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2025 Michigan legislative session

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2025 Michigan legislative session
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General information
Scheduled session start:    January 8, 2025

Scheduled session end:    December 31, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
Garlin Gilchrist II (D)

House Speaker
Matt Hall (R)
Majority Leader
Senate: Winnie Brinks (D)
House: Bryan Posthumus (R)
Minority Leader
Senate: Aric Nesbitt (R)
House: Ranjeev Puri (D)

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Michigan State Legislature is scheduled to convene on January 8 and adjourn on December 31.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2022 and 2024 elections. Democrats won a 20-18 majority in the Senate in 2022 and Republicans won a 58-52 majority in the House in 2024. The Democratic Party controlled the governorship, creating a divided state government. At the start of the 2025 session, Michigan was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

According to WZZM-TV's Steven Bohner, the early months of the legislative session were among the least productive in 30 years, having only passed two bills by April. Bohner wrote: "Over the last 30 years, Michigan's government has seen shifts between Republican, Democrat and split control, but in 2025, the state legislature is months into its least productive session in decades... Over the last 30 years, by this date, the legislature has averaged nearly 60 pieces of legislation passed. Some years have seen similarly slow starts to legislative sessions, like in 2019 with only three bills passed and in 2003 with only four bills passed, but those slow starts are certainly outliers."[1]

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Republicans held a majority in the Michigan state House and Democrats held a majority in the Michigan state Senate.
  • Michigan was one of 12 divided state governments.
  • Michigan's governor was Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Michigan State Senate

    Michigan House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Michigan was one of 12 divided state governments at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Michigan was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Michigan State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

    Michigan State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 20
         Republican Party 18
    Total 38

    Michigan House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 52
         Republican Party 58
    Total 110

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Michigan state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 44 standing committees in Michigan's state government, including one joint legislative committee, 20 state Senate committees, and 23 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees

    • Joint Committee on Administrative Rules

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Michigan Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XII of the Michigan Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Michigan

    The Michigan Constitution can be amended in three different ways—a citizen-initiated process, a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention.

    Initiative

    See also: Initiated constitutional amendment

    An initiated constitutional amendment is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that amends a state's constitution. Eighteen (18) states allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments.

    In Michigan, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds vote is required during one legislative session for the Michigan State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 74 votes in the Michigan House of Representatives and 26 votes in the Michigan State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Section 3 of Article XII of the Michigan Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot every 16 years starting in 1978. Michigan is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Michigan 16 years 2010 2026


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Michigan.

    Michigan Party Control: 1992-2025
    Two years of Democratic trifectas  •  Fourteen years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D
    Senate R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D D
    House D S S R R D D R R R R R R R R D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R D D R

    Historical Senate control

    Democrats won a 20-18 majority in the Michigan State Senate in 2022, gaining control of the chamber for the first time since 1984.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Michigan Senate following every general election from 1990 to 2022. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Michigan State Senate election results: 1990-2022

    Year '90 '94 '98 '02 '06 '10 '14 '18 '22
    Democrats 18 16 15 16 17 12 11 16 20
    Republicans 20 22 23 22 21 26 27 22 18

    Historical House control

    Republicans won a 58-52 majority in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2024, regaining control of the chamber after Democrats won control in 2022.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Michigan House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Michigan House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92* '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 55 54 58 52 51 47 52 58 67 47 51 47 47 52 52 56 52
    Republicans 55 56 52 58 59 63 58 52 43 63 59 63 63 58 58 54 58

    *Chamber controlled by power-sharing agreement

    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2011-2024

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Michigan

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    Noteworthy events

    Michigan Senate files lawsuit againt Michigan House of Representatives

    On Feb. 3, 2025, the Michigan Senate and Majority Leader Sen. Winnie Brinks (D) filed a lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Claims against the Michigan House of Representatives, House Speaker Matt Hall (R), and House Clerk Scott Starr.[2] According to Brinks, she and the House filed the lawsuit because Hall, at the time, did not send nine bills that passed both legislative chambers to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) for potential signatures.[2]

    Both legislative chambers passed the nine bills at the center of the lawsuit during the 2023-2024 legislative sessions when Democrats had a 20-18 majority in the Senate and a 56-54 majority in the House. After their passage, then-House Speaker Joseph Tate (D) enrolled the bills.[3] However, they were not presented to Whitmer for potential signatures before the start of the 2025 legislative session.[3]

    When the Michigan Legislature convened for the 2025 legislative session on Jan. 8, 2025, Republicans assumed control of the House after winning a 58-52 majority in the 2024 general elections. Since there were no regularly scheduled elections for the Senate that year, Democrats maintained their 20-18 control of the chamber. Following the start of the session, the House elected Hall to serve as speaker.[4] According to The Detroit News' Beth LaBlanc, Hall then "ordered House Clerk Scott Starr to hold off on sending the last bills until a legal review could be conducted to determine what House Republicans' options were."[5]

    On Feb. 25, 2025, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel heard arguments regarding the case.[6] Brinks and the Senate claimed it was Hall's responsibility to present the bills to Whitmer for potential signatures.[6] However, Hall and the House claimed that it was Tate's responsibility to ensure Whitmer received the bills.[6]

    On Feb. 27, 2025, Patel ruled that Hall should have sent the bills to Whitmer once Republicans took control of the House.[7] However, Patel said she would not force the House to send the bills, writing, "The procedures through which this takes place is a legislative function in which the Court will not interfere."[7]

    See also

    Elections Michigan State Government State Legislatures State Politics
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    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ WZZM, "Michigan Legislature has slowest session in at least 30 years with only 2 laws passed," April 24, 2025
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Michigan Senate Democrats, "Senate Majority Leader Brinks Files Lawsuit Against Republican Speaker Hall for Violating Constitution, Failing to Send Passed Legislation to Governor," February 3, 2025
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 CBS News Detroit, "Michigan Senate files lawsuit against Michigan House over 9 bills not reaching Gov. Whitmer's desk," February 3, 2025
    4. ↑ CBS News Detroit, "Michigan Rep. Matt Hall named state House speaker as Republicans reclaim majority," November 7, 2024
    5. ↑ The Detroit News, "Michigan Senate, House spar in court over nine bills that never made it to Whitmer's desk," February 24, 2025
    6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 WEMU 89.1, "Michigan Senate v. House argument has its day in court," February 25, 2025
    7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 CBS News Detroit, "Michigan Judge rules nine stalled bills should have been sent to Gov. Whitmer's desk," February 28, 2025
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