United States House of Representatives elections in Michigan, 2012

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2012 U.S. House Elections in Michigan

Primary Date August 7, 2012

Partisan breakdown • Candidates

Michigan District Pages District 1 • District 2 • District 3 • District 4 • District 5 • District 6 • District 7 • District 8 • District 9 • District 10 • District 11 • District 12 • District 13 • District 14

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2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Michigan took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected 14 candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's 14 congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
May 15, 2012	August 7, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Michigan has an open primary system, meaning any registered voter can vote in any party's primary.

Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by July 9. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9.

See also: Michigan elections, 2012

According to the New York Times race ratings in October 2012, four of the 14 districts are considered to be in play. Those are the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 11th districts.

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that both Democrats and Republicans would win five districts. It did not make a projection for the remaining four seats.

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Michigan had the 33rd most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 46.43% of major party primaries having been contested (13 out of 28). The national average was 54.31%.

Thirteen U.S. House incumbents ran for re-election in Michigan in 2012. 7 of those 13 (53.85%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held nine of the 15 Congressional seats from Michigan. However, the state lost one seat after the 2010 census and elected 14 representatives.

Members of the U.S. House from Michigan -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	6	5
	Republican Party	9	9
Total		15	14

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the 15 congressional districts were:

Name	Party	District
Bill Huizenga	Republican	2
Candice Miller	Republican	10
Dale E. Kildee	Democratic	5
Dan Benishek	Republican	1
Dave Camp	Republican	4
Fred Upton	Republican	6
Gary Peters	Democratic	9
Hansen Clarke	Democratic	13
John Conyers, Jr.	Democratic	14
John D. Dingell, Jr.	Democratic	15
Justin Amash	Republican	3
Mike Rogers	Republican	8
Sandy Levin	Democratic	12
Thaddeus McCotter	Republican	11
Tim Walberg	Republican	7

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 14 seats up for election in 2012 in Michigan. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Michigan, District 10	Candice Miller	39.1%	328,612	Chuck Stadler
Michigan, District 11	Kerry Bentivolio	6.4%	358,124	Syed Taj
Michigan, District 12	John D. Dingell	39%	319,223	Cynthia Kallgren
Michigan, District 13	John Conyers, Jr.	69.1%	284,270	Harry T. Sawicki
Michigan, District 14	Gary Peters	66.6%	328,792	John Hauler
Michigan, District 1	Dan Benishek	0.5%	347,037	Gary McDowell
Michigan, District 2	Bill Huizenga	26.9%	318,267	Willie German, Jr.
Michigan, District 3	Justin Amash	8.4%	326,281	Steve Pestka
Michigan, District 4	Dave Camp	29.5%	312,949	Debra Freidell Wirth
Michigan, District 5	Dan Kildee	33.5%	330,146	Jim Slezak
Michigan, District 6	Fred Upton	12%	320,475	Mike O'Brien
Michigan, District 7	Tim Walberg	10.3%	318,069	Kurt R. Haskell
Michigan, District 8	Mike Rogers	21.3%	345,054	Lance Enderle
Michigan, District 9	Sander Levin	27.9%	337,316	Don Volaric

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals will be added when official election results are certified. For more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan, click here. If you find any errors in this list, please email: Geoff Pallay.

1st Congressional District

General election candidates

Gary McDowell

Dan Benishek

Emily Salvette

Ellis Boal

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Gary McDowell a

Note: Derek Bailey withdrew from the primary on April 23, 2012

Republican Primary

• Dan Benishek: Incumbent a

2nd Congressional District

General election candidates

Bill Huizenga

Willie German, Jr. (Write-in)

Mary Buzuma

William Opalicky

Ronald Graeser (UST)

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

No candidates declared an intent to run.

Republican Primary

• Bill Huizenga: Incumbent a

3rd Congressional District

General election candidates

Steve Pestka

Justin Amash

Bill Gelineau

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Trevor Thomas
• Steve Pestka a

Republican Primary

• Justin Amash: Incumbent a

4th Congressional District

General election candidates

Debra Freidell Wirth

Dave Camp

John Gelineau

Pat Timmons

George Zimmer (UST)

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Debra Freidell Wirth a

Republican Primary

• Dave Camp: Incumbent a

Green Party candidate

• Pat Timmons a

5th Congressional District

General election candidates

Dan Kildee

Jim Slezak

Gregory Creswell

David Davenport

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Dan Kildee a

Republican Primary

• Jim Slezak a
• Tom Wassa

6th Congressional District

General election candidates

Mike O'Brien

Fred Upton

Christie Gelineau

Jason Gatties

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Mike O'Brien a

Note: John Waltz withdrew from the primary in February 2012

Republican Primary

• Fred Upton: Incumbent a
• Jack Hoogendyk

7th Congressional District

General election candidates

Kurt R. Haskell

Tim Walberg

Ken Proctor

Richard Wunsch

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Kurt R. Haskell a
• Ruben Marquez

Republican Primary

• Tim Walberg: Incumbent a
• Dan Davis

Note: Mike Stahly initially appear on the official candidate list, but was later disqualified.

8th Congressional District

General election candidates

Lance Enderle

Mike Rogers

Daniel Goebel

Preston Brooks

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Lance Enderle a

Republican Primary

• Mike Rogers: Incumbent a
• Vernon Molnar
• Brian Hetrick

Note: Democrat Michael Magdich initially appeared on the official candidate list, but was later disqualified.

9th Congressional District

General election candidates

Sander Levin

Don Volaric

Jim Fulner

Julia Williams

Les Townsend (UST)

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Sander Levin District 12 Incumbent a

Republican Primary

• Don Volaric a
• Gregory C. Dildilian

Libertarian Party

• Jim Fulner a

Note: Democrat Allen James O'Neil initially expressed interest in running, but failed to appear on the official candidate list.

10th Congressional District

General election candidates

Chuck Stadler

Candice Miller

Bhagwan Dashairya

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Jerome George Quinn
• Chuck Stadler a

Republican Primary

• Candice Miller: Incumbent a

11th Congressional District

General election candidates

Syed Taj

Kerry Bentivolio

John Tatar

Steven Paul Duke

Daniel Johnson (NLP)

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Syed Taj a
• Willam F. Roberts

Republican Primary

• Kerry Bentivolio a
• Nancy Cassis (Write-in)
• Loren Bennett (Write-in)

Note: Incumbent Thaddeus McCotter initially filed to run but did not receive sufficient signatures to qualify and later withdrew from the election completely.

12th Congressional District

General election candidates

John D. Dingell

Cynthia Kallgren

Richard Secula

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• John D. Dingell District 15 incumbent a
• Daniel Marcin

Republican Primary

• Cynthia Kallgren a
• Karen E. Jacobsen

13th Congressional District

General election candidates

John Conyers, Jr.

Harry T. Sawicki

Chris Sharer

Martin Gray (UST)

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• John Conyers, Jr. District 14 incumbent a
• Glenn Anderson
• Bert Johnson
• John Goci
• Shanelle Jackson

Republican Primary

• Harry T. Sawicki a

Note: Godfrey Dillard and Shanelle Jackson did not collect enough signatures to secure a spot on the ballot

14th Congressional District

General election candidates

Gary Peters

John Hauler

Leonard Schwartz

Douglas Campbell

August 7, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Hansen Clarke District 13 incumbent
• Brenda Lawrence
• Gary PetersDistrict 9 incumbent a
• Bob Costello
• Mary Waters

Republican Primary

• John Hauler a

See also

• United States Senate elections in Michigan, 2012
• U.S. House elections, 2012

External links

• Michigan 2012 Unofficial List of Candidates
• Unofficial general election candidate list