Our New 2nd Congressional District
Mecosta County citizens have been represented in the 4th Congressional District by John Moolenar since 2014. Before that, Dave Camp was the Congressman.
Every 10 years congressional district lines are redrawn with new information from the Census Bureau. This past year new congressional districts were redrawn by the Independent Redistricting Commission, instead of by our state legislature as a result of the Voters Not Politicians ballot that 62% of Michigan voters said YES to in 2018. Hopefully these new districts are less partisan and “fairer”. Michigan has had 14 districts represented by 9 Republicans and 5 Democratic districts. The new census creates 13 congressional district. They are reported to be 6 Republican, 4 Democratic, and 3 toss-ups. Mecosta county is in a new congressional district that is one of the 6 heavily Republican districts, “Repub +32” according to fivethirtyeight.com.
What does this change mean for Mecosta County?
Mecosta County is now in the new 2nd Congressional District. Our new district has changed geographically including more counties than before. Geographically it has dropped south and west taking us to Lake Michigan in the central Michigan area.
The New District Maintains:
Clare
Gladwin
Gratiot
Isabella
Mecosta
Montcalm
Osceola
Wexford (most of it)
Counties Gained:
Barry
Eaton (Northeast corner)
Ionia
Kent (Northeast corner)
Lake
Manistee
Mason
Muskegon (most of it)
Newaygo
Oceana
Counties Lost:
Clinton
Midland (most of it)
Missaukee
Ogemaw
Oscoda
Saginaw
Shiawassee
Actions That You Can Take
Attend the upcoming meetings of the Candidate Recruitment Committee (Outreach Committee) of the MCDP. Think about how we can interact with the other counties that make our new 2nd Congressional District. Who could we recruit? Share your ideas of how we can make something happen in our new Congressional District! Please do join us - and check back often to the https://www.mecostadems.org/
Submitted by Karen Turnbull