DETROIT _ The billboard along M-115 _ a two-lane highway that runs through forests and farmland from Clare to Cadillac, ending in Frankfort _ is the first sign of many that northern Michigan is Trump country.
A larger-than-life image of President Donald Trump, flashing a smile and a thumb's up, greets drivers: "Making America Great! We Love Our President," the billboard proclaims.
Turn back to the 2016 presidential election map and the theme becomes even more stark, with all but one of Michigan's 43 northern counties colored a deep red, signaling part of the path that Trump used to win Michigan by the slimmest of margins _ 10,704 votes out of 4,799,284 cast. It was the first time that Michiganders had given a Republican the presidential win since 1988.
But two years later, something else is happening in northern Michigan as the Nov. 6 election looms. Transplants from southeast Michigan and Chicago, who choose to retire to the place where they spent so many vacations, are transforming the demographics of the region into a place where Democrats are hoping to make some inroads into typically Republican territory.
Those transplants are connecting with like-minded Democrats who have lived in the region for decades, but may have been reluctant to speak out too loudly in the otherwise conservative environment.
"I've always felt in the minority up here with my progressive views," said Cindy Garwood, 60, who has lived along Lake Michigan for 30 years and is joining in weekly protests in Elk Rapids. "Now, there are more people I'm meeting with on a regular basis. Without that group, would I be standing on the side of the highway protesting every week? Probably not."
Others have formed Indivisible groups _ the progressive activists that started forming after Trump won the presidency _ throughout the region to organize protests and help Democratic candidates.
It's also a place where Michael Moore's unabashedly liberal documentary _ "Fahrenheit 11/9" _ about the 2016 election attracts a respectable crowd on a rainy Tuesday night at the State Theater in downtown Traverse City.
The progressive marches, protests and acts of resistance commonplace in many parts of Michigan, including metro Detroit, since early 2017, are blooming in northern Michigan.
And candidates, political parties and campaigns are taking notice _ in a place where controversial rocker Ted Nugent recently drew a big crowd for a fundraiser for Bill Schuette, the Republican candidate for governor.
Joyce Brodsky, an artist and a retired teacher from West Bloomfield, realized her retirement dream when she moved to the shores of Lake Michigan in Kewadin in 2016. But she quickly discovered that her new hometown wasn't as hospitable as she had imagined.
"When I moved up here two years ago and the election was going on, I noticed all those very large Trump signs going up and it took me aback _ made me wonder, 'Where did I move?' " she said. "I started talking to people and they told me this is a very Republican area. I came from Oakland County, a very diverse community and it's not so much up here."
Trying to assimilate into the community, she joined a book club and an artists group, but she longed for the more liberal political conversations that were so routine downstate. She learned of a group of Democratic women who had been meeting every Wednesday morning for the last 10 years at Java Jones, the local coffee shop in the middle of the small but picturesque town of Elk Rapids, which is bookended by Lake Michigan on one side and U.S. 31 on the other.
And despite never having participated in partisan politics since youthful marches against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, she was hooked.
"I never ran for student council. I never felt that politics would change my life. I was a teacher. I voted the way my union directed and I was happy with my health care plan and the way education was going," she said. "But these women were bubbly and exuberant and articulate."
For many of the women, the Wednesday morning commiserations evolved into a journey to Washington for the Women's March in January 2017 and frequent trips to Traverse City, 17 miles south, to join an Indivisible group for protests on everything from attacks on Obamacare to separation of immigrant families at the Southern border.
But as the August primary election approached, the coffee group decided that a weekly organized protest in Elk Rapids, alongside U.S. 31, the main thoroughfare that runs along Lake Michigan from the southern border of the state to Mackinaw City, would have more of an impact.
"We were going to Traverse City at least once or twice a month for calls to action," said Veronica Welter, chairwoman of the Antrim County Democratic Party. "We thought, let's see if we can do a demonstration in this part of town and we started out with about 10 people."
Bearing signs of protest on everything from the need for affordable health care to shutting down Line 5, an oil pipeline owned by Canadian giant Enbridge that runs under the Straits of Mackinac, to advocating for Democratic candidates, the group gathers along U.S. 31 every Monday from 4 to 5 p.m. to make its sentiments known.
It's mostly women, many retired, but on a recent Monday evening, more than 30 people, including a half dozen men, stood silently alongside the highway with signs held aloft. The numbers swell to 45 or 50 on some days, Welter said, because they feel they don't have a choice.
"We thought Hillary was going to win, even though we knew she wasn't going to win up here," Welter said. "And now they tell me they have to get involved because we can't allow this to continue."
Donna Klinefelter, 75, of Kewadin wore black to the protest, which happened days before Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before Congress during the hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to show solidarity with other women who were telling stories of sexual assault and harassment.
"We're most of all concerned that we're losing our democracy," she said. "And the example of the judgeship and lack of interest in finding out the real facts by the Republicans really scares a lot of us."
Her husband, Jerry Klinefelter, often accompanies her to the protests and carries a sign that says: "Respect Women."
The response to the weekly protests has been mixed. Dozens of cars offer supportive honks and a thumbs-up. But there are more than a few middle fingers and invective hurled at the protesters and one man shouted "f--- all women" when he saw Klinefelter's sign.
"We're getting more positive honks than we did initially," he said. "We're hoping to just make people think about it and to think enough to come our way a little bit."
John Tschudy, an ardent liberal and retired dentist who is donating his old office space to the Antrim County Democrats, doesn't think the region is ready for a wholesale transformation.
"My brother who lives up here is much more active as a canvasser for Democrats than I am and he's had people come to the door with baseball bats in their hands," he said. "There are people who don't want to hear you, they don't even want you to open their mouth."
