(The Center Square) – Republicans picked up a U.S. House seat after Michigan’s 7th congressional district flipped red early Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press called the race at 4:05 a.m. on Wednesday for Republican Tom Barrett, who leads Democrat Curtis Hertel 50.3% to 46.5% with 99% of votes counted.
Barrett, a former state Senator for District 24, centered his campaign around reducing government spending and cutting taxes, supporting law enforcement, enhancing border security and ending government subsidies to Chinese companies operating in the U.S. He describes himself as “100% pro-life.”
While in office, Barrett was a vocal critic of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 lockdown policies and sponsored legislation to limit the governor’s emergency powers, which Whitmer vetoed.
Barrett opposed taxpayer-funded subsidies for an EV battery plant in Lansing, supported increased resources to law enforcement and national guard members, and sponsored legislation that would expand Title 42 authority to expel migrants entering the country illegally.
In 2022, Barrett lost the 7th District race by 20,000 votes to the current office-holder, Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who will vacate the seat due to her running for U.S. Senate.
Michigan’s 8th congressional district seat, another closely-watched race, will remain blue as Democrat State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet led Republican opponent Paul Junge 51.3% to 44.6% when NBC and Bloomberg called the race for Rivet around 5 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
Rivet will replace current seat holder Dan Kildee, D-Flint, who is retiring for personal reasons.
Rivet had centered her campaign around job creation and tax cuts, lowering costs of living, childcare, and healthcare, and promoting abortion access.
As a state senator, Rivet co-sponsored bills aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, providing a working parent tax credit, increasing childcare affordability, expanding absentee voting options, mandating background checks on gun purchasers, and requiring non-union members to pay agency fees. She also introduced a bill, now law, that prohibits schools from using teacher performance evaluations to make tenure or termination-based decisions.
The 7th and 8th districts were targeted by both the Democratic and Republican parties this election cycle.
