DETROIT (AP) — Between redistricting and incumbents opting out of reelection, four Michigan congressional seats are prime targets as the parties battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Republicans are trying to flip two open congressional seats in central Michigan as the GOP tries to expand its majority.
The two vacated seats were reapportioned in 2021, yielding Democratic victories in the midterm elections. Now this year’s races are real tossups and among the most competitive in the country, with millions of dollars poured into the campaigns.
8th Congressional District
After longtime Democrat Dan Kildee announced he would not seek re-election in Michigan’s 8th District, Republicans saw the opportunity to turn the seat red for the first time in decades. Kildee had served since 2012 when he succeeded his uncle Dale Kildee, who represented the area, including the cities of Flint and Saginaw, in Congress for 36 years.
For Republicans, former Trump administration news anchor and immigration official Paul Junge is making his third bid for Congress after losing to the younger Kildee by about 10 points in 2022.
Junge appealed to voters due to economic and immigration issues. He also attacked Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet over national security and tried to tie her to a China-based battery manufacturing company that wants to build in Michigan and has been a target for Republicans.
McDonald Rivet, a freshman senator, portrayed Junge as a California outsider and cast himself as a middle-class pragmatist. She focused her message on preserving reproductive rights and, like her opponent, on the economy.
7th Congressional District
In the 7th District in central Michigan, former state legislator Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett, sought for the seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
Slotkin, the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat, narrowly defeated Barrett in the 2022 midterm elections for the district that includes the state capital Lansing and surrounding rural areas.
Hertel, a former state senator and more recently the governor’s legislative director, was portrayed as a “regular guy” in an ad campaign in which he grills out, takes out the trash and gets ready to mow a yard. He has labeled Barrett an anti-abortion extremist, but in an effort to reach Republican voters he has also criticized Democrats over immigration.
Barrett, in turn, has appealed to voters’ concerns about inflation and attacked Hertel on national security issues. A former state representative, senator and military veteran, he has run ads highlighting his background as a helicopter pilot.
3rd Congressional District
The open seats are the most contested in the state, but two other congressional seats have drawn the attention of national parties.
Hillary Scholten became the first Democrat to represent the city of Grand Rapids in the U.S. House since the 1970s when she won Michigan’s newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District in 2022. But surrounding Kent County has many Republican voters. The county went for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. The Republican ticket targeted the county with five visits in 2024 between Vance and Trump.
Scholten faces Republican Paul Hudson, who lost a bid for the Michigan Supreme Court in 2022.
10th Congressional District
Voters in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District — which includes the all-important Macomb County suburbs north of Detroit — will decide a rematch between incumbent Republican Rep. John James and Democrat Carl Marlinga.
Marlinga lost in 2022 by just 1,600 votes, and the district is now seen as competitive and attracting money and attention from Democratic national groups.
