Michigan’s local leaders have a blunt verdict on the state’s direction, and it is not flattering. Six in ten now say Michigan is “off on the wrong track,” even as most continue to give their own cities, villages, and townships high marks. The split sets up a familiar storyline in Lansing this year: trust the hometown, question the Capitol.
In a July 2026 policy brief from the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, 60% of local officials statewide said Michigan is on the “wrong track,” while about 26% said it is headed in the “right direction,” a six-point slide from 2025. The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) collected the latest findings between March 30 and today, as a census of 1,856 general-purpose local governments and received responses from 1,328 of them, a 72% unit response rate.
Senior program manager Debra Horner told reporters that the sour mood appears to be driven more by statewide economic and political worries, especially frustration with the Legislature, than by problems close to home. As reported by ClickOnDetroit, Horner noted that roughly 87% of respondents said their own jurisdictions are on the right track, a striking contrast that suggests local governments enjoy far more goodwill than state leaders.
Lawmakers take a hit
The MPPS brief also finds Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s reviews slipping. Just 26% of surveyed officials rated her overall job performance as “excellent” or “good,” while 41% put her in the “poor” category. The Michigan Legislature fared even worse: only 11% of respondents described lawmakers’ performance as “excellent” or “good,” and 40% called it “poor,” the lowest marks for the Legislature since the survey began, according to the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy. In other words, if Lansing were on a ballot in this survey, it would have a rough election night.
Partisanship and local makeup
The MPPS underscores how partisan identity colors these views. About 65% of this year’s respondents identified as Republican, 21% as Democrat, and 14% as independent, a mix that leans heavily toward township officials who tend to be more pessimistic. Republicans were much less likely to say Michigan is on the right track, with just 15% offering that assessment, while roughly two-thirds of Democrats said the state is headed in the right direction, as reported by ClickOnDetroit. That partisan gap helps explain how deep statewide dissatisfaction can coexist with strong pride in local performance.
Taken together, the survey hands Lansing a clear reality check: local governments feel largely confident in their own trajectory but increasingly uneasy about the state’s. Whether that discontent turns into concrete policy changes, sharper rhetoric on the campaign trail, or both will be a key storyline for officials from the Capitol to the county courthouse in the months ahead.
