2024 Michigan Supreme Court race: Who’s running and why it matters

Two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court are up for grabs in the 2024 general election, meaning voters will have the chance to select who will be making decisions about some of the most consequential issues for people in the state.

Justice David Viviano announced earlier this year that he would retire from the bench when his term ends on Dec. 31. The election for his seat is for a full eight-year term. Justice Kyra Harris Bolden was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022 to replace Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, who resigned from the bench that year. Bolden must run for reelection to finish out her partial four-year term.

While Michigan Supreme Court justices are considered nonpartisan, they must be nominated by a state party convention to get on the ballot. The Michigan Democratic Party has already thrown its weight behind Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thomas, a University of Michigan law professor, to fill the open seats on the court. The Michigan Republican Party will choose who to endorse at its state convention on Aug. 24.

The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the state and the court of last resort on questions about how significant legislation should be applied, such as in a recent case on increasing Michigan’s hourly minimum wage.

Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court: Democratic Gov. Whitmer appointed one justice; voters selected three justices who were nominated as candidates by the Democratic Party; and three justices were appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Depending on the outcome of this year’s election, the court will have either a 5-2 Democratic majority or a 4-3 Republican majority.

These are the candidates running for seats on the Michigan Supreme Court:

Matthew DePerno

DePerno is a Republican attorney from Kalamazoo who gained political prominence after promoting baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

DePerno is facing four felony criminal charges in connection with an alleged plot by conservatives to breach voting machines in search of evidence of what they claimed was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. He’s also in the midst of defending himself against professional misconduct charges that could have an impact on his ability to serve on the bench if elected this fall in a race against Bolden, according to reporting by Bridge Michigan.

Alexandria Taylor

Taylor, a Romulus lawyer, is running for the Republican nomination to challenge Bolden. She is a former member of the Michigan Democratic Party, but left the party in 2019. In 2023, Taylor was among a group facing over $58,000 in sanctions for claiming, without evidence, that there was misconduct in Detroit’s election the year prior.

Taylor previously worked as city attorney for Woodhaven and Allen Park. She was also a clerk for Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly. She’s operated her own law firm in downtown Detroit since 2015, and recently became an adjunct professor at her alma mater, the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

Patrick William O’ Grady

O’Grady has served on the 15th Circuit Court in Branch County since 2008, most recently serving as the court’s chief judge. During his tenure, he has presided over 14,000 cases, according to his campaign website. He’s seeking the Republican nomination to run against Bolden.

O’Grady discussed bringing his “Christian worldview” to the role of justice during a candidate forum in Livingston County on Aug. 8. and called conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an “incredible man.”

Mark Boonstra

Boonstra is a Michigan Court of Appeals judge who has served on the bench since 2012. 

In 2021, Boonstra, who is running for the seat being vacated by Viviano, refused to refer to the defendant in a case over which he was presiding by the defendant’s chosen pronouns, leading to the state Supreme Court adopting a rule requiring state courts to use a person’s preferred pronouns.

Boonstra has said he opposes abortion. During the August candidate forum, he said he could use some “creative lawyering” to ensure he was still abiding by the constitutional amendment that protects abortion access in the state.

Kimberly Ann Thomas

Thomas, the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Viviano, is a trial and appellate lawyer who currently works as a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. She runs the university’s Juvenile Justice Clinic, where law school students represent minors and those who were convicted as minors and are serving life sentences.

In 2021, Whitmer appointed Thomas to the Michigan Task Force on Juvenile Justice Reform, on which she helped to evaluate and create an assessment of the state’s justice system for children and teens. In addition to receiving an endorsement from the Michigan Democratic Party, Thomas has also been endorsed in the Supreme Court race by Planned Parenthood of Michigan and Reproductive Freedom for All.

Andrew Fink

Fink was first elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2020, and has served as the Republican vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs. Before the state repealed its abortion ban last year, Fink argued in favor of keeping the 1931 law on the books. 

Prior to joining the state Legislature, Fink served in the military. He’s seeking the Republican nomination for Viviano’s seat.

Kyra Harris Bolden

Bolden became the first Black woman to serve as a Michigan Supreme Court justice when Gov. Whitmer appointed her to the seat left vacant by McCormack in January 2023. Since then, she has authored six majority opinions, one being unanimous.

She was previously elected to the Michigan House of Representatives, where she served on the House Judiciary Committee and passed legislation on criminal justice reform.