Unofficial election results show Michigan House Democrats are poised to temporarily lose their narrow majority in the chamber, as Reps. Kevin Coleman, D-Westland, and Lori Stone, D-Warren, both won mayoral races in their respective cities Tuesday.
Democrats have used a 56-54 majority in the House to pass a bevy of policy goals, including legislation expanding abortion access, setting clean energy goals, enacting new gun safety laws and more. Once Stone and Coleman are sworn into their respective offices in the coming weeks, the House will be evenly split 54-54 until special elections are held to fill their seats.
In the meantime, Democratic leadership in the House will have to decide how they approach the final days of the legislative session and next year, and "It's an open question whether they're going to try and do much," said Adrian Hemond, CEO of Lansing-based political consulting firm Grassroots Midwest.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will have to call for special elections to fill the open seats, and the expectation is that she will move quickly. The Secretary of State's office previously estimated it would take 120 days to administer a special election. In 2022, both Coleman and Stone won their legislative races comfortably, election records show, signaling the seats would likely return to Democrats and restore the House majority after the special elections.
Hemond, who previously worked in the House, said, "There's a couple of paths that they could go down here. They can try and find some issues where they can achieve some amount of bipartisan consensus and try and get those things done while they await the special elections, or they can close up shop for a while."
Results:Westland elects new mayor, other Wayne County results
Warren voters elect state Rep. Lori Stone as mayor, per unofficial city results
House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, will remain Speaker under the even split. House rules don't allow for a new speaker vote unless there is a 55-55 partisan split. This means Democrats will still get to chair committees and decide what the chamber votes on.
The Legislature is expected to adjourn early this year — potentially as early as Thursday — in order to put in motion a new law moving Michigan's presidential primary up to February for the 2024 election cycle. One of the policy tasks still looming over the House is the implementation of financial and campaign disclosure bills, mandated in the state's constitution by Proposal 1, which passed last year.
Prop. 1 set a deadline of the end of the year for the Legislature to enact new rules for financial transparency among lawmakers and other officials. While the Senate has its own version to implement the new rules, the House has yet to take up a vote on either the Senate bills or a pair of proposals introduced in the House, although the Senate legislation was on the House's tentative voting agenda Wednesday. Some say the package passed in the Senate and backed by House leadership doesn't go far enough — questions remain about spousal disclosure and how lawmakers would be required to report gifts from and trips paid for by lobbyists.
More:Michigan election 2023: Live results, races to watch
Hemond said the end-of-year deadline for Prop. 1 will force the House to come to a consensus. But after that, it remains unclear what the House will look like in the months before the two open seats are filled.
"There's potential risk and reward each way," he said. "If they do close up shop, Republicans will attack them for taking a long vacation and they'll have to deal with that. But then they don't have to worry about agenda control issues, how they're going to handle amendments, all of that sort of stuff.
"The flip side of that is they sort of dip their toe in the water to try and get things done. There's some potential upside there to show that they can govern in a bipartisan fashion. But that's only true if they can find identify some issues where they can get some cooperation out of Republicans."
For the first time in decades this year, Democrats held a trifecta of leadership in state government, controlling the House, Senate and the governor's office. That has allowed them to tackle various policy goals, but they've been met with staunch GOP opposition for many of those votes.
On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, House Republican Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, posted "House Republicans stand ready to work together in the middle to find common ground that will make life better for the people of Michigan. But in order to do so we need House Democrats to come to the table."
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo.
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Michigan House will temporarily be evenly split after mayoral races - Detroit Free Press
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