Calling November a midterm election is a Washington habit that diminishes what many voters will decide.
The label describes where the date falls in a president’s term. Here in Michigan, it says almost nothing about the choices on the ballot.
This is a general election. For Republicans, the stakes could hardly be higher.
Michigan has an open U.S. Senate seat in a contest that could well determine which party controls the upper house of Congress. Republican Mike Rogers hopes to defeat far-left Democrat Abdul el Sayed and become the first Michigan senator from his party since Spencer Abraham, who served a single term after winning in the 1994 red wave.
After eight years and two terms under Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (MI), the Wolverine State will choose a new governor. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson faces Rep. John James (R-MI) and is asking voters to keep a Democrat in the governor’s mansion.
Two other statewide offices will change hands. Outgoing Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel is the country’s worst practitioner of lawfare. Republican Doug Lloyd, a purple-county prosecutor and a candidate straight from central casting, wants to break with her record. The Republican Attorneys General Association should be doing far more to help him.
For secretary of state, Republican Anthony Forlini hopes to succeed Benson. He is the clerk of Macomb County, the political home of the Reagan Democrats. Farther down the ballot are often overlooked races for the State Board of Education and the governing boards of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University.
Two state Supreme Court seats are at stake as well. Republican-nominated Judges Casandra Morse-Bills and Michael Warren need more firepower to win and restore balance to a high court that has become far too partisan and ideological.
If those races weren’t enough, there are also elections for all 110 seats in the state House of Representatives and all 38 seats in the state Senate. Currently, Republicans control the House while Democrats control the Senate.
Michiganders have every reason to ask whether families can afford to live in a state that was once the envy of the country, whether schools are delivering results for the next generation, and whether state government defers to local governments on planning and zoning decisions involving data centers and solar farms. Instead, those questions are being drowned out by the national midterm narrative.
Importantly, voting is already underway.
Absentee ballots became available Sept. 24. Perhaps 60% of Michiganders will cast a vote by ballot or through early voting.
Yet the most consequential line on the ballot may be Proposal 1. A “Yes” vote would convene a state constitutional convention in 2027 for the first time in 66 years.
If passed, 148 delegates — one from every legislative district — would be elected to either amend the current state constitution or write a new document. Importantly, their work would then be subjected to a ratification vote — giving voters the final say and preventing anything remotely extreme from passing.
FORGET EL SAYED — MICHIGAN’S MOST IMPORTANT VOTE ISN’T FOR SENATE
Michigan in the third decade of the 21st century is not the Michigan of the postwar era, when the state stood at the center of American industry. Its population, economy, and communities have changed and not for the better.
With a governorship, a U.S. Senate seat, legislative majorities, two Supreme Court seats, and potentially the state’s constitution at stake, the election is hardly a halftime report on Washington. It is Michigan’s chance to decide what comes next.
Dennis Lennox is a columnist, political commentator, and Republican public affairs consultant. Follow @dennislennox on X.