A vintage postcard for Ironwood, Mich., located in Gogebic County. Photo: Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images
Political junkies know Macomb County, Mich. But Gogebic?! Located in the Upper Peninsula, it will cast a tiny amount of votes, but went for President Trump in 2016 and a Democratic ticket in 2018 and looks like the state’s political median in the age of Trump.
What's happening: Third Way, the center-left think tank, is out with "Bellwether Counties 2020," isolating 21 counties in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as the Senate battlegrounds of Arizona, Iowa and North Carolina.
- Why it matters, from David de la Fuente, who wrote the report: These counties may be the best indication leading up to November, and even on election night, of which way a state will tip.
About half of the bellwethers are mostly suburban, or in an urban county with heavy suburban influence.