The outcome of the presidential race in Michigan remains uncertain, although former President Donald Trump seems more likely than not to take the state’s 15 electoral votes.
The race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat is tight, although early returns showed Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the lead.
So, Tuesday shaped up to be largely a bad night for Democrats in statewide races, which was good news to Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra. He said the Michigan GOP has moved past its leadership and financial struggles that brought the party to the brink of collapse just a couple years ago.
"You’ve got a state Republican apparatus that can win,” he said at the GOP’s election night party in Oakland County. “And it’s not just the state party. It’s when you get good candidates, good party organizations, all pulling and all rowing in the same direction, we can win.”
Democrats did not concede defeat Tuesday night, but said they would continue to follow the returns. State election officials said they expect the unofficial results to be completed sometime Wednesday.
Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee. She told Democrats gathered at an election night party in Detroit that the campaign in Michigan was hard-fought.
“But over the next few days, the results will come into focus and the task before us will be to come together, to reach out to people we may not always agree with, to focus on our future as a state and as a country,” she said. “Because no matter how passionately we disagree, first and foremost we are Michiganders.”
The Democrats’ Michigan House majority is also imperiled as some key races are still too close to call. By a slim margin, Democrats currently have full control of the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time in four decades.
Representative Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramack) said there is a lot on the line.
“Still don’t know who the president’s going to be, right?” he told Michigan Public. “But there was a lot at stake in this election. Certainly, on the state level, maintaining the majority to continue the work that we’ve been able to do. But, I guess, like I said, it’s too early to call. We’ll see.”
