Why was Michigan so strongly Republican in the early 20th century?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_Michigan

As you can see from the start of the 20th century to the New Deal, Michigan was not just a Republican state, it elected an almost unanimous (and sometimes actually unanimous) state legislature and House delegation. It did somehow elect a Democratic Senator and Governor during that period, but the unanimousity in a state that very far from homogeneous is stunning. The Democrats did have a presence at one point prior, why did they collapse so badly and result in the state becoming the inverse of the Solid South Democratic states?

[freepcrusher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_Michigan

As you can see from the start of the 20th century to the New Deal, Michigan was not just a Republican state, it elected an almost unanimous (and sometimes actually unanimous) state legislature and House delegation. It did somehow elect a Democratic Senator and Governor during that period, but the unanimousity in a state that very far from homogeneous is stunning. The Democrats did have a presence at one point prior, why did they collapse so badly and result in the state becoming the inverse of the Solid South Democratic states?

the ethnic voters hadn't been mobilized and for some reason never got into the third party leftist stuff that some of the other midwest states did (think George Norris or Bob LaFollette). Remember that rural Michigan used to elect people like Clare Hoffman.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Still, this is really pronounced. After the 1920 elections there appear to have been literally no Democratic federal- or state-level elected officeholders in Michigan.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_Michigan

As you can see from the start of the 20th century to the New Deal, Michigan was not just a Republican state, it elected an almost unanimous (and sometimes actually unanimous) state legislature and House delegation. It did somehow elect a Democratic Senator and Governor during that period, but the unanimousity in a state that very far from homogeneous is stunning. The Democrats did have a presence at one point prior, why did they collapse so badly and result in the state becoming the inverse of the Solid South Democratic states?

the ethnic voters hadn't been mobilized and for some reason never got into the third party leftist stuff that some of the other midwest states did (think George Norris or Bob LaFollette). Remember that rural Michigan used to elect people like Clare Hoffman.

That was quite a bit after this period.

[TDAS04]

In the 1850s and 1860s, Michigan was a staunch antislavery state settled heavily be New Englanders, giving the state solid Republican roots.  Also, its population was not that bigger than that of Wisconsin.  Michigan would grow fast with the rise of Detroit, an that caused Michigan to be more of a rustbelt state, demographically similar to Ohio and Pennsylvania (with even some Appalachian cultural influence).  Michigan remained solidly Republican in the 1920s because other Rustbelt states trended GOP as well.  With less Scandinavian influence than Wisconsin and Minnesota, Michigan may have been more enthusiastic about the extremely pro-business GOP of the 1920s.