Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson is professor of political science at Wayne State University, where she teaches courses on public administration and public policy. She is the primary author of The Political and Institutional Effects of Term Limits as well as multiple journal articles. Michigan went Republican in all five elections from 1972 to 1988. Since then, it has gone Democratic every time. Historically, what happened? I think this reflects the Republican Party’s shift to the right, which began in the 1960s after the Democratic Party passed several pieces of civil rights legislation. As the Southern Dixicrats joined the Republican Party and mid-western and north-eastern Republicans joined the Democratic Party, the parties homogenized ideologically and the current era of party polarization began. Currently, the south is solidly Republican and the northeast is solidly Democratic. I was told several years ago that Michigan’s moderate Republican Governor from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Bill Milliken, would no longer be welcome in the Michigan Republican caucus today. When we think about the Republican Party in Michigan, I think it is important to remember some
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