Kent County, Michigan — home to Grand Rapids — is pretty much the definition of a swing county in a swing state: It went for Trump in 2016, then flipped to Biden in 2020.
I visited the county to see how the local economy might play into this year’s presidential election, and found that some voters are struggling and pessimistic about their financial futures.
An economic forecast from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids predicts a slowdown in hiring in the region.
“Yeah it’s really, really hard getting a job,” 19-year-old Adreanah Neely told me. I met Neely in the parking lot of a dollar store in northern Kent County. She’s unemployed right now, even though she said she’s applied for lots of jobs.
“Even applying at places that are franchises,” she said. “They need people to work there and you put in applications and you get nothing back.”
Neely gets SNAP benefits but said after she and her partner pay their bills, there’s not much left. The Kent County government says one in three households here live just above the federal poverty line.
Standing in a Walmart parking lot in the southern end of the county, 25-year-old Demarkus Harris told me he’s pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. He sells adjustable beds.
“I want to do fun stuff too like go on vacations, spend a little more time with my family in Philadelphia. Just be a little more free — breathe a little bit instead of just working to pay the bills,” he explained.
High prices for food, gas and shelter make it impossible for him to save, Harris said. “I am living alone and rent is going up as we speak.”
A county government survey says a quarter of local households spend 30% or more of their income on housing. That’s what 27-year-old Cotter Koopman was doing a year ago.
Out with friends at a Grand Rapids brewery, Koopman told me he now he lives with his partner, splitting the rent. He’s seeing more gentrification in Grand Rapids: new luxury apartments that are out of reach for him.
He thinks the economy in Kent County “feels like it’s running out ahead in front of people that are trying to figure out their lives here,” he said
There is some good news on wages in Kent County: Grand Valley State University predicts they’ll grow about 3.5% this year. That outpaces inflation, but it doesn’t help retirees on fixed incomes. Some are avoiding the more expensive food at the grocery store.
Joyce Robinson, 64, pushed her cart right past the beef case at a supermarket in the town of Wyoming, Michigan, in south Kent County. She’s buying the cheapest poultry instead.
“Like, I would buy me a chicken but now I’m looking for chicken parts cause it’s too much,” she told me.
Kent County businesses are noticing that their customers are pinching pennies. More on that in part two of our series.
