(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/07/2024) We're all well familiar by now that the Democratic presidential nominee has won Michigan seven out of the last eight elections, but historically speaking, Republican candidates have dominated the state. 

In the 47 presidential elections in its history, Michigan was won by the Republican candidate 28 times . . . and in four of those elections the Republican Party didn’t exist, according to research compiled by MIRS from online sources and old Michigan Manuals.

Democratic nominees have won 17 elections, including the first one in 1836, the year before Michigan was declared a state. 

The fact Michigan voted in the presidential election at all – even though the state had only 12,667 people spread among 17 counties at the time – spurred some controversy in Washington D.C., according to old Michigan Manuals. 

But since Martin Van Buren won decisively with or without Michigan’s support, the votes were allowed to stand.

Since the Republican Party first fielded a nominee in 1856, Michigan voted Republican for 14 straight cycles until 1912, when the state supported former Republican President Teddy Roosevelt, who was running as a third-party candidate that year. 

After that, Michigan voted Republicans four more straight years until the Great Depression. In those years, every Michigan county supported the Republican in 1904 (with Roosevelt as the nominee), 1908 (with President William Taft as the nominee), 1924 (with Calvin Coolidge as the nominee) and 1928 (with Herbert Hoover as the nominee). 

The Great Depression and the rise of the labor movement killed Republicans’ single-party rule in Michigan, although Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan all did very well in Michigan, winning nearly every county in their respective elections. 

No Democratic nominee has ever won every county. The closest besides the first election in 1836 was in 1968 with President Lyndon Johnson winning every county in Michigan except Missaukee, Ottawa and Sanilac. 

Missaukee is the only county in Michigan that has never supported a Democratic nominee for president. Missaukee didn’t exist prior to the 1872 election. It voted for Roosevelt in 1912. 

Sanilac also supported Roosevelt in 1912. It also backed Democrat Franklin Pierce in 1852, its first election as a recognized county and the election prior to the Republican Party being created. 

Ottawa County has supported every Republican presidential nominee since its origins except for Roosevelt in 1912 and Democrat George McClellan in 1864. 

Wayne County has voted for the Democratic nominee every year since 1932, the only county that can make that claim. In its history, Wayne County has voted for the Democrat 35 out of 47 elections. 

Van Buren and Shiawassee counties had a 14-election streak of picking the eventual winner nationwide in every election from 2016 to 1964 (with the exception of Gerald Ford in 1976), but that streak ended in 2020 when both counties went for Donald TRUMP in 2020.

Other items of note:

 - Saginaw County has voted for the candidate who won Michigan in every election since 1992. Since 1900, Saginaw has supported the same candidate as the state of Michigan in all but five of 31 presidential elections held during that time period.

 - A third-party candidate hasn't won a Michigan county since Roosevelt in 1912. Arenac County has voted for the most third-party candidates – Roosevelt (1912), Greenback Party nominee James Weaver (1892) and Union Labor Party nominee Alson Streeter (1888).

 - Out of the original 17 counties, Hillsdale had the longest streak of being Michigan's bellwether, supporting the presidential nominee that eventually won Michigan in the state's first 24 elections from 1836 to 1928. After that election, the county never supported another Democratic nominee, except for Johnson in 1964.

 - When Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020, he did so by winning 11 counties. That's the fewest number of counties a winning presidential candidate has ever captured while still taking Michigan. That includes 1836 when Michigan only had 17 counties. The reason: Nine of those 11 counties are among Michigan's 12 most populated. Another way to look at that: Trump won 86.7 percent of Michigan's 83 counties in 2020 and still lost the state's popular vote.

 - Isle Royale was its own county and recorded votes in two elections – 1884 and 1876. Also, the Manitou Islands were its only county that reported presidential election results between 1860 and 1892. Dickinson is Michigan's newest county. It started voting in 1892.

 - Starting with the 1896 presidential election, Michigan voted with the same 83 counties we have today.