A newly created interactive map that provides details on
congressional elections from 1918 to 2012 shows that Michigan at one time was one of the Reddest
States in the U.S.
Political observers know that Michigan has a long tradition
of Republican governors and legislatures but I doubt most realize that over the course of 1918-32 the Great Lakes State was more Republican than just about any other place
in the land.
Take a look at the map created by mapstory.org that reflects
the 1918 congressional elections and you will see Michigan as one of several states
where every congressional district was held by a GOP lawmaker.
This was back in the days when the lingering effects of the
Civil War and Reconstruction still dominated American politics. The former
Confederacy in the South was solid blue – the conservative Dixiecrat Democrats –
and the Midwest and Northeast adhered to the party of Lincoln – the comparatively
progressive Republicans who dominated the Union states.
As the Democrats made gains in many states throughout the
1920s, Michigan maintained a solid Red status and stayed that way until the
1932 FDR landslide that served as an earthquake in American politics.
It’s worth noting that North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming
and New Mexico were among the Reddest States of that 1918-32 era, but the
combined population of those four states in the 1920 U.S. Census was less than
the combined population today of Macomb and Oakland counties.

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