The city of Benton Harbor, located in Michigan's Berrien County with a zip code of 49022, is a small city with a population of just under 10,000 people. Despite its size, Benton Harbor has politics that have significant impacts on the community. The city is represented in the Michigan House of Representatives by State Representative Scott VanSingel and Senator Kim LaSata. At the local level, Benton Harbor has a mayor-council system for government. There are nine council members who serve four-year terms and are elected in non-partisan elections. The current Mayor is Marcus Muhammad who was elected in 2019 and serves as both chief executive and legislative authority for the city. In addition to the mayor, an appointed City Manager assists in governing activities within the City departments and oversees day-to-day operations. Local politics play an important role in shaping how Benton Harbor functions as a community by providing direction through policy and leadership towards creating a safe and prosperous environment for all its residents.
The political climate in Zip 49022 (Benton Harbor, MI) is leaning conservative.
Berrien County, MI is leaning conservative. In Berrien County, MI 45.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 52.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Berrien county remained moderately Republican, 52.7% to 45.3%.
Berrien county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 49022 (Benton Harbor, MI) is leaning conservative.
Benton Harbor, Michigan is leaning conservative.
Berrien County, Michigan is leaning conservative.
Niles Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Michigan is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Benton Harbor, Michigan: R R d r R r
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 49022 (Benton Harbor)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 748 contributions totaling $33,447 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $45 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 99 contributions totaling $31,951 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $323 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)