Former Sen. Tom Barrett flipped Michigan’s competitive 7th Congressional District from blue to red, defeating Democrat Curtis Hertel in Tuesday’s election.
With an estimated 99% of the votes, Barret had received 50% of the votes, while Hertel lagged behind with 47%. That’s based on unofficial results collected by The Associated Press, which called the race just after 4 a.m. Wednesday.
The race for the seat in the 7th District, which is anchored by Lansing but spans suburban and rural areas stretching from the state capital, was considered one of the most competitive congressional contests in Michigan, if not nationally, on heading into election season. It was left open when Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Holly decided to run for the open U.S. Senate seat.
Four years ago, the district’s vote broke by about 1 percentage point for then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump on Biden’s path to winning Michigan and the White House; four years earlier, Trump won there by about 4 points over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton when he won the state. So in this year’s close presidential election between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — and Slotkin, known for often doing better in elections than those at the top of her party’s ticket who dropped out of the race — the seat widely considered a toss-up.
There was also talk of a contest between two former state legislators who previously served together.
Barrett, of Charlotte, is a former Army helicopter pilot who served one term in the Senate and has cast herself as a conservative counterpart to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing that she exceeded her authority by ordering closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting what he viewed as wasteful donations to favored companies. He ran against Slotkin two years ago in what was then a newly formed U.S. House district, losing 52%-46%.
The theory underlying the election was that Barrett had a better chance against Hertel, an East Lansing Democrat who comes from a well-connected political family in Michigan and who has spent most of his adult working life in politics spent. There was also the fact that 2022 was a good year for Michigan Democrats, especially since the vote included a popular amendment to the state constitution that protected abortion rights, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier that year to uphold the guarantees in Roe vs. 1973 Wade case. .
Hertel, meanwhile, has worked to portray himself as a force for bipartisanship and compromise in a divided Washington, noting that he has helped broker deals to cut the state pension tax and other taxes on middle-class families, and that he has long been a supporter of organized labor. . He has also tried to cast doubt on Barrett’s pledge that he would do nothing in Congress to restrict abortion rights in a way that violates state constitutional protections, after previously being a staunch opponent of abortion.
Both parties saw the race as one that could determine who will have the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives next year. As of this weekend, it was one of the ten most expensive races in the country, with the website Open Secrets, which tracks political spending, showing that outside groups had poured more than $27 million into the race, of which about $14.7 million dollar has been spent on the race. spent on Barrett’s election.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Barrett wins 7th Congressional District race
