Michigan 2016 Election Results

Michigan held its general election on November 8, 2016, deciding 110 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control. The Senate was not up for regular election this cycle.

Highlights

• Republicans held the House at 63-47, keeping full control of state government at the end of a year in which state party leaders had been sharply divided over Donald Trump as their presidential nominee.
• The House popular vote was close to a dead heat: Republican candidates out-polled Democrats by about 3,000 votes out of more than 4.5 million cast for the two parties, yet kept their majority. An Associated Press analysis of how many votes each party "wasted" under the map (the efficiency gap) put Michigan at 10.3 percent in Republicans' favor, among the highest in the country. Tim Greimel, the House Democratic leader that year, later told the news service the map made a Democratic majority far harder to win, adding, "that's the purpose of gerrymandering."
• In the House, 2 seats changed party, one in each direction, and 1 incumbent lost:
  • Joe Bellino (R) unseated Bill LaVoy (D) by about 8 points in House District 17.
  • Darrin Camilleri (D) beat Bob Howey (R) by about 320 votes for the open House District 23, a seat Republican Pat Somerville had held.
  The only other race decided by less than two points was House District 62, where John Bizon (R) held on by about 210 votes over Jim Haadsma (D).
• Two days after the election, House Republicans chose Tom Leonard for Speaker, and Democrats picked Sam Singh to succeed Greimel as minority leader. Straight-party voting stayed on the ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive the legislature's December 2015 repeal of it.

Legislature

• House (110 seats): 46 D, 61 R, 3 other or vacant before the election, 47 D, 63 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (38 seats): 11 D, 27 R before the election, 11 D, 27 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races