Michigan election preview, 2024
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Last updated: Oct. 22, 2024
Thousands of general elections are taking place across the United States on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include offices at the federal, state, and local levels. This is one of 50 pages in which Ballotpedia previews the elections happening in each state as part of the Daily Brew’s 50 states in 25 days series.
This page provides an overview of all elections happening in Michigan within our coverage scope on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include office for one U.S Senator, 13 U.S. Representatives, 110 state Representatives, two state Supreme Court seats, and nine intermediate appellate court judges. On this page, you will also find information regarding:
- How to vote in Michigan
- The elected offices that Michigan voters can expect to see on their ballots
- The races in Michigan that Ballotpedia is covering as battlegrounds
- The ballot measures that voters in Michigan will decide on
- Ballotpedia's Sample Ballot Lookup Tool
- The partisan balance of Michigan's congressional delegation and state government
- Past presidential election results in Michigan
- The competitiveness of legislative elections in Michigan
- The candidates who are on the ballot in Michigan
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Michigan
What's on the ballot?
2024 elections
- See also: Michigan elections, 2024
Michigan voters will elect one U.S. Senator and 13 U.S. Representatives.
All 110 seats in the state House are up for election. There are eight open seats in the state House.
There are eight state executive offices on the ballot—two University of Michigan Board of Regents seats, two Michigan State University Board of Trustees seats, two Wayne State University Board of Governors seats, and two State Board of Education seats.
There are two Michigan Supreme Court seats and nine intermediate appellate court seats up for election.
Four Ann Arbor Public Schools school board seats, two Dearborn Public Schools school board seats, and three Detroit Public Schools Community District school board seats are up for election. Ballotpedia covered all other school board elections in Michigan, including those outside of our regular coverage scope. Click here to view other school board elections.
Voters in Lansing, Michigan will also vote for prosecuting attorney. Wayne County, Michigan is holding elections for county clerk, prosecutor, register of deeds, sheriff, treasurer, county commission, community college board, circuit court judges, district court judges, and probate court judges.
Michigan is one of 26 states where we are expanding our local election coverage beyond the nation's biggest cities, school districts, and state capitals. Including those mentioned above, Ballotpedia is covering 7,968 races featuring 13,827 candidates for offices such as local councils and other county-level positions.
Below is a list of Michigan elections covered by Ballotpedia in 2024. Click the links to learn more about each type:
| Michigan elections, 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Office | Elections? | More information |
| U.S. Senate | ✓ | Click here |
| U.S. House | ✓ | Click here |
| Congress special election | — | — |
| Governor | — | — |
| Other state executive | ✓ | Click here |
| State Senate | — | — |
| State House | ✓ | Click here |
| Special state legislative | ✓ | Click here |
| State Supreme Court | ✓ | Click here |
| Intermediate appellate courts | ✓ | Click here |
| School boards | ✓ | Click here |
| Municipal government | ✓ | Click here |
| Recalls | ✓ | Click here |
| Ballot measures | — | — |
| Local ballot measures | ✓ | Click here |
Legend: ✓ election(s) / — no elections
Subject to Ballotpedia's scope
Your ballot
- See also: Sample Ballot Lookup
Noteworthy elections
As of October 22, 2024, Ballotpedia has identified seven elections as battleground races. Those are the races that we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in governments or to be particularly compelling.
- Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024: Heading into the 2024 elections, Democrats have a 2-seat majority in the chamber at 56-54.
- Michigan Supreme Court elections, 2024: Michigan's Supreme Court elections are nonpartisan, but candidates are nominated through a party convention. Democratic-backed justices have a 4-3 majority. Two seats are up for election. The outcome will determine party control of the court.
- Michigan's 10th Congressional District election, 2024: Incumbent John James (R), Carl Marlinga (D), Mike Saliba (L), and Andrea Kirby (Working Class Party) are running. The election is a rematch of the 2022 contest in which James defeated Marlinga 48.8%-48.3%. As of Oct. 15, 2024, four major election forecasters each rated the race Lean Republican.
- Michigan's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024: Incumbent Hillary Scholten (D), Paul Hudson (R), Alexander Avery (L), and Louis Palus (Working Class Party) are running. In 2022, Scholten became the first Democrat to represent the district since 1993. As of Oct. 15, 2024, four major election forecasters each rated the race Likely Democratic.
- Michigan's 7th Congressional District election, 2024: This race is for an open seat. Curtis Hertel (D), Tom Barrett (R), Leah Dailey (L) are running. As of Oct. 15, 2024, four major election forecasters each rated the race Toss-up.
- Michigan's 8th Congressional District election, 2024: This race is for an open seat. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D), Paul Junge (R), and four other candidates are running. As of Oct. 15, 2024, four major election forecasters each rated the race Toss-up.
- United States Senate election in Michigan, 2024: Elissa Slotkin (D), Mike Rogers (R), and four others are running. As of Oct. 15, 2024, four major election forecasters rated the race differently, with two rating it Lean Democratic, one rating it Tilt Democratic, and one rating it Toss-up.
Ballot measures
- See also: Michigan 2024 ballot measures
There are no statewide ballot measures on the ballot in Michigan in 2024. Sixty-two ballot measures were on the ballot in Michigan from 1985 to 2020. Voters approved 31 measures and rejected 31 measures.
State analysis
Partisan balance
Democrats represent seven of the state's U.S. House districts, and Republicans represent six. In the U.S. House, Republicans have a 220-212 majority with three vacancies.
Michigan has two Democratic U.S. Senators—Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow. Democrats have a majority in the U.S. Senate. There are 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and four independents. Three independents caucus with the Democratic Party, and one other counts towards the Democratic majority for committee purposes.
Democrats have a 20-18 majority in the state Senate and a 56-54 majority in the state House. Democrats won a majority in both chambers in 2022.
Because the governor is a Democrat, Michigan is one of 17 states with a Democratic trifecta. It has held this status since 2023, after Democrats won legislative control in the 2022 elections. Michigan's attorney general and secretary of state are also Democrats. This makes Michigan one of 20 states with a Democratic triplex.
Past presidential election results in Michigan
- See also: Presidential election in Michigan, 2024
How a state's counties vote in a presidential election and the size of those counties can provide additional insights into election outcomes at other levels of government including statewide and congressional races. Below, four categories are used to describe each county's voting pattern over the 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections: Solid, Trending, Battleground, and New. Click [show] on the table below for examples:
| County-level voting pattern categories | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | |||||||
| Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
| Solid Democratic | D | D | D | ||||
| Trending Democratic | R | D | D | ||||
| Battleground Democratic | D | R | D | ||||
| New Democratic | R | R | D | ||||
| Republican | |||||||
| Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
| Solid Republican | R | R | R | ||||
| Trending Republican | D | R | R | ||||
| Battleground Republican | R | D | R | ||||
| New Republican | D | D | R | ||||
Following the 2020 presidential election, 46.0% of Michiganians lived in one of the state's eight Solid Democratic counties, which voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election from 2012 to 2020, and 29.1% lived in one of 61 Solid Republican counties. Overall, Michigan was Battleground Democratic, having voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2012, Donald Trump (R) in 2016, and Joe Biden (D) in 2020. Use the table below to view the total number of each type of county in Michigan following the 2020 election as well as the overall percentage of the state population located in each county type.
| Michigan county-level statistics, 2020 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solid Democratic | 8 | 46.0% | |||||
| Solid Republican | 61 | 29.1% | |||||
| Trending Republican | 11 | 16.3% | |||||
| New Democratic | 2 | 6.8% | |||||
| Battleground Democratic | 1 | 1.9% | |||||
| Total voted Democratic | 11 | 54.6% | |||||
| Total voted Republican | 72 | 45.4% | |||||
State legislative competitiveness
According to Ballotpedia's annual state legislative competitiveness report, Michigan had a Competitiveness Index of 46.9, ranking it fifth of the 44 states that held elections.
- Eight of the 110 seats up for election were open (7%)
- 35 of the 102 incumbents who ran for re-election faced contested primaries (34%)
- 109 of the 110 seats up for election were contested by both major parties (99%)
2010-2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents.
| State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Michigan, 2010-2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | Rank | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | 54.1% | 25.0% | 98.0% | 59.0 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | 20.0% | 40.2% | 98.2% | 52.8 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | 34.5% | 28.9% | 100.0% | 54.5 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2016 | 38.2% | 33.8% | 100.0% | 57.3 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 47.3% | 29.5% | 100.0% | 58.9 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | 23.6% | 28.6% | 99.1% | 50.4 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 44.6% | 52.4% | 98.6% | 65.2 | 1 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 7.3% | 34.3% | 99.1% | 46.9 | 5 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
In 2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents. Click on headings for more state-specific information.
| State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Michigan, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | ||||||||||||||||||||
| House | 7.3% | 34.3% | 99.1% | 46.9 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Senate | Did not hold elections | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 7.3% | 34.3% | 99.1% | 46.9 | ||||||||||||||||||||
List of candidates
See also
Footnotes
