[2] The dominance of the culture of the Lower Peninsula by anti-slavery Yankees[4] would be augmented by the turn of formerly Democratic-leaning German Catholics away from that party as a result of the remodelled party's agrarian and free silver sympathies, which became rigidly opposed by both the upper class and workers who followed them,[5] while the Populist movement eliminated Democratic ties with the business and commerce of Michigan and other Northern states.

[8] By taking a substantial proportion of the 1912 “Bull Moose” vote, incumbent president Woodrow Wilson would manage the best performance in Michigan by a Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1888,[9] but 1918 saw a major reaction against Wilson throughout the Midwest, due to supposed preferential treatment of Southern farmers.

The only campaigning done in the state by any of the three major candidates – Republican Party incumbent Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, Democratic nominee John W. Davis of West Virginia and third-party candidate Robert M. La Follette of the Progressive Party — was a tour by conservative Southern Democrat Davis in September,[12] during which he campaigned to eliminate the income tax burden of the poorer classes.

[13] The first poll taken showed it clearly that Coolidge would carry Michigan by a huge margin,[15] although there was substantial debate as to whom the opposition vote would go — early polls had La Follette receiving twice as many votes as Davis, but Democratic spokesmen worried that the state's few Democrats would desert to Coolidge said Davis would out-poll the Wisconsin Senator.

However, in the more populous Lower Peninsula, La Follette exceeded his national vote share of 16.62 percent only in four of sixty-eight counties,[b] and consequently the Wisconsin Senator won only 10.51 percent of Michigan's total vote, making it his third-weakest state in the Midwest after heavily Southern-leaning Indiana and Missouri.