Brian Calley President and Chief Executive Officer at Small Business Association of Michigan | Official website
Brian Calley President and Chief Executive Officer at Small Business Association of Michigan | Official website
The recent state House elections presented a series of closely contested races, with the closest being Republican Steve Frisbie's narrow victory over Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) by just 61 votes in Calhoun County's District 44. This race is pending a possible recount. Following this, Rep. Reggie Miller (D-Belleville) won over Dale Biniecki by 696 votes in the 31st District, which includes Van Buren Township and northern Monroe County. In third place was Rep. Denise Mentzer (D-Mount Clemens), who secured a win against Robert Wojtowicz by 721 votes in District 61.
In total, there were 12 House races where the final margin was five percentage points or lower. These included the following:
- Frisbie-Haadsma in HD-44 with a difference of 0.14%
- Miller-Biniecki in HD-31 with a difference of 1.28%
- Mentzer-Wojtowicz in HD-61 with a difference of 1.44%
Additional close contests featured Karl Bohnak against Rep. Jenn Hill (D-Marquette) in HD-109 and several others with margins ranging from around three to five percent.
Republicans achieved some significant victories as well, notably Rep. Jaime Greene (R-Richmond), who won District 65 by 26,762 votes—a margin of 48.54%. Similarly, Rep.-Elect Jennifer Wortz secured her seat in the Hillsdale County/Branch County's 35th House District by over 21,000 votes.
Democrats saw major wins too; House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) received substantial support with an overwhelming majority of 93% in his district, while Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) followed closely behind with more than 90% support.
A few candidates managed to gather more than 41,000 votes each—these included Democrats such as Rep. Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield), Rep.-Elect Morgan Foreman, and Weiss herself.
On the Republican side, notable high vote counts were seen for Greene and others like Rep.-Elect Jason Woolford and Rep. Ken Borton (R-Gaylord).
The highest number of votes cast occurred in the Coffia-Trombley race within Traverse City's based District 103rd with over 64,000 ballots submitted.
Independent candidate Cathy Albro stood out among third-party contenders by receiving the highest vote count at approximately 3,800 votes in HD-104.
Some districts experienced low voter turnout; HD-1 recorded only about 22,960 participants while Dearborn-based HD-3 had just over 25,000 voters engaged.
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