Election 2024: Michigan's Primary Results

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Party endorsements, big spending and a high-profile arrest all played into 25-year-old Parker Fairbairn’s victory in the Aug. 6 primary election.

The GOP organizer from Emmet County unseated freshman State Representative Neil Friske with over 60% of the vote, according to data from the Associated Press who called the race just before midnight Tuesday.

Neil Friske currently represents the 107th State House District which encompasses the tourism communities of Charlevoix and Emmet Counties and parts of the eastern Upper Peninsula, including Sault Ste. Marie.

Neither candidate responded to repeated requests for comment on the results in time for publication.

Fairbairn had put Friske’s no-compromise voting record in the spotlight during his campaign. Friske, who previously helped run Friske Orchards, is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a handful of hardline conservatives who tend to vote strictly on party lines.

In a Democratic-lead House, Friske rarely votes ‘Yes’ on bills. He currently serves on no legislative committees - which brought scorn from his Republican colleagues like U.S. Representative Jack Bergman and State Senator John DaMoose.

Both Republicans endorsed Fairbairn over Friske in the Aug. 6 Primary.

“Friske made it clear over his two years that he was going to do things his way, and that way did not prove very popular with the party or many other elected officials,” said North Central Michigan College Political Science Professor Scott LaDeur. “So when that opportunity arises, some of those sitting lawmakers are sometimes comfortable with throwing their weight behind a challenger.”

Fairbairn also outspent Friske in campaign finances by over $120,000, much of that money came from his own pockets, according to Gongwer News Service. He has spent $123,838 and raised $132,185 according to a pre-primary report.

In a previous interview with Interlochen Public Radio, Fairbairn says voters are "tired of the drama".

Friske was arrested in the early hours of June 20 near a home he owns in Lansing.

Over a month later, no charges have officially been filed against the lawmaker and police are still investigating "for a felon-level offense" after reports of shots fired. Days after Friske was released from police custody, he appeared at a candidate forum in Petoskey. In front of a crowd of voters, he said he was "framed."

"There were a bunch of false allegations that were made," Friske said. "I know that I'm 100% innocent. I did nothing criminally wrong that night."

According to latest reports from the Detroit News, law enforcement officers have requested several search warrants to collect electronic media and DNA evidence that will have to be "forensically analyzed by an expert."

"Lansing has further corrupted yet another politician from northern Michigan, which is a real disappointment for our whole district," Fairbairn told IPR News.

He's referencing the former House Speaker from Levering and his wife, who allegedly used political and taxpayer money to buy luxury products, according to Attorney General Dana Nessel. They face 15 combined corruption charges in Lansing, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Fairbairn will go on to face Democrat Jodi Decker in November in a district that has leaned Republican for over a decade.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shri Thanedar has won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Michigan's 13th Congressional District. He'll face Republican Martell Bivings, who was unopposed in the GOP primary, in the November general election for the Detroit-area district.

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After a long, sometimes bruising primary campaign, the Republican and Democratic party nominees in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District talked about unifying their respective parties Tuesday night ahead of a toss-up November election.

The mid-Michigan district includes Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.

State Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet had garnered slightly more than half the Democratic primary vote with an estimated 49% of ballots counted early Wednesday morning. She defeated state Board of Education president Pamela Pugh and former Flint Mayor Matt Collier.

McDonald Rivet said it's now time to come together to keep the mid-Michigan congressional seat in Democratic hands. The seat is currently held by Democrat Dan Kildee, who is retiring at the end of this term.

“We need to quickly unify and get to work for November because there is a lot at stake,” McDonald Rivet told supporters last night in Saginaw.

McDonald Rivet will face Republican Paul Junge in November.

Junge easily defeated former Dow Chemical executive Mary Draves and trucking company owner Anthony Hudson to win the Republican party’s nomination in the 8th District.

The Republican primary included sometimes pointed attacks between the candidates.

But Paul Junge said now it’s time to come together to defeat the Democrats in November.

“Look, sometimes it’s a little rough, but you have to put what’s best for the country and for your party, and I think we’ll do that,” Junge said Tuesday night at his primary watch party in Burton.
It’s Junge’s second try to win the 8th Congressional District seat.

Two years ago, he lost to Kildee, who was the Democratic incumbent.

Kildee announced last year he would not seek another term representing mid-Michigan in Congress. This is the first congressional race in the Flint area not to feature either Dan or his uncle Dale Kildee on the ballot in nearly half a century.

Kildee was standing by Democratic nominee Kristen McDonald Rivet Tuesday evening as she spoke to her supporters in Saginaw.

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Hillary Scholten, the first-term Democratic Congresswoman from Grand Rapids, survived the first primary challenge of her political career Tuesday in convincing fashion.

Preliminary results from Tuesday’s race showed Scholten beating challenger Salim Al Shatel with around 10 times his vote total.

Al-Shatel is an entrepreneur who grew up in West Michigan and said he entered the race after helping in Scholten’s campaign in 2022.

Scholten is the first woman to represent Grand Rapids in Congress, and she was the first Democrat in half a century to win the seat that includes the city.

The Republican primary for the seat was much closer. With 56% of precincts in the district reporting results early Wednesday morning, East Grand Rapids attorney Paul Hudson had a nearly 5,000 vote lead over Michael Markey Jr., and the Associated Press projected Hudson as the winner. He previously ran for Michigan Supreme Court, and he was an attorney for the law firm Miller Canfield.

Hudson and Scholten will face off in the November general election.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Haley Stevens wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Michigan's 11th Congressional District.

Nick Somberg wins Republican nomination for U.S. House in Michigan's 11th Congressional District.

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers has secured the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and will face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the November election.

Slotkin and Rogers, long considered the front-runners for their respective party nominations, will now shift focus to the general election. Slotkin enters with a massive fundraising advantage and emerges nearly unscathed from a sparse primary, while Rogers has the backing of national Republican groups and former President Donald Trump.

Slotkin defeated actor Hill Harper in the Democratic primary, while Republicans chose Rogers over former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Both candidates will now compete for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement.

Shortly after Slotkin was announced the winner of the Democratic primary, Stabenow endorsed Slotkin.

“I have the honor of being the first woman from Michigan elected to the U.S. Senate," Stabenow wrote in a press release. "But I have always believed it’s not enough to be the first, unless there is a second and a third. I’m excited to pass the torch at the end of the year and see Elissa Slotkin represent Michigan in the halls of the U.S. Senate."

Michigan Public will be reporting across the state and providing primary results from the following races:

• Democratic and Republican results from Michigan's U.S. Senate race
• Democratic and Republican results from Michigan's 8th Congressional District race
• Democratic and Republican results from Michigan's 3rd Congressional race
• Democratic results from Michigan's 13th Congressional District race
• Results from Michigan's 103rd House of Representatives District

See some of our previous coverage: