Trump fatigue is taking its toll in West Michigan, once a conservative stronghold

Hudson accused Scholten of aligning himself with Biden too often. “We have not observed the bipartisanship that he advertises,” he said.

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

Scholten also surpassed Hudson, raising more than $3.4 million in the final filing period in mid-July, while Hudson raised just over $630,000.

Hudson faced some controversy early in his campaign when the super PAC formed to support him, West Michigan For Change, initially reported its only donation was $1 million from the Paul Hudson Revocable Trust.

Direct coordination between super PACs and candidate campaigns violates federal election laws. However, a note was later added to Hudson’s application that the donation came from the revocable trust of Ryan Hudson, the candidate’s brother and tech entrepreneur.

The super PAC spent nearly $800,000, mostly to support Hudson during the painful Republican primary against businessman Michael Markey.

A developing region

Unlike most of Michigan, the area of ​​western Michigan that now constitutes the 3rd Congressional District is growing. According to The Right Place, a nonprofit economic development organization, the population grew 3.5% from 2015 to 2020. Residents are younger, wealthier and better educated than the rest of Michigan.

In previous decades, higher incomes and more college degrees boded well for Republicans, but since the 2016 election, that demographic has shifted toward Democrats, especially in Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located.

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

Then, in a redistricting move, almost all of Kent County was included in the 3rd Congressional District for 2022, along with the upper half of Ottawa County and the lower half of Muskegon County, including the city of Muskegon – a total shift to the left.