids and nearby suburbs supporting the Democratic Party while the outer suburbs and rural areas support the Republican Party.<ref name=NYT2019>{{cite news |last1=Tavernise |first1=Sabrina |last2=Gebeloff |first2=Robert |last3=Lee |first3=Christopher |title=Are the Suburbs Turning Democratic? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/democrats-republicans-suburbs.html |access-date=January 23, 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 25, 2019}}</ref><ref name="APpoli">{{cite news |last1=Burnett |first1=Sara |last2=Eggert |first2=David |title=Trump's return to west Michigan comes amid Democratic gains |url=https://apnews.com/cead64248f604d66ba75c2f441e5f262 |access-date=January 23, 2020 |work=[[Associated Press]] |date=March 28, 2019}}</ref>  Since the 1990s, Grand Rapids has also normally sent Democrats to the [[Michigan Legislature|state legislature]].

In 2008, Democratic presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]] narrowly carried the county, receiving 49.34% of its votes to Republican [[John McCain]]'s 48.83%.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2008&fips=26081&off=0&elect=0&f=0 |work = Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections |title = State Data }}</ref> It was the first time the county had supported a Democrat for president since 1964, and only the fourth time since 1884. By comparison, [[George W. Bush]] had taken almost 59 percent of the county's vote in 2004.

In 2012, the county returned to the Republican camp as [[Mitt Romney]] won 53.0% of the vote to Obama's 45.35%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2012&fips=26081&off=0&elect=0&f=0|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections - State Data}}</ref>  Four years later, Republican [[Donald Trump]] won the county with 47.66% of the vote, to 44.61% for his Democratic rival, [[Hillary Clinton]], while [[Gary Johnson]] of the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] received 4.58%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2016&fips=26081&off=0&elect=0&f=0|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections - State Data}}</ref>

In [[2020 United States presidential election|2020]], [[Joe Biden]] received nearly 52% of the votes in the county, the largest vote share for a Democratic candidate since [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] in [[1964 United States presidential election|1964]]. Biden is only the third Democrat since 1916 to win a majority of the county's vote. By comparison, Obama only won the county by 1,573 votes in 2008 for 49.7 percent of the vote.

Kent County is one of only thirteen counties in the United States to have voted for Obama in 2008, Romney in 2012, Trump in 2016, and Biden in 2020.{{efn|The other twelve are [[Butte County, California]]; [[Teton County, Idaho]]; [[Kendall County, Illinois]]; [[Kent County, Maryland]]; [[McLean County, Illinois]]; [[Tippecanoe County, Indiana]]; [[Leelanau County, Michigan]]; [[Carroll County, New Hampshire]]; [[Rockingham County, New Hampshire]]; [[Marion County, Oregon]]; [[Grand County, Utah]]; and [[Albany County, Wyoming]].|name=|group=}}

In [[2024 United States presidential election|2024]], [[Kamala Harris]] became the first Democrat to carry Kent County while losing the presidential election. Harris also lost [[2024 United States presidential election in Michigan|Michigan in 2024]], potentially indicating a leftward shift in the county.

The county is considered a [[List of election bellwether counties in the United States|bellwether]] politically.<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/opinion/biden-trump-bellwether-counties-.html |work= [[The New York Times]] |title= The 10 Bellwether Counties That Show How Trump Is in Serious Trouble |author= David Wasserman |date= October 6, 2020 }}</ref> In [[2018 Michigan gubernatorial election|2018]], [[Gretchen Whitmer]], herself a Kent County native, became the first Democratic governor to win the county after [[James Blanchard]]'s [[1986 Michigan gubernatorial election|1986]] landslide re-election.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2018 Gubernatorial General Election Results - Michigan|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2018&fips=26&f=0&off=5&elect=0|website=Ballotpedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=1986 Gubernatorial General Election Results - Michigan|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1986&off=5&elect=0&fips=26&f=0|website=Ballotpedia}}</ref> Also during the same cycle, incumbent Democratic Senator [[Debbie Stabenow]] [[2018 United States Senate election in Michigan|narrowly carried the county]] by 0.3 points, only the second time (following [[Carl Levin]] in [[2008 United States Senate election in Michigan|2008]]) since [[Donald Riegle]] in [[1982 United States Senate election in Michigan|1982]] the county supported a Democrat for Senate.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2018 Senatorial General Election Results - Michigan|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2018&off=3&class=1&elect=0&fips=26&f=0|website=Ballotpedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=2008 Senatorial General Election Results - Michigan|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2008&off=3&class=2&elect=0&fips=26&f=0|website=Ballotpedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=1982 Senatorial General Election Results - Michigan|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1982&off=3&class=undefined&elect=0&fips=26&f=0|website=Ballotpedia}}</ref>

In the House of Representatives, the bulk of the county has been located in [[Michigan's 3rd congressional district]] since the 1993 redistricting cycle. That district had previously been the [[Michigan's 5th congressional district|5th congressional district]] from 1873 to 1993.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Voteview {{!}} District View|url=https://voteview.com/district/Kent%20County,%20MI|access-date=October 16, 2020|website=voteview.com}}</ref> The current Representative for the district is Democrat [[Hillary Scholten]]. Until Scholten took office in 2023, the city had been represented by a Republican for all but 35 months since 1913. The only Democrat to represent the city in this time was [[Richard Vander Veen]], first elected in a 1974 special election following the district's long-time Representative [[Gerald Ford]]'s ascension to [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]]. Vander Veen was ousted by Republican [[Harold S. Sawyer]] in 1976, and the GOP held the seat without interruption until Scholten's win in 2022. Further underlining how Republican the county has historically been, the Democrats representing Grand Rapids-based districts in the state legislature were typically the only elected Democrats above the county level until 2023.

A sliver of northern and eastern Kent County, including Cedar Springs and Lowell, is in the [[Michigan's 2nd congressional district|2nd congressional district]], represented by Republican [[John Moolenaar]].