Michigan is never just a "flyover" state when November rolls around. Honestly, if you want to understand how American presidents are made, you have to look at the Great Lakes. The Michigan 2020 election results by county tell a story of a state that was pulled in two very different directions, ultimately swinging back to the Democrats after a shock Republican win in 2016.
Joe Biden ended up taking the state by 154,188 votes. That’s a roughly 2.8% margin. It sounds comfortable compared to Donald Trump's razor-thin 10,704-vote victory four years prior, but the map shows a much more complicated tug-of-war.
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The Big Flips: Kent, Saginaw, and Leelanau
Everyone talks about the "Blue Wall," but the wall is actually made of specific counties that decide to change their minds. In 2020, three counties flipped from Republican to Democrat. These were the keys to the kingdom.
Kent County was the biggest prize. For decades, Grand Rapids and its surroundings were the heart of Michigan Republicanism. Not anymore. Biden won it with 51.8% of the vote. It was the first time a Democrat won Kent in a presidential race since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. You've got to realize how massive that shift is for West Michigan.
Then there’s Saginaw County. It’s a classic bellwether. Trump won it by a hair in 2016, but Biden grabbed it back by just 303 votes. Basically, it was a tie, but in politics, a win by one is a win for all 16 electoral votes.
Up north, Leelanau County also went blue. It’s a wealthy, coastal area near Traverse City. While the rest of Northern Michigan stayed deep red, Leelanau went for Biden 52% to 46%. It’s a tiny county in terms of population, but it signals a trend of suburban and high-income voters moving away from the GOP.
Wayne County: The Engine Room
You can’t talk about Michigan without talking about Detroit. Wayne County is the massive anchor for the Democratic party.
Biden walked away with 597,170 votes here. Trump got 264,553. While Biden won by a huge margin, he actually underperformed Hillary Clinton’s percentage in some areas of Detroit, though he made up for it in the suburbs like Canton and Livonia.
The turnout was the real story. Michigan saw about 71% of its voting-age population show up. That’s staggering. In Wayne County alone, 874,000 people cast a ballot. Without that raw volume, the state stays red.
The Suburban Surge in Oakland and Macomb
Oakland County and Macomb County are the "Big Two" suburbs. They are neighbors, but they act like they live on different planets.
- Oakland County: This is where the election was arguably won. Biden crushed it here, winning 56% to 42%. He gained over 100,000 more votes than Clinton did in 2016. The "wine track" voters in places like Bloomfield Hills and Royal Oak moved decisively.
- Macomb County: The home of the "Reagan Democrat." Trump won Macomb again, taking 53.4% of the vote. But here's the kicker: his margin didn't grow enough to offset his losses in Oakland. Macomb is still very much Trump country, but it’s no longer enough to carry the whole state.
The Rural Red Sea
If you look at a map of the Michigan 2020 election results by county, it looks like a sea of red with a few blue islands. Trump won 72 of Michigan’s 83 counties.
In the Upper Peninsula (the U.P.), Trump remained dominant. Places like Houghton and Delta counties weren't even close. He also cleaned up in the "Thumb" area—Sanilac, Huron, and Lapeer counties saw Trump winning with 70% or more of the vote.
But there’s a limit to how much rural counties can do. Missaukee County, for example, gave Trump 76% of the vote. That’s a landslide. However, that only represents about 6,000 votes. Compare that to Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), where Biden got over 150,000 votes. The math is brutal for the GOP when the cities turn out like they did.
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Surprising Nuances in the 2020 Data
One thing people often miss is how close some "red" counties actually are.
Take Grand Traverse County. Trump won it, but only by about 2 points. In 2016, he won it by nearly 13 points. That’s a massive 11-point swing toward the Democrats in a northern stronghold. Even in places Biden lost, he often "lost better" than Clinton did, eating into Republican margins and making it impossible for Trump to recover elsewhere.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s a common myth that Biden only won because of Detroit. That’s not quite right. Honestly, if you took Wayne County out of the equation entirely, the race would have been a dead heat across the rest of the state.
Biden's real victory came from the suburbs. He did better in the 2nd and 3rd tiers of suburbs than any Democrat in recent history. The shift in Kent County—the traditional home of the Ford family and conservative Dutch values—was a bigger "shock to the system" than anything that happened in Detroit.
Actionable Insights for the Next Cycle
If you’re looking at these numbers to figure out what happens next in Michigan, keep these three things in mind:
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- Watch the "Blue Spines": The I-94 and I-75 corridors are where the votes are. If a candidate isn't winning the suburbs of Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing, they're toast.
- Turnout is King: The 2020 results were fueled by a massive increase in mail-in voting. Changes to Michigan's voting laws mean this high-turnout environment is likely the new "normal."
- The Educational Gap: The divide between college-educated voters (who swung toward Biden) and non-college-educated voters (who stuck with Trump) is now the primary fault line in Michigan politics.
To dig deeper into the official precinct-level data, you can visit the Michigan Secretary of State's official election archive. Understanding the Michigan 2020 election results by county isn't just about looking at a map; it's about seeing how the cultural and economic landscape of the Midwest is shifting under our feet.