UPDATE: Check out our new 2023 Best Cities to Live in the U.S. list.
#7. Ann Arbor
Residents of Ann Arbor tend to support left-wing candidates in all forms of government. Democrats hold all but one position on the 10-member city council. That position is held by an independent. City leaders have for years enacted progressive legislation, such as lessening the penalties for marijuana possession and protection access to abortion doctors. In 1974, Kathy Kozachenko won a seat on Ann Arbor’s city council and become the first openly homosexual candidate to win public office in the country. Ann Arbor native Jeff Irwin was recently rated the most liberal member of Michigan’s House of Representatives by Inside Michigan Politics. Irwin has proposed such state legislation as a ban on fracking, a repeal of the ban on same-sex marriage and a repeal of criminal penalties for marijuana possession.
Twelfth Congressional District Rep. John Dingell, who is not seeking a 30th term in Congress, is considered a moderate Democrat by GovTrack. Dingell, who has held office for more than 58 years, wrote the Endangered Species Act, the 1990 Clean Water Act and authored much of the Affordable Care Act.
Residents here are likely to …
- drive a Subaru.
- eat at Qdoba.
- shop at REI.
- watch The Bachelorette.
- read Time magazine.