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William Sowerby
William Sowerby (Democratic Party) was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, representing District 31. He assumed office on January 1, 2017. He left office on January 1, 2023.
Sowerby (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 31. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Sowerby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
William Sowerby was born in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University in 1978. Sowerby served as Macomb County Commissioner from 1989 to 1996 and as Treasurer of the Charter Township of Clinton from 1996 to 2016. His career experience also includes working as an automotive sales representative for eighteen years.[1]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2021-2022
Sowerby was assigned to the following committees:
- Local Government and Municipal Finance Committee (decommissioned)
- Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Committee, Minority vice-chair
2019-2020
Sowerby was assigned to the following committees:
- Education Committee
- Local Government and Municipal Finance Committee (decommissioned)
- Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Committee, Minority Vice Chair
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
Michigan committee assignments, 2017 |
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• Education Reform |
• Judiciary |
• Natural Resources |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2022
William Sowerby was not able to file for re-election due to term limits.
2020
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent William Sowerby defeated Lisa Valerio-Nowc in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | William Sowerby (D) ![]() | 56.3 | 26,202 |
Lisa Valerio-Nowc (R) ![]() | 43.7 | 20,364 |
Total votes: 46,566 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent William Sowerby defeated Michelle Robertson in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | William Sowerby ![]() | 57.4 | 6,300 |
Michelle Robertson | 42.6 | 4,685 |
Total votes: 10,985 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Lisa Valerio-Nowc defeated Austin Negipe in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | Lisa Valerio-Nowc ![]() | 60.1 | 4,338 | |
![]() | Austin Negipe | 39.9 | 2,878 |
Total votes: 7,216 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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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Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view Sowerby's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
- LEAP Forward[2]
2018
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2018
General election
General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent William Sowerby defeated Lisa Valerio-Nowc in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | William Sowerby (D) | 59.9 | 20,791 |
Lisa Valerio-Nowc (R) | 40.1 | 13,925 |
Total votes: 34,716 (100.00% precincts reporting) | ||||
![]() | ||||
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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. |
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent William Sowerby defeated Michelle Robertson in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on August 7, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | William Sowerby | 56.2 | 5,474 |
Michelle Robertson | 43.8 | 4,271 |
Total votes: 9,745 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. |
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31
Lisa Valerio-Nowc defeated Catherine Osinski Dinka in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 31 on August 7, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | Lisa Valerio-Nowc | 50.5 | 3,002 | |
Catherine Osinski Dinka | 49.5 | 2,947 |
Total votes: 5,949 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. |
2016
Elections for the Michigan House of Representatives took place in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was April 19, 2016. Incumbent Marilyn Lane (D) did not seek re-election because of term-limits.
William Sowerby defeated Lisa Valerio-Nowc and Michael Saliba in the Michigan House of Representatives District 31 general election.[3]
Michigan House of Representatives, District 31 General Election, 2016 | ||||
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Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic | ![]() |
56.16% | 22,735 | |
Republican | Lisa Valerio-Nowc | 38.89% | 15,743 | |
Libertarian | Michael Saliba | 4.96% | 2,007 | |
Total Votes | 40,485 | |||
Source: Michigan Secretary of State |
William Sowerby defeated Michael Brewington in the Michigan House of Representatives District 31 Democratic primary.[4][5]
Michigan House of Representatives, District 31 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic | ![]() |
78.31% | 4,561 | |
Democratic | Michael Brewington | 21.69% | 1,263 | |
Total Votes | 5,824 |
Lisa Valerio-Nowc defeated Austin Negipe in the Michigan House of Representatives District 31 Republican primary.[4][5]
Michigan House of Representatives, District 31 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Republican | ![]() |
66.87% | 2,206 | |
Republican | Austin Negipe | 33.13% | 1,093 | |
Total Votes | 3,299 |
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
William Sowerby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sowerby's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Collapse all
|- I support increasing wages and growing our economy. People are working harder than ever, but income inequality continues to be a problem and the economy feels rigged against hard working people and families.
- I support increasing public education funding to ensure that students and teachers have the resources they need to be successful.
- I support ensuring that health care is more affordable and accessible. As we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, access to affordable health care has never been more important and the state legislature can enact policies to make a difference.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Michigan scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2022
In 2022, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 12 to December 28.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues.
- Legislators are scored on labor issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to agriculture.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues.
- Legislators are scored on a number of bills selected by the editor of MIRS, a state capitol newsletter.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
2021
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 13 to December 31.
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2020
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 8 to December 31.
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2019
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 9 through December 31.
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2018
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 10 through December 31.
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2017
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 11 through December 31.
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2016
To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the Michigan State Legislature was in session from January 13 through December 31.
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See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 25, 2020
- ↑ LEAP Forward, "6. ENDORSEMENTS," accessed June 30, 2020
- ↑ Michigan Secretary of State, "2016 official general election results," accessed May 2, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Michigan Secretary of State, "2016 Michigan Candidate Listing," accessed April 22, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Michigan Secretary of State, "2016 Michigan Election Results," accessed August 2, 2016
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by - |
Michigan House of Representatives District 31 2017-2023 |
Succeeded by Reggie Miller (D) |