Michigan Democrats held their nominating convention on Saturday in Lansing, where delegates finalized the party’s ticket for the November ballot. The state convention ratified its slate of presidential electors following the Democratic National Convention that formally nominated Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Some delegates traveled directly from the national convention in Chicago to the state convention at an events center a few blocks from the state Capitol.
"They told me in Chicago last week that there are a few people who are going to decide this election and I decided that all of those people live in the state of Michigan,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, “because as Michigan goes, so goes America."
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow said Vice President Kamala Harris’s late presidential nomination means an abbreviated presidential campaign season. But she said Democrats in the swing state of Michigan are in a strong position.
“People are just sick of the hatred and negativity, and they don’t want to hear how good we are and how good we can be,” she told Michigan Public Radio. “They really do want to be joyful and move forward and so I feel very good, but I think we have a very short window.”
Gaza remained a wedge issue among Democrats. Police cars were lined up in the streets around the Lansing Center, but there were no large protests outside the building.
Delegate Laura Sager with the Michigan Democratic Progressive Caucus said enthusiasm for Harris is high, but so is anxiety over the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.
“I believe that threatens the edge that Democrats got when Biden stepped down. Harris can’t be Biden-light on this issue and win, I don’t believe,” she said.
Protestors of the Israeli invasion interrupted the national anthem with loud chanting to confront a University of Michigan board member.
Many were supporting civil rights attorney Huwaida Arraf, who lost her bid for one of the two seats up this year on the UM Board of Regents. In the only contested votes of the convention, incumbent Regent Denise Illitch and Dr. Shauna Ryder Diggs were nominated.
It was an otherwise uneventful gathering with no challengers to nominations to the Michigan Supreme Court. Justice Kyra Harris Bolden was nominated to complete her current term after being provisionally appointed to fill a vacancy by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Attorney Kimberly Thomas was also nominated for the high court.
The list of convention nominees:
Michigan Supreme Court:
-Justice Kyra Harris Bolden
-Kimberly Ann Thomas
Michigan State Board of Education:
- Theodore Jones
-Former Michigan Rep. Adam Zemke
University of Michigan Board of Regents
-Regent Denise Illitch
-Shauna Ryder Diggs
Michigan State University Board of Trustees
-Rebecca Bahar Cook
-Former Michigan Rep. Thomas Stallworth
Wayne State University Board of Governors:
-Governor Mark Gaffney
-Rasha Demashkieh
