Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 6 Republican primary)

2026 → ← 2022
Michigan's 8th Congressional District
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: April 23, 2024
Primary: August 6, 2024 General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in Michigan
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Toss-up DDHQ and The Hill: Toss-up Inside Elections: Tilt Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Lean Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
Michigan's 8th Congressional District U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th Michigan elections, 2024 U.S. Congress elections, 2024 U.S. Senate elections, 2024 U.S. House elections, 2024 Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

A Republican Party primary took place on August 6, 2024, in Michigan's 8th Congressional District to determine which Republican candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Paul Junge advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 8.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies. As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 53.1%-42.8%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 50.3%-48.2%.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
April 23, 2024	August 6, 2024	November 5, 2024

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Michigan utilizes an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.

This page focuses on Michigan's 8th Congressional District Republican primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Democratic primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 6 Democratic primary)
• Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024

Candidates and election results

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 8

Paul Junge defeated Mary Draves and Anthony Hudson in the Republican primary for U.S. House Michigan District 8 on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Paul Junge	74.8	43,204
		Mary Draves	15.0	8,688
		Anthony Hudson	10.1	5,851

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 57,743
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Nikki Snyder (R)
• Martin Blank (R)

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Anthony Hudson

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "My name is Anthony Hudson, I am running for U.S. Congress in Michigan's district 8 as a republican candidate. It's time that a blue collar hard working, small business owner and family man such as myself stands up and fight the tyranny and corruption in Washington. I represent the people, I am FROM the people and FOR the people. I will not stop until the American people are a priority in this country . It's time to close our borders, no more overseas wasteful spending, time to bring our military home and no more depending on other countries for OUR way of life. Now's the time for America to be INDEPENDENT and FREE!"

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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We must close our borders and bring our military home to protect our country from the inside out. The issues at the border are real and the consequences for an open border are the result in many Americans losing their lives. The drugs, the human trafficking, the weapons and the Cartels must be stopped! A country without borders is not a country and now we must to everything we can to stabilize our borders and then focus on deporting all that have come here illegally and do not belong here.

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Second Amendment shall not be infringed upon. I will work hard to refute the red flag laws in Michigan and fight to protect the right to bear arms for all Michiganders who own or want to own firearms. We will promote for firearm training and safety but will never infringe on your rights. I also wanna fight for universal carry laws in all 50 states to be exactly the same from state to state. Your second amendment rights do not end at your state line and should be recognized by every state in the union.

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I will fight to stop the $127 million investment into electric school busses for the state of Michigan. Electric busses and Michigan winters do not go hand in hand. Our kids miss enough school due to inclement weather and snowy conditions, we do not need them to miss more when the busses won't start. It's also been said that these busses will go about 78 miles on a full charge and when you have rural routes that are more than 78 miles then are we going to have to reduce the size of the routes and add more busses to cover this distance? What about the expense of the charging ports and whether or not they are actually charge the busses in the cold weather? No we can not afford to take that risk.

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Michigan District 8 in 2024.

Paul Junge

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Biography:  Junge received a bachelor's degree in political economy from the University of California, Berkley, a master's degree in business from the University of Michigan, and a law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law. He previously worked for a business maintaining military housing, as a prosecutor, and as a television news anchor. He also worked for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Trump administration.

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Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

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Junge focused on the improving economy and said, "Stopping the rising cost of goods and improving the economy for working families is a top priority to my campaign."

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Junge said he wanted to reduce illegal immigration and would "fight to secure the border, build the wall, stop the deadly flow of illegal drugs like fentanyl, ...and crack down on the tragedy of human trafficking."

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Junge's website said he supported an approach to energy that "encourages private sector innovation toward renewable energy sources rather than government mandates."

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Show sources

Sources: Midland Daily News, "Meet the Republican candidates running for Michigan's 8th Congressional District," July 3, 2024; Paul Junge 2024 campaign website, "Issues," accessed August 29, 2024; LinkedIn, "Paul J.," accessed August 29, 2024, Midland Daily News, "Meet the Republican candidates running for Michigan's 8th Congressional District," July 3, 2024; The Detroit News, "Junge, McDonald Rivet win primaries in race to replace Kildee in Congress," August 6, 2024

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Michigan District 8 in 2024.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Michigan

Election information in Michigan: Aug. 6, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

• In-person: Aug. 5, 2024
• By mail: Received by July 22, 2024
• Online: July 22, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

N/A

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

• In-person: Aug. 5, 2024
• By mail: Received by Aug. 2, 2024
• Online: Aug. 2, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

• In-person: Aug. 6, 2024
• By mail: Received by Aug. 6, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

July 27, 2024 to Aug. 4, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (EST)

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Mary Draves	Republican Party	$629,825	$629,151	$674	As of December 31, 2024
Anthony Hudson	Republican Party	$141,048	$107,774	$31,131	As of December 31, 2024
Paul Junge	Republican Party	$5,984,459	$5,636,809	$439,931	As of December 31, 2024
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

• District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
• Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
• Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
• State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

• District map
• Competitiveness
• Presidential elections
• State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Michigan.

Michigan U.S. Senate competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	1	1	1	6	2	1	1	100.0%	0	N/A
2020	1	1	0	2	2	0	0	0.0%	0	N/A
2018	1	1	0	3	2	0	1	50.0%	0	N/A
2014	1	1	1	2	2	0	0	0.0%	0	N/A

U.S. House

Michigan U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	13	13	2	43	26	6	6	46.2%	5	45.5%
2022	13	13	2	53	26	4	9	50.0%	7	58.3%
2020	14	14	1	55	28	7	8	53.6%	4	33.3%
2018	14	14	2	51	28	9	1	35.7%	1	9.1%
2016	14	14	2	38	28	3	3	21.4%	3	25.0%
2014	14	14	4	48	28	5	8	46.4%	6	60.0%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Michigan in 2024. Information below was calculated on June 5, 2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Forty-three candidates ran for Michigan’s 13 U.S. House districts, including 23 Democrats and 20 Republicans. That’s an average of 3.3 candidates per district.

The 43 candidates who ran in Michigan in 2024 was the fewest number of candidates since 2016, when 38 candidates ran.

The 7th and 8th Congressional Districts were open in 2024. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 2.2 districts were open per year.

Incumbent Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-07) did not run for re-election because she ran for the U.S. Senate. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-08) retired from public office.

Six candidates—three Democrats and three Republicans—ran for the open 8th Congressional District, the most candidates who ran for a seat in Michigan in 2024.

Twelve primaries—six Democratic and six Republican—were contested in 2024. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 11.4 primaries were contested per year.

Five incumbents—three Democrats and two Republicans—were in contested primaries in 2024. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 4.2 incumbents ran in contested primaries.

Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all 13 districts, meaning no seats were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+1. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 1 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Michigan's 8th the 218th most Republican district nationally.

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Michigan's 8th based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
50.3%	48.2%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district. The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
52.8	44.2	D+8.6

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Michigan, 2020

Michigan presidential election results (1900-2020)

• 13 Democratic wins
• 17 Republican wins
• 1 other win

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	R	R	R	P	R	R	R	R	D	D	R	D	R	R	R	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	D

See also: Party control of Michigan state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Michigan's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Michigan
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	2	6	8
Republican	0	7	7
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	13	15

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Michigan's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Michigan, May 2024
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Gretchen Whitmer
Lieutenant Governor	Garlin Gilchrist II
Secretary of State	Jocelyn Benson
Attorney General	Dana Nessel

State legislature

Michigan State Senate

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	20
	Republican Party	18
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		38

Michigan House of Representatives

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	54
	Republican Party	54
	Other	0
	Vacancies	2
Total		110

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Michigan Party Control: 1992-2024
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
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
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
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

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Michigan in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Michigan, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Michigan	U.S. House	Democratic or Republican	1,000-2,000	N/A	4/23/2024	Source
Michigan	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	3,000-6,000	N/A	7/18/2024	Source

See also

• Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 6 Democratic primary)
• Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024
• United States House elections in Michigan, 2024 (August 6 Democratic primaries)
• United States House elections in Michigan, 2024 (August 6 Republican primaries)
• United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2024
• United States House Republican Party primaries, 2024
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2024
• U.S. House battlegrounds, 2024

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

Michigan's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Gary Peters (D)

Elissa Slotkin (D)

Representatives

District 1

Jack Bergman (R)

District 2

John Moolenaar (R)

District 3

Hillary Scholten (D)

District 4

Bill Huizenga (R)

District 5

Tim Walberg (R)

District 6

Debbie Dingell (D)

District 7

Tom Barrett (R)

District 8

Kristen Rivet (D)

District 9

Lisa McClain (R)

District 10

John James (R)

District 11

Haley Stevens (D)

District 12

Rashida Tlaib (D)

District 13

Shri Thanedar (D)

Democratic Party (8)

Republican Party (7)

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