Trump fatigue looms large in west Michigan, once a conservative stronghold

• In a former conservative stronghold, west Michigan voters say they’re concerned about democracy and post-election turmoil 
• Distaste for Donald Trump has led some voters to distance themselves from federal GOP while still supporting local Republicans
• In key U.S. House race, Democratic incumbent Hillary Scholten and Republican challenger Paul Hudson vie to win over moderate voters

In what was once a wellspring of conservatism, two congressional candidates in west Michigan are fighting over the center lane. 

First-term U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten is the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in Congress in nearly 40 years, pitching herself as a heterodox voice more interested in issues than partisan politics. 

Her Republican challenger, attorney Paul Hudson, promises to exemplify traditional Republican values while avoiding the thrall of the Make America Great Again movement that has seized his own party.

Still, in interviews with Bridge, both sought to draw their opponent into the presidential fracas that could decide down-ticket races, including battles for the state and U.S. House. 

Hudson called Scholten a “rubber stamp” for President Joe Biden in Congress, while Scholten said Hudson is ready to take marching orders from former President Donald Trump.

The 3rd Congressional District embodies the seismic political realignments precipitated by Trump’s rise. A longtime conservative bastion, it produced the only president from Michigan, Republican Gerald Ford. But like some other areas with large numbers of well-educated suburban voters, it has swung in Democrats' favor in the Trump era. 

“There is a different kind of flavor of Republicanism than the rest of the state, a genuinely more moderate Republicanism,” Jason Roe, a longtime GOP consultant, said of west Michigan. 

“Who MAGA is today obviously didn't work in 2022,” Roe argued. He said he thinks Hudson “fits the mold” for traditional Grand Rapids-area conservatives but isn’t certain the newer, Trump-aligned GOP base will agree.

For Roe, the question remains, “is our party prepared to go that direction or not?”

The answer could help decide the presidential race between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris and have a ripple effect down ballot in west Michigan, where other key races could decide control of the state and U.S. House.

‘The future of democracy’

Several moderate voters in the region told Bridge they had a distaste for Trump’s rhetoric and personality, but felt pushed away from Republicans by a single issue — democracy, and Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss. 

At the same time, the voters said they were open to electing Republicans for local offices, such as township boards and planning commissions, who they thought exemplified good governance.

“The issue that matters for me is the future of democracy, because I'm very concerned about Trump and the Republicans,” Kathy Blake, a 67-year-old resident of Cascade Township, told Bridge. “I feel like they're giving up their moral compass in support of power.”

Blake was gardening at Cascade Christian Church with Diane Phelps, a retired nurse who shared her concern. Phelps considers herself more moderate than Democrats on abortion, though she agrees with the party’s line on immigration. 

Phelps said in the past she could be convinced to vote for GOP candidates — but those were “real Republicans versus the MAGA Republicans,” she said, noting she isn’t convinced when Trump pleads ignorance about the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy blueprint.

“I don't believe that he is not in line with that,” she said.

Jan Schichtel, 72, another volunteer at the church, said she’s “leaning Democrat with reservations.” For her, the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to it has left her “appalled.”

Related:

• Deep in Michigan’s car country, switch to EVs fuels anxieties before election
• In mid-Michigan, economic worries persist. So does disgust of politics
• Suburban shift helped Dems win Michigan. Kamala Harris needs it to hold

“I can't believe we're being so supportive of (Israeli President Benjamin) Netanyahu, and I hope that Kamala does something different than what the current administration is doing,” Shichtel said.

At the same time, the volunteers said they were considering or would vote for some Republican candidates at the local level, because they had gotten to know the candidates and liked what they offered the community.

Bipartisanship, bread-and-butter issues

Political observers initially described the 8th Congressional District race as a tossup but have more recently predicted an edge for Scholten, whose financial advantage and name identification have persisted. Roughly a month before the election, several voters told Bridge they were unfamiliar with Hudson.

Scholten, who was born and raised in West Michigan,has positioned herself as a bridge of sorts between political eras for the region, where she defeated Trump-endorsed Republican John Gibbs in 2022. 

In an interview with Bridge, Scholten said she embraces local political traditions but is also “willing to fight for our future.”

“Those are the things that I embody, not necessarily because I'm taking political talking points, but because I'm reflecting the community that I was raised in,” she said. 

After nearly two years in Congress, Scholten touted funding she brought back to the district, in particular for infrastructure upgrades at local airports.

“Making sure that the supply chain issues, the agriculture issues, the healthcare issues that we put in place in this first term are going to continue to build and grow momentum,” are a priority, Scholten said.

Hudson said he’s heard “frustration with the state of the Republican party” a lot while campaigning.

“What I tell them is, ‘I get it, and I agree to some extent that the party has had some significant problems. It’s part of why I’m running,’” Hudson said. He has a slogan for his campaign pillars, GPS: growth, prosperity and security.

“Bringing down spending, tackling inflation, securing the border — those bread-and-butter type issues that people have always cared about and they want to see the Republican party getting back to those fundamental issues,” Hudson said. “That's been my priority, and that's what I've been focusing on.”

Hudson accused Scholten of too often aligning with Biden. “We have not seen the bipartisanship she’s touted,” he said. 

Scholten had a less partisan voting record than most members of Congress in 2023, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report.  She was also the first member of Michigan’s Democratic congressional delegation to call on Biden to “step aside” after his disastrous June debate performance.

Scholten has also outraised Hudson, amassing more than $3.4 million as of the most recent filing period in mid-July, while hudson has raised a little more than $630,000.

Hudson was met with some controversy earlier in his campaign when a super PAC set up to support him, West Michigan For Change, initially reported a sole $1 million donation from the Paul Hudson Revocable Trust.

Direct coordination between super PACs and candidate campaigns is against federal election rules. But Hudson’s filing was later amended to say the donation came from a revocable trust for Ryan Hudson, the candidate’s brother and a tech entrepreneur.

The super PAC has spent nearly $800,000 largely to support Hudson during a bruising Republican primary against businessman Michael Markey.

A Growing Region

Unlike much of Michigan, the swath of west Michigan that now makes up the 3rd Congressional District is growing. The population increased 3.5% between 2015 and 2020, according to The Right Place, an economic development nonprofit. Residents are younger, wealthier and more educated than the rest of Michigan. 

In previous decades, higher incomes and more college degrees would portend well for Republicans, but since the 2016 election those demographics have drifted toward Democrats, particularly in Kent County, home to Grand Rapids.

In 2020, Biden won the county even as Republican Peter Meijer won election to the U.S. House. Scholten had carried Kent County with 50.5% of the vote, though she ultimately lost to Meijer in that race. 

Then, through redistricting, nearly all of Kent was incorporated into the 3rd Congressional District for 2022, along with the top half of Ottawa County and the bottom of Muskegon County, including the city of Muskegon — a leftward shift, on balance.

Meijer lost the 2022 primary, in part due to longstanding animosity over his vote to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, just days after the Republican lawmaker had taken office in 2021. 

Gibbs, a former Trump administration official, unseated Meijer in the primary, but voters rejected him in the general election. Scholten improved electorally in every community in Kent county. She even carried wealthy Ada Township, home to the DeVos family, Michigan’s most influential Republican family, by a slim margin.

There’s a burgeoning Hispanic population in the district, which Trump visited in April to highlight the murder of a local woman by an undocumented immigrant. He called it evidence of a “border bloodbath” under Biden and Harris.

The talking points on immigration haven’t resonated with Callahan Decillis, a 27-year-old voter who lives in Standale, just west of Grand Rapids. 

“I think we've always had immigrants,” Decillis told Bridge.  I don't think our society’s collapsed. Talk to these people who come from other countries, they're not much different than you and I.”

Young voters like Decillis told Bridge they are feeling political burnout heading into the election’s final stretch. 

“My friend group is kind of just wanting the election season to be over, because it’s so high-intensity right now,” Kaitlyn Soholt told Bridge. The 25-year-old graduate student said she will be supporting Harris in particular due to her concerns about climate change. 

The political divisions that have fractured the country were also felt by Roger Jeurink, a longtime Trump supporter who was shopping in Ottawa County’s Allendale. A few years ago, his brother and sister-in-law, Democrats both, abruptly left a family dinner when the topic turned to politics.

“That’s pretty bad when you can’t even get along that way,” Jeurink told Bridge.

Jeurink said he avoids confrontation and talking politics, but fears that post-election “uproar,” which he feels is certain no matter the outcome, could escalate into civil war.

Trump and running mate JD Vance have appeared in the region at least five times to rally supporters since April, while Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has only appeared in Grand Rapids once since accepting the nomination. Harris spoke in Grand Rapids once in February for a roundtable on reproductive rights, but hasn’t appeared in West Michigan since accepting the nomination.

Ottawa County pushback

Northwest of Grand Rapids, a campaign sign outside the Ottawa County Republican Party headquarters has been amended with a piece of tape and a marker message: “write in.”

It's a sign for incumbent County Commissioner Roger Belknap, and it's indicative of a far-right political movement that voters are seemingly beginning to reject in Ottawa, part of which is in the 3rd Congressional District.

Belknap lost his August primary to former commissioner Phil Kuyers. But the local party is still promoting Belknap, who was part of an eight-member slate of ultraconservative candidates who swept the 2022 election, running under the name Ottawa Impact. Belknap did not return a request for an interview.

The electoral rout earned Ottawa Impact candidates an outright majority on the county commission. They quickly made sweeping changes, firing or attempting to fire key staff, attracting lawsuits, resistance from community members and state and national media who chronicled the turmoil at length.

Opposition organized quickly, too. One commissioner, Lucy Ebel, was successfully recalled in May, and Democrat Chris Kleinjans was elected to replace her. Then, in the August primary, another two Ottawa Impact commissioners lost to Republican opponents, and just four of nine candidates backed by the group have advanced to the general election. 

 “I think they went extreme right … even close to Christian nationalism,” said Kuyers, who beat Belknap in the GOP primary and is now vying for his old seat. “That’s not how I’ve been raised, that’s not my morals. I like to treat people with respect.”

Ottawa’s reputation for sound governance and beautiful beaches was replaced by local government drama that Kuypers said he wants to end.

“It should be non-partisan,” Kuyper said of county government elections. “What you do is you do services. It's not a political thing.”

Ottawa Impact supporters contend Republican voters haven't rejected their brand of conservatism. Instead, they note, some Democrats crossed over to vote in the GOP primary, a reality local voters do not deny. 

“It wasn't just Republicans that were voting for this person, (it was) Republicans plus Democrats, plus the money that came through PACs to those people,” said Geri McCaleb, a GOP precinct delegate and county party volunteer. 

But for 72-year-old voter Tim O'Connell of Grand Haven, the recent ouster of Ottawa Impact candidates "buoyed my optimism … that we can be better."

“It's a culmination of Republicans and Democrats who just want good governance, and it was really uplifting to see,” said O'Connell, who told Bridge normally supports Democrats but has backed local Republicans and voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. 

“I think we were like a little epicenter of the country, where they proved that Republicans and Democrats could work together for the betterment," he said. "When you're talking local issues and your health standards and all that, it becomes very personal. And I think people took it very seriously.”