KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Kent County was one of three counties that flipped from red to blue between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Between that and the amount of attention this area has gotten from presidential candidates, we know it's going to play a big role on Nov. 5.
But why? What is it about Kent County that makes it so consequential?
We spoke to Dante Chinni, Michigan State University (MSU) political science professor and director of the American Communities Project, who explained why.
"The crucial thing about Kent County is it has, over the past really decade or so, emerged as a different kind of place," Chinni explained to FOX 17.
Kent County, what was once a reliably Republican county, has become very purple.
"It's developed kind of a more of an urban feel, and ... it's done that and it has shifted Democratic. Two things have happened. It's grown. Kent County has grown. It's added different kinds of population. And then the Republican and Democratic parties have kind of changed, traded places, and people who once were Republicans ... tend to be a little more Democratic now, and vice versa."
Chinni says he wouldn't call Kent a Democratic county yet but it has become a swing county, with a lot of votes up for grabs for anyone running for statewide office and beyond.
And at this point, when the race is as close as it is, candidates need to find ways to motivate voters.
"The bigger question, I think, for the Democrats in the presidential race is, Are there a bunch of voters? And there would be a lot of these in Kent County who are just kind of on the couch and not sure if they can vote for Trump. Maybe [they] don't want to vote for Trump but aren't sure if they can vote for Harris. That's a huge bunch of voters that if Harris can win them and get them off the couch into the polls, she probably wins. That's really hard."
And if it's not the candidate, there are some potentially galvanizing issues.
"It's a really difficult thing for anybody to do a whole heck of a lot about. But I understand that it's just... people vote out of out of frustration or anger."
Chinni says top-of-mind issues include things like inflation and the future of Michigan auto manufacturing.
"I do think for some people in Kent, as in the state of Michigan, just the idea of manufacturing jobs, like, How is the auto industry going to be affected in the ultimate shift to electric cars?"
And of course, so is abortion.
"Voters who say 'I don't know if I'm for abortion but I'm for people having the right to have an abortion,' and that could be the kind of thing that makes them vote Democratic."
Bottom line, Kent County is incredibly impactful. Your vote matters.
"We keep looking at these polls, and they're contradicting each other, and all they really show is the race is really close. So if the race is really close, we all just have to step back and say, 'We'll just have to see what happens.'"
An interesting thing to note, according to results from the August primary, fewer than 300 votes separated the total number of Democrats and Republicans that voted in the third congressional race. That district, of course, includes most of Kent County.
While primary results can’t tell us anything for certain, they do continue to indicate a very close election.
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