McDonald Rivet congressional win leaves Michigan state Senate seat vacant

Democratic state Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet won her 2024 bid to represent Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, besting her opponent, Republican former television news anchor and prosecutor Paul Junge.

McDonald Rivet’s victory means her state Senate district seat will be vacant for the time being, leaving Democrats in the upper chamber with just a one-seat majority going into the new year.

According to unofficial election results from the Michigan secretary of state, McDonald Rivet received 51.25% of votes on Nov. 5, while Junge received 44.61%.

“We energized a broad coalition of tens of thousands who believe in our ability to deliver the real results that working families need. To lower costs, bring good-paying jobs to mid-Michigan, protect our hard-earned rights, and more, I am excited to go to Congress and get to work,” McDonald Rivet said on social media following her win.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee announced last November he would not be seeking reelection to represent the mid-Michigan district after being diagnosed with cancer. He said in a social media post on Nov. 12 that McDonald Rivet “will be a pragmatic voice fighting for mid-Michigan’s working families in Congress.”

McDonald Rivet will begin her two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives after she’s sworn in on Jan. 3. She was first elected to represent Michigan’s 35th state Senate District in 2022, only partially serving her four-year term before announcing her candidacy for the U.S. House earlier this year.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is now tasked with calling a special election to fill the empty Senate seat. She hadn’t publicly commented on what a timeline for the election would look like as of Nov. 19.

In McDonald Rivet’s absence, Senate Democrats’ 20-18 majority will drop by one seat. The 35th Senate District, which encompasses parts of Bay, Midland, and Saginaw counties, leaned reliably Republican until 2022. Democrats have a chance to regain the district, but if a Republican is elected to the seat, the upper chamber will become evenly split between the two parties. If that were to happen and votes on legislation were deadlocked, Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, in his role as president of the Senate, would cast the deciding vote.

Democrats have controlled Michigan’s government since they swept the 2022 midterm elections and gained control of the Senate and the House and Whitmer was reelected.

The House, however, will undergo a leadership change in the new term after Republicans won a majority of the lower chamber’s 110 seats in the November general election. The new House majority could potentially stall the passage of legislation for the next two years, regardless of the outcome of the special election. Michigan’s 38 Senate seats and the governor’s office won’t be on the ballot again until 2026.

“I strongly believe that the work done in state legislatures has the capacity to create the most direct impact on people’s lives,” Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks said in a Nov. 6 statement. “We proved that to be true: in the past two years of our historic trifecta, Democrats have shown that we can accomplish an aggressive agenda that improves the lives and futures of all residents. Unfortunately, yesterday’s results did not break in our favor. But no matter which party holds the gavel, our charge from the people of Michigan remains the same, and my commitment to delivering for the people of our state is steadfast.”