2024 Election Toolkit: Michigan
What's at stake in Michigan
Michigan helped deliver the White House to Donald Trump in an upset in 2020–part of a crumbling “blue wall” in the upper Midwest. Joe Biden recaptured the state’s electoral votes in 2020, but the state is nowhere near a reliable bet in 2024. Furthermore, the retirement of Sen. Debbie Stabenow opens up a competitive seat, where Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) will be vying against a likely Trump acolyte.
Races to Watch
Michigan's Senate Seat
Michigan's open Senate Seat is a key hold for Democrats in 2024
Key election dates
Tuesday, August 6th 2024
October 21, 2024
November 5, 2024
The Far Right Landscape
More than a dozen men, some tied to an armed militia group, were arrested in 2020 in connection with a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and take over the state government. Barry County sheriff Dar Leaf, a Trump supporter and election conspiracy theorist, defended the plotters by suggesting that they were preparing for a legitimate citizen’s arrest.
The Reuters news agency reported early in 2023 that far-right Republican groups were surging in Michigan and “making inroads across the state” while purging moderates they accused of practicing “socialism.”
Right Wing Watch reported in November that state Rep. Josh Schriver had apparently used a television appearance to signal his support for white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Since then Schriver has openly embraced Christian nationalism, saying he had been appointed to make sure that his state is “not just great, but godly.” Earlier in the year, another Fuentes supporter Alex Roncelli bragged during a livestream that he had run for and won a local party position.
The Michigan Republican Party has been embroiled in internal conflict since the election of MAGA activist and conspiracy theorist Kristina Karamo as party chair after she lost her race for secretary of state in 2022. She had been supported by Transformation Michigan, which is associated with the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation.
With the blessing of Trump and the RNC, Karamo was purged in January 2024 by Republicans who feared that a continuation of her divisive and ineffective tenure would deny Trump a chance to win the state this year. She continued to create chaos by refusing for weeks to give up control of the party.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that there were 29 hate and antigovernment groups active in Michigan in 2022.
