Off to the races
This is by no means a comprehensive round-up of results from yesterday’s primary in Michigan but just a look at some of the races that I’ve been writing about here at Eclectablog and others that I’m interested in, in general.
Starting with the U.S. Senatorial race, Pete Hoekstra won handily which surprises exactly nobody. He got 54% of the vote in a field of four candidates. His nearest competitor was Clark Durant at 34%.
On the west side of the state, in MI-03 Steve Pestka bested my friend Trevor Thomas in a hotly contested race between an establishment Democrat (Pestka) and a young upstart (Thomas.) Pestka got 59% of the vote.
In MI-06, Fred Upton handily beat Jack Hoogendyk, proving that money and incumbency CAN overcome tea party fervor.
In my district, MI-07, Kurt Haskell crushed Ruben Marquez who didn’t really run even though he was on the ticket. He got on in a last-ditch effort right before the deadline and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing between then and the primary. Dude didn’t even have a website. His 20-something son who is running for a state seat had a website but Marquez himself, running for a federal Congressional seat, did not. Haskell is sure to be run over by the Tim Walberg/Americans for Prosperity bus in November.
In the race to fill Thad McCotter’s seat in MI-11, Kerry Bentivolio won 2/3 of the vote against write-in candidates on the Republican side and Syed Taj got 59% to win the Democratic primary.
John Dingell (MI-12) and John Conyers (MI-13) both crushed their opposition. Conyers managed to get 55% of the vote and there were five candidates!
Looking at the U.S. Congressional races, Gary Peters won a decisive win for the newly-redrawn 14th Congressional district. He won 47% of the vote in a crowded race of five candidates. Hansen Clarke came in second with 35% of the vote. Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence got 13%.
Looking at a few of the state races, Rashida Tlaib won out over Maureen Stapleton in Democratic race in District 6. Recall that Stapleton got the kiss of death when the anti-teacher group Students First endorsed her causing the UAW to withdraw their endorsement.
In District 11, David Knezek left fake Democrat Cody Bailey in the dust, beating him 50% to 21%. Bailey got only 1% more than his nearest competitor Dorothy Webb Grady who was nearly invisible in this race, at least outside of the district.
In the newly-redrawn District 28, Jon Switalski crushed conservadem Lesia Liss 65% to 35%.
Locally, my friend Adam Zemke won his primary for District 55 by a 2-to-1 margin.
In District 64, Barb Shelton blew by Ruben Marquez II, getting 77% of the vote. Marquez’ father is the guy who “ran” in MI-07 for U.S. Congress but couldn’t be arsed to even put up a website.
In District 76, corrupt fraud Roy Schmidt squeaked out a 817-vote win over write in candidate Bing Goei, winning 3,299 to 2,482. On the Democratic side, Winnie Banks secured enough votes to be on the November ballot.
Up in Traverse City in District 104, my friend Betsy Coffia won her Democratic primary. A relative newcomer to politics, she ran a very aggressive social media campaign and is a true progressive for that area.
Here in Washtenaw County, the race for Circuit Court resulted in fake Democrat Jim Fink winning with 41.4% of the vote and Carol Kuhnke coming in second with 29.8% of the vote. Considering that Fink was the only Republican in the race with four candidates, Kuhnke’s result is quite impressive.
And, to finish up, I won my race for precinct delegate in Scio Township against Ry Tin, crushing him 49 votes to zero.
