CHARLEVOIX, MI –This little resort town on Lake Michigan, almost at the top of the lower peninsula, is not very much like most of the state — but this year, it is facing much of the same political anguish as everywhere else in the state and nation.
There are few minorities in Charlevoix, and there isn’t much middle class. There is a street of huge multi-million-dollar homes and mansions owned by mostly seasonal residents and the famous “mushroom houses” created by architect Earl Young.
But away from the beaches and picturesque tourist areas, are streets of modest working-class houses, along a road that leads to the county jail. Charlevoix, which is almost 300 miles from Detroit, may have as many as 20,000 people in the summer, and 2,300 in winter.
Charlevoix, and surrounding Charlevoix County, which has more than ten times the city’s population, historically votes solidly Republican, with an occasional exception for the rare hugely popular Democrat, like the late U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.
The county solidly supported President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 and will almost certainly do so again this year. But last time his margin dropped by seven percentage points, as a significant number of college-educated voters and working women deserted him, and President Biden narrowly carried the town itself.
Numbers like that are how Biden reversed Hillary Clinton’s narrow loss to win Michigan by 154,000 votes four years ago. But what will happen this year?
I spent one recent morning talking with a group of Charlevoix’s Democrats, who are used to being in the minority, and both apprehensive about the election, and cautiously optimistic.
“I was really worried until the State of the Union,” said Mark Spring, a retired school counselor who is current chair of the Charlevoix party. He felt, as did most national analysts, that the President did extremely well, and dispelled a lot of fears that he might be too feeble or losing his energy, or worse.
“But he needs to get out there a lot more, and talk to people,” said his wife Karen Spring, currently the local party’s secretary. “Trump is on TV constantly, every minute.”
They agreed with one man’s statement that Biden wasn’t as visible because, well, he was doing his job instead of grandstanding. “But people don’t realize that,” Mrs. Spring said.
The group unanimously agreed this was the most important election in their lifetimes, and that democracy was at stake. “but a lot of people don’t realize that,” said one member of the steering committee. “My daughter is an extremely successful sales executive, a real whiz. But she doesn’t pay attention to politics at all, and doesn’t seem interested in or worried about democracy.”
Though Charlevoix is barely a pinprick on the map, it has made a fair amount of political news. John Haggard, the owner of the town’s main plumbing firm, drove around with a plastic Trump head on his service truck; his business for years doubled as Charlevoix Republican headquarters. But last year, he was one of a slate of “fake electors” charged with multiple felonies by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The cases are pending, but the plastic Trump head is gone, GOP headquarters has moved, and the business was sold.
Friske’s Farm Market, not far from the city limits, got nationwide publicity for its defying mask mandates during the pandemic, and inviting My Pillow founder Mike Lindell to keynote anti-mask events. Meanwhile, a nearby family-owned competitor, King Orchards, observed the Covid-19 protocols.
One day in the summer of 2021, a customer asked a member of the family at the counter for ten cherry pies. She looked up and gasped. It was President Joe Biden, who then toured the farm.
Charlevoix Democrats are not just concerned about the presidency; they’ve been struggling for years to be competitive in other races, and feel frustrated they get next to no support from the state party, which concentrates its efforts in southern Michigan.
For example, they think that with some financial support they ought to be able to win the local seat in the legislature, which is held by the farm market’s Neil Friske, whose views are so extreme that he voted against outlawing child marriage and against allowing marital rape.
They are also struggling to be competitive in their congressional district, which includes the entire, mostly impoverished Upper Peninsula. Back when economic issues were paramount, the UP mostly backed Democrats, but today votes largely along culture war lines. That has tipped the scale towards the Republicans.
Most of all, Charlevoix Democrats are struggling to cope with the Trump phenomenon. “It’s believable, but not understandable,” Beth Freeman,said the party’s vice chair. Trump, they all agreed, appeals to the frustrated and angry. Jim Rodgers, a retired liberal arts dean from a downstate college, agrees that Democrats must do more to reach average voters. But then, he noted wryly that everyone in the Charlevoix Democratic leadership is past middle age, highly educated, and none are originally from the town.
However this election turns out, Democrats in places like Charlevoix may be facing a communication challenge for years to come.
Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)
