Hospitals & Politics | August 2022 Issue Brief 3

​Political News by McLaren’s Government Relations Team

A long night of refreshing county, state, and FREEP election pages and a race in need of a recalculation but for the most part we have November candidates. The Lansing bubble rumored a great deal of upsets that frankly did not happen but with over 60 primaries to watch this year due to district line changes, there are a few races worth noting.

INSIDE
Michigan Primary
Governor Race
Michigan House/Senate Races
Congressional Note

First off, Trump-backed 41 candidates nation-wide and 10 of those candidates were in Michigan. Per Bridge MI, half of those were successful. Secondly, the majority of incumbents in Michigan remained on the ballot. Lansing rumors spread like wildfire that more were in danger, but that turned out to be just smoke.
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November will be interesting as the Democrats are determined to take the Michigan Senate from Republican control. Senator McMorrow (D) has raised over $1M for her and her caucus alone due to the failed attempt at fundraising by Senator Theis (R). With Governor Whitmer now having a race against Tudor Dixon (R) she will be forced to spend more on her own race. As for the House, lines also were redrawn but there’s less concern of the House flipping from R to D this term. That’s not to say it will not. Too early to tell but so far it looks like the real fight will be the Senate.

As always, if you would like to see anything specific in these newsletters, please do not hesitate to reach out to Allisyn Mattice. 
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Governor Race​

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Tudor Dixon the Friday before Primary Day. While I thought it was a little late in the game, it turned out that she won 80 of Michigan’s 83 Counties for the Republican nomination. Is that a Trump swing or female empowerment? Not too sure but the three counties she lost were to Kevin Rinke in Northern Michigan. Regardless, Tudor Dixon’s momentum is going to force Governor Gretchen Witmer to spend a bit more money on herself rather than sharing her wealth with other democratic candidates. Let it be known though, Governor Whitmer is a force and in 2021 alone she raised $14.2 million and gave $3.5M to Michigan Democratic Party. Per the Detroit News, Governor Whitmer raised $9.5M in the first seven months of 2022 and she is sitting on $14.7M. Governor Whitmer can draw not only from her state allies, but nationally, she has become an icon to watch, drawing in numerous dollars from outside entities and supporters. We can expect to see online, tv, and radio commercials for both women over the next three months.
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MI Senate Race

There were a few races to watch regarding the MI Senate. As stated above, the MI Senate’s redistricting maps have made the MI Senate one to watch for majority in November. The MI Senate may flip from Republican to Democrat depending on voter turnout, personal candidate selection, and strategy. This primary was especially important for the Senate as the stakes for majority has everyone in Lansing thinking majority could be a flip of the coin. 

For the incumbents, only two did not make it through their primaries. The first takeout for an incumbent was from a Trump endorsed candidate, Lindsey Jonathan, who won against Senator Kim LaSata with 61% of the vote. Per MLIVE, this was “the first time since 1986 that an incumbent Republican senator” lost its primary election. The second was from two current incumbents, Senator Mallory McMorrow (D) against Senator Marshall Bullock (D). As stated above, Senator McMorrow stood up to Senator Lana Theis (R) when Theis sent a fundraising email calling McMorrow a groomer. McMorrow’s response back to Theis didn’t just bring in millions to McMorrow’s cause, it also allowed her to beat Bullock with almost 13k more votes. 
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Other notable Senate races included Representative Mary Cavanagh (D) beating former state Representative Vicki Barnett for the 6th Senate district and Senator Erika Geiss keeping her incumbency against former Representative Frank Liberati and Brenda Sanders.  Further, numerous concerns were raised about whether Senator Lana Theis (R) was going to create a victory against Trump endorsed Mike Detmer (R) and she was able to secure that victory with 57% of the vote. Lastly, the Northern community elected current Representative John Damoose to be part of the November ballot instead of former Representative Triston Cole (R) and in a hard-fought battle current State Representative Joe Bellino (R) beat current State Representative TC Clements (R).
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MI House Race

Never say never but the House Republicans have to be feeling better after a majority of their incumbents remain on the ballot for November. There were numerous races for the MI House and while I would love to talk about them all, I’m only going to highlight some of the big ones.

First off, when it comes to incumbents, there was only one race in which two incumbents from the same party ran against each other and that was in the Port Huron area with Representative Gary Eisen (R) and Representative Andrew Beeler (R). Beeler took the lead with more than 67% of the vote. Current Representative Phil Green had a seven-way primary with very little of his current district in his new seat and managed to come out ahead with 25% of the vote. The Michigan House Republicans were really worried about Representative Greg VanWoerkom’s primary race, as his primary opponent had Trump and Matt Maddock’s endorsement. However, VanWoerkom came out ahead, as well as John Roth (R) and Andrew Fink (R). 

Sitting Senator Dale Zorn has one term left for him to run in the House and while he came out victorious, it was by 7 votes against Ryan Rank. On Saturday, August 6th Rank filed with the Secretary of State for a recount vote. With 7 votes, this race is one that still needs to be watched.

Three incumbents were not as lucky as the rest though. In a shocking race, Representative Richard Steenland (D) lost his state House seat to Kimberly Edwards (D). Edwards didn’t even spend $1,000 on her campaign race and managed to beat Steenland by 300 votes. In another race, incumbent Representative Rodney Wakeman (R) lost out on his race to Matthew Bierlein (R). Rumors on the street were Representative Wakeman was in trouble and his loss by nearly 4,000 votes prove that it wasn’t just a rumor. Further, Representative Terrence Mekoski (R) just filled the empty House seat when Representative Wozniak won his Senate race; only to turn around and lose his seat to Senator Wozniak who didn’t want to run against Senator Ruth Johnson, so he went back for his House seat. 

The democratic party faired out very well with either not having contested primaries or having new primaries without incumbents to worry about. I look forward to the November election and the leadership races quickly after that.
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MI Congressional Race

I cannot leave this primary update without a note about sitting Congressman Peter Meijer. Maybe you saw this coming, I can honestly say I did not. Yes, I know, Meijer was one of a handful of Republican members who voted to impeach Trump and yes, I know John Gibbs has the endorsement of Donald Trump (because of course Trump would put someone to run against Meijer). But an upset? I didn’t see that happening. But with 51.8% of the vote, Gibbs took out the current sitting US Representative. I think the bigger picture here is how will this district fair in the November election? Gibbs is adamant the election was stolen, and it will be an interesting race to watch in November to see if West Michigan sides with the ultra-conservative member. Detroit News mentioned this race will lean-left, but time will tell if that’s the case.

Also, let it be stated that Congresswoman Haley Stevens took out Congressman Andy Levin in the 11th district. Regardless of your feelings on the family, Politico made sure to create a whole article on how next year will be the first time in 44 years where no Levin sits in Congress. 
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What an election November is turning out to be.