Updates About Legislature

A day after the July 4 holiday, State Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) announced she was ending her campaign for the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination. Throughout the winter and early spring, the race was widely seen as a three way race, with McMorrow initially leading in some polls, and briefly emerged as the front runner. McMorrow largely plotted herself in between the party establishment and the party’s left-wing. She refused to endorse either of her two opponents, instead saying she will endorse the primary winner.

Her primary opponents, U.S. Representative Haley Stevens (Birmingham), an establishment Democrat, and former public health official and epidemiologist Abdul El-Sayed (Ann Arbor), a populist progressive, will now battle for the nomination in what is still expected to be a closely contested primary.

A few days after McMorrow dropped out, Stevens and El-Sayed faced off in their first televised debate. Stevens emphasized her experience, legislative record, and her “workhorse” image. El-Sayed focused on corporate influence and the need for broader political change.

The primary election date is Tuesday, August 4.

A procedural mistake made during Lame Duck when nine passed bills were not presented to the Governor before concluding the 2023-2024 legislative session will finally be put to rest. While the 103rd Legislature was still settling in at the start of 2025, Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) made the strategic decision to refuse presenting to the Governor several bills passed during Lame Duck by the previous Democrat-majority House.

After more than a year of ambiguity, the Supreme Court announced last week that they will not be making a decision on the case, instead deferring to the Court of Appeals’ previous ruling. Under the lower court’s ruling, the Michigan House was required to present all nine bills to the Governor.

In a surprising twist, the Governor vetoed all nine bills on Friday. In her veto letter, Governor Gretchen Whitmer reasoned that the bills would create an administrative burden due to other conflicting laws that have since gone into effect, statutory deadlines that have expired, and fiscal impacts that were not accounted for in the newly passed FY 27 state budget.

The bills would have covered a range of issues, including requiring public employers to make greater contributions toward their employees’ health insurance, permission to seek a property tax millage for Detroit history museums, enter corrections officers into the State Police pension system, and offer protections for various public benefits from the threat of debt garnishment.

Related Articles: HOUSE MUST SEND 9 LEFTOVER BILLS FROM PREVIOUS LEGISLATURE TO THE GOVERNOR • SUPREME COURT: SENATE LAWSUIT OVER HOUSE BILLS WILL GO THROUGH USUAL LEGAL PROCESS • BRINKS SEEKS SUPREME COURT RULING AND MAKES SENATE RULE CHANGE IN ONGOING FIGHT OVER HOUSE BILLS • MICHIGAN HOUSE DECLINES TO SEND NINE BILLS TO GOVERNOR • SENATE DEMOCRATS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST SPEAKER HALL

President Donald Trump recently announced his endorsement of U.S. Representative John James’s campaign for Governor. Shortly following the endorsement, Michigan’s Republican Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt ended his campaign and endorsed James as well. The other Republican candidates, businessman Perry Johnson and former Attorney General Mike Cox, choose to remain in the race.

James has so far defended his early frontrunner status against the rest of the field, but it remains to be seen if Trump’s endorsement will help with Republican primary voters. The endorsement came as absentee ballots are beginning to reach voters ahead of the August primary. In recent GOP gubernatorial primaries in Georgia and Iowa, voters did not choose the President’s endorsed candidate.

After the endorsement, the James campaign shifted their focus away from his primary competitors, instead attacking likely Democratic opponent and current Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, as well as Governor Whitmer. Meanwhile, Cox criticized James’s statewide electability and loyalty to Trump, while Johnson pushed back against Trump’s endorsement.