MAGA, money and turnout: 3 notes from Michigan's Aug. 6 election

Michigan’s August primary is over. The votes have been counted, and one thing is clear: It’s going to be a rough ride to November.  

Any election has winners and losers. This one was no different. You’ll read a lot about the winners in our news pages. Let’s talk about the losers.

Any return to political normalcy 

If you hoped that we’d finally scrape away the lingering barnacles of Trump-era screaming reactionism and faux-conservative chicanery, at least in local elections ... well, it wasn’t Tuesday. 

In three separate contests, MAGA Republicans absolutely vanquished their more traditional foes.  

Exhibit A: Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers easily won the Republican nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat. He’ll face sitting Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin this fall.   

Rogers, the early favorite, clawed his way to victory over fellow former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and west Michigan doctor Christine O’Donnell in the GOP primary, winning 66% of ballots cast.

Once a figure who commanded an unusual degree of bipartisan respect in Washington and Michigan, Rogers had declined to board the Donald Trump ship for a full eight years. But he performed an abrupt about face late last year, endorsing Trump — Rogers, a former FBI agent, chose to endorse Trump after the Jan. 6 riots. You could argue that it’s the sort of thing Republicans have to do these days, if they want to get elected ... but it’s not exactly a harbinger of integrity.  

And it gets worse — in an endorsement interview with the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board earlier this summer, Rogers wouldn't answer whether he believes the 2020 election was fair, and wouldn't promise to defend the voting rights of the Detroiters he hopes to represent. And he floated a truly bizarre proposal to keep illiterate inmates incarcerated until they’ve attained literacy. Nothing like civil liberties, right? 

Slotkin and Rogers are headed to a November match-up, and although Slotkin, an eminently qualified moderate who beat actor Hill Harper to win her party’s nomination by 65 points, has edged ahead of Rogers in recent polls, we expect this race to be tight.  

For exhibits B and C, we turn to Oakland County, where two state legislators who ought to be exiled to political obsolescence easily won new terms.  

State Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, a former bail bondsman, is best known for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and for voting against his own party most of the time. He’ll represent Oakland County’s 51st District for two more years. 

Republican state Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, is best known for endorsing a racist conspiracy theory, posting videos of himself rapping poorly, thinking Abraham Lincoln wrote the U.S. Constitution, and — it's popular, apparently — voting against his own party. 

Principled candidates with experience in government ran against all three men, gambling that voters were tired of the chaos of the last eight years, and would eagerly support traditional conservatives: Amash in the Senate primary, Kevin Ziegler, of Milford, against Maddock, and Oxford resident Randy LaVasseur against Schriver. All three — principled men with experience in government — bet that voters were tired of the chaos of the last three years, and eager to support traditional conservatives. All three were trounced.   

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Cash rules everything around us?

Say hello to two more years of U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar. 

On Tuesday night, Thanedar secured a second term in the U.S. Congress. He'll face Republican opponent Martell Bivings in November, but the district is so heavily Democratic that he has effectively won the seat.

It’s hard to separate Thanedar’s victory from his whopping, and largely self-funded, campaign war chest. In the last Federal Elections Commission filing, Thanedar reported taking in $7 million, with $4.9 million cash on hand. His closest opponent, Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters, raised just $153,000. Around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, Thanedar was reported to have taken 51% of the vote compared to Waters’ 35%.

When Thanedar won in 2022, it felt like a fluke. A nine-way race for an open seat split Black political leadership and Detroit voters, thrusting a wealthy businessman with no legislative experience into a spotlight he enjoyed, but hadn’t earned, and left Detroit without Black representation for the first time since pioneering Black Democrat Charles Diggs Jr. took office in 1955.

Thanedar seemed to be set for a rematch with former state Sen. Adam Hollier, who finished five points behind him in 2022. Hollier had amassed endorsements from dozens of Democratic elected officials - extremely rare when a Democratic incumbent is also running - but he botched the paperwork required to qualify for the ballot, leaving Thanedar, Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters and attorney Shakira Hawkins in a three-way contest. 

This election showed that the power of name recognition and well-financed campaigning – Thanedar is able to make personal appearances in neighborhoods across the district – can overcome an urgent push to restore Black representation in this district, even when the incumbent struggled with constituent services and legislative influence.

In the race’s final weeks, a shadowy political action committee launched a $1.5-million barrage of advertisements attacking Waters, including an assertion that she opposes same-sex marriage, which Waters, who has distributed pictures of herself at Pride Month celebrations, says is false.

The Free Press’ endorsement of Thanedar laid out a prescription for the representative, should he win office again: 

• Prioritize constituent services.    
• Hire a full complement of qualified staffers, pay them appropriately, and ensure interns and fellows have duties commensurate with their status.
• Ensure that all office functions and interactions comply with federal law and best practices of workplace management.   
• Build relationships with members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation who might be able to advise their junior colleague on sound management practices.   
• Understand the reasons for staff turnover, and correct internal culture problems that cause it.   
• Limit the use of budget dollars on advertising that could be spent on staff.
• Forge or repair relationships with local leaders.    

It’ll be interesting to see whether Thanedar builds a stronger reputation for effective representation over the next two years, or whether a united front mounts against him in 2026.

I didn't take Tea Party, Trump seriouslyNow I worry about the rise of authoritarianism.

Robust representative democracy, at least in August    

Despite a host of measures that make it easier for Michiganders to cast ballots — no reason absentee and early in-person voting — turnout remains anemic.

But August primary turnout rarely overwhelms. Early projections indicated that roughly 2 million Michiganders cast ballots. That's about 27% of the voting-age population — less than 2022, 2020 or 2018, but more than most previous August primaries. Still, even a record-busting 35% or 40% would mean significantly fewer than half of voting-age Michiganders participated.

It’s easy to sit out a primary, particularly one without any connection to the presidential race. But key races in the U.S. Congress and the state House of Representatives in heavily partisan districts were effectively decided in this election, by just three in 10 of the voting-age population.

Maybe voting in August isn’t a great idea. Detroit used to hold municipal primaries in September, after school started. It’s an idea the state ought to explore.

Nancy Kaffer is editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com. Khalil AlHajal is deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: kalhajal@freepress.com. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.