“This is absolutely historic, an epic landslide for pro-democracy Michiganders.”
That was the assessment of Jeff Timmer, a former Michigan GOP executive director now with the anti-Trump Lincoln Party, after seeing the midterm election results Wednesday morning.
Democrats in Michigan have made history for the first time in four decades by taking back control of both chambers of the state Legislature. Voters also reelected the entire Democratic ticket for governor, attorney general and secretary of state — who beat a slate of Republicans who repeatedly denied the results of the 2020 election former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
And the victories came even after most pundits predicted a national “red wave” that could even crash in Michigan, even though top Democrats had consistently led Republicans in polling here.
Many election experts and political strategists in Michigan pointed to the newly redrawn districts, the support for the pro-abortion rights Proposal 3 and Republican voters pulling away from Trump-style candidates for the big wins among Democrats.
How new maps created ‘competitive races’
In 2018, voters approved Proposal 2, which created the Michigan Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to redraw the state’s gerrymandered state and congressional districts.
Election experts now are saying that played a role in Democrats’ wins, but not because the maps necessarily favored Democrats. In fact, many Democrats, especially African Americans, were critical of the new maps for not having enough seats that were representative of their communities.
Nancy Wang, the executive director of Voters Not Politicians, the group behind the 2018 Proposal 2, said the new maps “rebalanced the scale.”
Voters Not Politicians, as part of the Promote the Vote coalition, had another constitutional amendment proposal on the ballot in 2022. Proposal 2, which voters passed on Tuesday with about 60% support, requires nine days of early in-person voting, allows military or overseas ballots to be counted if postmarked by Election Day and provides voters the right to verify identity with photo ID or a signed affidavit.
“It’s a dramatic change for our state, because we’ve never seen a fair election like this before,” Wang said of Tuesday’s election with the newly redrawn maps.
This story was originally published by Michigan Advance. Read more here: https://michiganadvance.com/2022/11/11/in-michigan-red-wave-spin-gives-way-to-a-blue-blowout/
