DETROIT — Michigan Democrats recaptured the state House and expanded their majority in the state Senate amid a nationwide rout of Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 midterm election.

Michigan House Democrats said they believed they had won 63 seats, meaning the breakdown in the chamber would be 63-47 for the next two years.

And, in the state Senate, Democrats are expected to expand their majority from 20-18 to 23-15. Democrats won control of the Senate for the first time in nearly 40 years in 2022. But their caucus is going to be larger after the 2026 election, going from 20 members to 23 members.

The last time Michigan Democrats won at least 86 combined seats in the Legislature in an election was 1978, according to Bill Ballenger, a longtime Michigan political observer and former lawmaker.

Combined with Democratic Gov.-elect Jocelyn Benson’s win Tuesday, Democrats have once again claimed trifecta control of the executive office and the two legislative chambers. The party also maintained control of the secretary of state and attorney general offices.

At an election night party in Detroit, Michigan state House Democratic Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, called the results a “blue tsunami.” State Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, labeled Puri the next House speaker. House Democrats will pick their leader for the next two years on Thursday.

“For the last two years in which I’ve served in the Michigan House as the minority leader. … I’ve watched the institution be driven into the ground,” Puri said. “I’ve watched health care be ripped away from our sick. I’ve watched food and benefits taken away from our needy. And I’ve watched tax cuts to billionaire corporations. The people of Michigan spoke up tonight and said they had enough.”

Puri yelled the word “trifecta” at the end of his speech and said House Democrats would drive down costs and protect the state from “chaos” in Washington, D.C.

The House Democratic majority picked up seats across the state, in the Jackson, Rochester Hills, Lake Orion, Grand Blanc, and Holland areas.

The Senate Democratic majority picked up three seats, with two of those in west Michigan and one in Oakland County.

“Every one of our candidates left it all on the field and because of their hard work, Michiganders will have an expanded majority in the state Senate that’s ready to deliver even more progress for the people of our state,” said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Trenton Democrat who chairs the Senate Democratic Fund.

State Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn, said voters’ decisions on Nov. 3 called for actions from Democrats who would take power in Lansing.

“It’s a mandate from the working families of our state to aggressively to tackle the cost of living crisis that they’re facing, stand up to draconian cuts in D.C. and the greed we’re seeing on display there,” Farhat said. “It’s a mandate to lead and to be bold in our ideas.

“And it’s a mandate from the people to reject special interests.”

Brandon Dillon, former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, noted that in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Republicans won 63 seats in the state House. That’s the same number Democrats won in the chamber this year.

“Donald Trump is a historically unpopular president, and this was a total repudiation of everything going on there,” Dillon said.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee celebrated the House flip and the return of a Democratic trifecta in Lansing in a statement in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 4.

“The path to federal power, including the presidency, runs straight through Michigan,” said DLCC President Heather Williams. “With Democrats at the helm in the statehouse, we have created a bulwark against the chaos of the Trump administration and a critical safeguard for our democracy.”

House Democrats held a slim 56-54 majority in the lower chamber in 2023 and 2024, the last time Democrats held a trifecta in Lansing. They lost that majority in 2024, when President Donald Trump won Michigan, and Republicans took a 58-52 hold of the House.

That GOP majority was demolished Tuesday.

The blue wave carved its way through Oakland County, touched down in Genesee County, and appeared to have picked off seats in tight districts in Jackson and Battle Creek.

Here are some of the districts that flipped

Rochester Hills Republican state Rep. Mark Tisdel was unseated by Democrat Alex Hawkins, losing by nearly 4 percentage points, according to unofficial results from Oakland County. Tisdel, who served for three terms in the House, won his 2024 race by 7.5 percentage points.

Democrats picked up another Oakland County seat previously held by GOP state Rep. Donni Steele. Democrat Sarah Pounds of Lake Orion declared victory over Republican Roman Gaskey of Lake Orion and Gaskey, around 8 a.m. Wednesday, conceded. She had a nearly 6-percentage-point lead, according to unofficial Oakland County results.

In a third Oakland County race, GOP state Rep. Tom Kuhn of Troy appears to have fallen a few hundred votes short of victory. Democrat Tom Turner will take Kuhn’s place in the 57th House District. Kuhn won his race in 2024 by 14.5 percentage points.

Democrat Joseph McClusky of Holland declared victory over three-term Republican state Rep. Nancy DeBoer of Holland in a stunning sign of west Michigan’s continued drift left. In 2024, DeBoer won that seat by 12 points, 56%-44% over her Democratic opponent.

Democrat Matt Schlinker of Goodrich beat three-term Republican state Rep. Dave Martin of Davison by five points, 51% to 46%, according to Genesee County unofficial results. Martin won the district in 2024 against Schlinker by 9 percentage points, 54.5% to 45.5%.

First-term Republican state Rep. Steve Frisbie of Pennfield Township, who won his race in 2024 by 79 votes, was beaten by former Democratic state Rep. Jim Haadsma. Haadsma won Tuesday night by 7 percentage points to win another term in the state House, according to unofficial Calhoun County results.

Democrat Jan Maino of Jackson declared victory over Republican Rep. Kathy Schmaltz of Jackson in the 46th House District. Schmaltz, who is serving her second term, won her race by nearly 9 percentage points in 2022 and by roughly four percentage points in 2024.

Democratic former state Rep. Jaime Churches of Wyandotte appears poised to return to the House for a second term after GOP state Rep. Rylee Linting of Grosse Ile flipped her district in 2024. Churches declared victory over Linting in a social media post Wednesday morning.

In Marquette, Democrat Anna Aho Rink of Marquette appears to have declared victory over first-term Republican state Rep. Karl Bohnak of Deerton in the 109th District.

In the Senate, Democrats claimed three flipped seats in statements early Wednesday morning.

Michigan Senate Democrats said state Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker, had defeated state Sen. Mark Huizenga, R-Walker, and Troy City Councilwoman Theresa Brooks, a Democrat, beat state Sen. Mike Webber, R-Rochester Hills.

Both Huizenga and Webber have been prominent figures in Lansing and their GOP caucus.

According to Senate Democrats, the third Democratic pickup was in the Muskegon area where Democrat Rebecca Amidon of Manistee County beat Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole for an open seat that Republicans had held.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

cmauger@detroitnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan Democrats ride ‘blue tsunami’ to control in Lansing

Reporting by Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

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