Jan. 16, 2026 | This Week in Government: Hall Highlights 2026 Priorities

An hour before the House gaveled into session for the first time in 2026 on Wednesday, House Speaker Matt Hall laid out his priorities for the year at a press conference.

House Republicans will be focused on affordability this year, Hall, R-Richland Township, said.

Reducing property taxes is one of the ways Hall said Republicans would like to make life more affordable for Michigan residents.

“People are facing a real challenge with affording their property taxes,” he said. “You want to buy a new house, but you can’t because your property tax was doubled. … To make life more affordable, we’re going to propose legislation or a constitutional amendment.”

Health care affordability is another topic Hall said House Republicans wanted to address.

“As we approach this year, you’re going to see House Republicans take action,” he said. “We’re going to take on the drug companies. We’re going to take on the insurances, and we’re going to take on the hospitals and these health systems, which have gotten way too big.”

Hall said he wanted to focus on increasing funding for rural hospitals.

“We want our rural hospitals to be very vibrant,” he said. “We want them to provide great care and access to people in rural communities, and we’ll be watching them very closely this year.”

Another priority for the coming year, Hall said, was making changes to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.

“A really modern JCAR, fixing JCAR to put more teeth in it so we can block a lot of these ridiculous regulations that are coming out of the administration,” Hall said.

Regulatory reform and lowering the cost of energy will also continue to be a priority for House Republicans, Hall said. He also said House Republicans were willing to work with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on literacy.

“We’re excited to hit the ground, working with Gov. Whitmer to do these things,” Hall said. “I don’t care if it’s an election year, we’re going to take risks. We’re going to do big things.”

Still, Hall said he hoped to beat the record set last year by the Legislature for fewest bills signed into law.

Hall also briefly discussed work project funding.

In December, the House Appropriations Committee unilaterally cut about $645 million in work projects. Senate Democrats asked Attorney General Dana Nessel whether the law House Republicans applied was constitutional, and Nessel provided an opinion saying it was not. Last Friday, House Republicans filed a lawsuit against the state departments to prevent them from sending out the disapproved work project money.

A hearing in the case, House v. Department of Technology, Management and Budget et. al., is scheduled for Friday.

Hall said the House is still considering a supplemental, despite the pending litigation.

“Once we hopefully get the (temporary restraining order) and we get a preliminary injunction, then we’ll go back to negotiating a supplemental, but we’ll know more Friday.”

With the January Consensus Estimating Revenue Conference scheduled for Friday, Hall also addressed the upcoming start of the budget process for the 2026-27 fiscal year. He said he anticipated the numbers showing that state revenue is down.

“I think people are going to be very happy, if that holds, that we cut hundreds of millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, and we’re holding it in General Fund to potentially allocate to fill holes next year,” Hall said.

Michigan’s 15 public universities generated a net of $45 billion in new economic activity during fiscal year 2024, which is nearly 28 times the $1.6 billion the amount they receive in state appropriation dollars, according to a new report from the Michigan Association of State Universities.

The $45 billion represents 6% of the state’s gross domestic product overall.

Dan Hurley, president of the association, highlighted some of the report’s findings at a roundtable on Tuesday, including the 129,000 jobs supported statewide. Of those, almost 64,000 of those are net new and 97,000 are faculty and staff residing in the state.

Around 1.6 billion Michigan public universities alumni stayed in the state after-graduation, according to the report, which produces an estimated $89 billion in post-tax income and more than $7.1 billion in state tax revenue.

“The bottom line that we want to send today, especially to our friends in the executive branch of state government and the legislature –all of our state leaders –is that investing in public universities is not just good education policy, it is smart high return economic policy,” Hurley said. “It strengthens Michigan’s workforce, stabilizes local economies, attracts outside dollars, and positions the state to compete nationally and globally for talent, innovation, and growth.”

When addressing the influence of the state’s one-time 3% boost in higher education funds in the latest fiscal year budget, Hurley emphasized that the funding is only “one-time.”

He said although the universities appreciate the funding, the reality is that 85% of the money is expended on employee wages and benefits Ideally, he said, next fiscal year, that bump in funding would be rolled into the base funding, with additional support.

The report, Hurley said, is an amplification effort on the return on investment students are giving back to the state, as Michigan is still 41st in the state for per student support in public universities.

Hurley said it is “the role of the state government to make sure that college remains affordable.”

Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz, who is also the chair of the Research Universities for Michigan board, said the appropriation is critical to their mission to keep tuition as low as possible in the face of growing concern that cost of attendance is pushing people away from higher education.

During the latest budget cycle, the House Republican higher education budget tried to push money away from larger research universities toward regional schools.  Hurley said this was just an effort by one caucus in one chamber, which he believes is a “distinct minority” in the entire state government circle.

Guskiewicz said the state’s research universities conduct $3.5 billion in academic research, and MSU on its own generates around $6.8 billion in net new economic activity, the university announced Tuesday (editor’s note: this story has been changed to correct amount of MSU’s economic activity).

Brian Peters, Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said the universities’ commitment to research and workforce is important to the healthcare sector, the largest industry in the state, because the current workers are aging and the caseload is growing.

Although 58,000 Michiganders were hired in healthcare in 2024, there are still 23,000 openings, Peters said, which shows the need to expand the talent pipeline from the universities.

However, students right out of college are facing issues finding a job. Guskiewicz said universities may need to get out and talk to industry leaders more to see what gaps recent college graduates may not be filling to fix that employability issue.

Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Research Universities for Michigan, said the job search issue is not a new challenge. It may be exacerbated in this current economic cycle, but it’s not new, she said, and universities have been working with industries to start work pipelines like internships for a long time.

Hurley said although the narratives on underemployment in recent graduates may seem turbulent, the earnings premium in the state continues to grow, with 84% of the highest-wage jobs requiring at least a four-year degree.

Michigan also continues to experience a population drain as young people leave the state after graduation. Philomena Mantella, president of Grand Valley State University, said there is reason for optimism, though. Demographics alone still show a declining market, but newer pipelines being built by the state, like Michigan Reconnect and other higher education programs, are reeling in new people, which means there is potential for an increasing market.

Counsel for state departments is arguing against the temporary restraining order requested by the House Republicans in their lawsuit against Attorney General Dana Nessel’s opinion on work projects, which would halt funds being returned to the departments.

The House is calling for a preliminary injunction to block the funding at their hearing on Friday morning in front of Judge Michael Gadola in the Court of Claims.

The state, representing all departments affected except for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, argued that the House’s belief that the executive office’s work-project designations is “an unlawful raid on the State Treasury” is misguided because “every dollar at issue was already appropriated by the Legislature.”

The House claimed in the suit their actions were not legislative in nature, looking to sidestep the bicameralism and presentment requirements of legislative action. But the state pushed against this argument.

“(The House) suggests that the committee’s lack of deliberation in its five-minute meeting somehow strips its action of legislative character. But disapproving $645 million in appropriations with one’s eyes closed is still a determination of public policy—just an unreasoned one,” the state’s counsel wrote in its filing.

The state said the House’s claim that the committee’s actions cannot be considered policy determination because the committee did not take testimony was “surprising” as it just proves the House “gave no consideration to the effect of its disapproval.”

The House has “fundamentally misconstrued” the law, the state said, the lawsuit not being centered on retaining appropriations power but about one committee trying to exercise control after their role in the process ended. The committee did not preserve status quo, the argument said, but it rather intruded on the executive’s ability to execute the law.

The argument also highlights that the House did not allege the designations did not identify specific purposes in the work projects, saying that the projects are then above board on being renewed.

The argument also backs up Nessel’s opinion, saying the state Constitution supersedes the law that allows unicameral disapproval without an emergency revenue backlog.

“That the framers created this limited exception, and no other, speaks volumes. If they had intended a single committee to wield veto power over the executive’s implementation of duly enacted appropriations, they would have said so,” the argument said.

The House also argued in its complaint that if the disapproval mechanism is unconstitutional, then so is the designation process to the State Budget Office. Nessel provided in her opinion that this could be severed from the rest of the law.

The State Budget Office concurred with Nessel’s opinion.

Overall, the departments say it would be against public interest to pause the funding.

The state also claims the House has not proved that its members would be harmed by the opinion’s consequences, because it cannot suffer harm “from the loss of an unconstitutional power.”

In the House’s response, filed on Thursday in response to the state’s denial request, the House says it is entitled to relief and that if Nessel is correct that the Legislature’s disapproval is invalid, then so is the governor use of unspent work project money in future fiscal years.

The House repeated their arguments from the original lawsuit, saying the committee reinforced the same legislative judgment as the whole Legislature did before during the budget process, and the opinion calling the move unconstitutional violates their window of 30 days to disapprove work project designations.

The House also backed up the loss the state denied in their response, saying past funds have built up $1.2 billion in interest in extensions. The House said the departments should have just spent the money by the end of the year.

The MEDC, the corporation in charge of disbursing $104 million of the funding, argued in their own separate filing to still hand over the $645 million in work project funds to the departments as not “to impair existing contracts and harm public interest.”

The MEDC said in their response to the lawsuit that $92 million had already been contracted or spent to “strengthen Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, improve community infrastructure, and attract and retain talent in Michigan.”

Disapproved MEDC projects include $4 million for the Michigan Innovation Fund, $1.6 million in infrastructure grants, $4 million for talent and growth, $2 million for Agricultural Tourism Hub Redevelopment, and $150,000 for downtown development.

However, the MEDC said the House had their math wrong on the amounts they disapproved under the fiscal year 2025 estimates, claiming to disapprove $104 million in MEDC grants, when only $11 million was subject to that disapproval vote, the other funds already being previously approved.

When asked about the House’s lawsuit at a roundtable event on Wednesday, Nessel said she stands by the arguments made in her opinion and that her Opinion Review Board has some of the best attorneys in the state.

“They spent a lengthy period of time over the holidays analyzing this case, and I think that our opinion will be upheld in the court, so I feel confident of it,” Nessel told reporters.

What better way to kick off the first month of the election year than with Gongwer News Service’s first edition of our 10 House seats with the greatest potential to flip to the other party in November?

Yes, it’s early.

The political parties continue to recruit candidates for key seats, with challengers unknown in some cases. Candidate quality matters, and the recruiting successes or failures could cause seats to move up or down the list.

It’s also unclear whether all House members who have not already declared their candidacies for other offices will run for reelection. Fourteen, so far, have announced runs for state Senate or Congress.

And there is the impossible-to-measure factor of how having the first credible candidate without party affiliation for governor in state history, former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, will affect voting patterns down the ballot.

But some early dynamics are coming into focus.

For one, there’s plenty of data from the last several election cycles to suggest which seats, particularly in a midterm election, will be competitive. For another, virtually every election held since President Donald Trump returned to the White House almost a year ago points to a traditional midterm where the president’s party struggles in the ensuing midterm. Democrats have overperformed in special elections and off-year elections across the nation.

Michigan Republicans, however, have a key element in their favor. Traditionally, for the past 40-plus years, the party not in power of the governor’s office has a strong year when the incumbent governor is not seeking reelection. Further, 2022 showed that more than national trends, which were split, midterms in Michigan are driven by what happens in the governor’s race and other Michigan-specific factors (Proposal 3 to legalize the right to an abortion).

Although strictly speaking, Democrats need to flip four seats to turn the 58-52 Republican majority into a 56-54 Democratic advantage. If the disaffected, estranged, and rebellious Democratic Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit runs for reelection and wins, it’s clear Democrats will need to flip five seats to have a functional majority. Anyone who watched the last two months of the 2023-24 House Democratic majority can attest as to what a Democratic caucus with the bare minimum 56 seats including Whitsett would look like.

With all that in mind, here’s what we see at this point with the election a little less than 10 months away.

1. Open Steele seat in Oakland should be ground zero: Had Rep. Donni Steele, R-Orion Township, opted to seek a third term in the House instead of running for the Senate, this seat would have been much farther down the list. But when you combine the open seat nature of the district with its underlying 50/50 numbers and the general trend toward the Democrats in Oakland County with the overall national pattern for Democrats, this is the obvious first choice.

Now, it should be said, a big chunk of this district is north of M-59. And in Oakland County, most of the territory north of M-59 is still Republican Country. Communities in the southern part of the county like Farmington Hills, Novi, Birmingham, and Troy – all one-time Republican strongholds – swung Democratic at hyperspeed, in one or two election cycles. But as you get farther north in communities like Rochester, Rochester Hills, and Orion Township, the shift is much slower. To be sure, this isn’t the old days of the 1990s when Republicans would clear 70% of the vote. But these are less racially diverse communities than those to the south and thus slower to change politically.

Steele won the seat by 4.8 percentage points in 2024, up from her first win in 2022, by 2.3 points. What’s interesting about that is the seat swung wildly at the statewide level, from Whitmer +10 in the 2022 governor’s race to Trump +1 in the presidential race. Further, now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin won her 2024 race by 0.16 point. This was a Biden +2 seat in 2020 and Whitmer +1 in 2018. Bottom line, the underlying data indicates this is a 50/50 district, and even a blowout at the top of the ticket will barely nudge what happens below.

Two candidates have formed committees so far, Sarah Pounds of Lake Orion for the Democrats and Roman Gaskey of Orion Township for the Republicans. Pounds is a paralegal who has an active campaign presence online. Gaskey is a recent college graduate who also has an active online presence. There’s a significant number of elected Republicans locally. but none so far has taken the plunge.

2. Frisbie-Haadsma rematch has all the makings of a slugfest:It was the closest race among the 110 House seats in 2024 where now-Rep. Steve Frisbie, a Battle Creek Republican, unseated then-Rep. Jim Haadsma, a Battle Creek Democrat, by 79 votes, a 0.18 percentage point difference. Haadsma is back for a rematch.

The district with Battle Creek stands alone as one that was competitive 40 years ago and remains competitive today. It flipped from Republicans to Democrats in 1996, to Republicans in 2002, back to Democrats in 2008, to Republicans in 2014, back to Democrats in 2018 (when Haadsma won) and finally back to Republicans in 2024. It’s been immune to the types of demographic changes that turned once 50/50 seats in rural areas into solidly Republican turf and once reliably Republican suburban seats into solidly Democratic ones.

But there are some signs that Democrats are struggling to hang on here. The percentage of residents with college degrees is dropping. And although Battle Creek and Albion retain large Black populations that vote heavily Democratic, the rural areas in Calhoun have shifted much more Republican.

This seat went from Trump +1 in 2020 to Trump +4 in 2024. Whitmer won it by 8 points in 2022, a little better than her 7-point win in 2018. Republican U.S. Senate candidates each won it by a couple points in 2020 and 2024.

Bottom line, this district is as competitive as ever, doesn’t swing as wildly between presidential and midterm elections as other seats and features the same candidates who essentially tied in 2024.

Buckle up.

3. Who takes on Linting? Rep. Rylee Linting, R-Wyandotte, didn’t just unseat Democratic Rep. Jaime Churches in 2024, she won by a solid margin for a challenger taking on an incumbent, 4.32 percentage points. Downriver has been shifting Republican for years, and Churches – unlike previous Democratic legislators – couldn’t buck the Trump tide from the top of the ticket.

This seat was Trump +8.5 in 2024 but, of note, Mike Rogers only carried it by 3.7 points over now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin. And it was Whitmer +11 in 2022. There’s a lot of ticket-splitters here, and of importance, Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, will be on the ballot. No Downriver Democrat has threaded the needle better on how to balance a liberal voting record with the door-to-door and constituent work that satisfies voters he’s working hard for them even if they may not agree with him on every flashpoint issue.

The question is who carries the flag for Democrats. Churches still has $72,000 in her campaign account, a great starting point if she seeks a rematch. But there’s no indication she’s going for it yet (she had raised no new money in 2025 as of Oct. 20 and has not updated her campaign website since losing to Linting).

Republican concerns about a Democratic challenge to Linting are clear. No one in the House Republican Caucus publicly crosses House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, like Linting did, without consequences, unless Hall has given them a green light to do it. Linting was outspokenly critical of the $645 million in work project cuts, a move by House Republicans that’s a serious liability to their vulnerable incumbents who topped Democrats in 2024 (Democrats put funding into those projects to prop up their members in those seats).

The severity of the threat to Linting won’t be clear until an opponent emerges, but there are enough factors on paper here to put it high on the list.

4. Does Miller run? Did Republicans already miss their chance?No Democrat won reelection in 2024 by less than Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township. Her 1.28 percentage point win was the second closest margin among the 110 seats.

Miller topped Dale Biniecki twice, in 2022 and 2024, and Republicans are likely getting a new face this time. Laura Perry of Petersburg began running relatively early in 2025 and has been laying the groundwork. As of Oct. 20, 2025, she already had more than $50,000 in her campaign account. A business owner, Perry will give Miller a new look for an opponent.

It’s an unusual district that combines deep blue areas of southwest Wayne County, like Belleville and Van Buren Township, with deep red rural areas in northwest Monroe plus purple southeast Washtenaw counties.

Trump was a big factor here in 2024 as the district went from Biden +1 in 2020 to Trump +2. But it was Slotkin +1.4. Whitmer won it by 11 in 2022 and 13 in 2018. One reason we kept this relatively high on our 2024 list was because of Trump’s unique ability to motivate low propensity voters in the rural areas of the seat. He’s not on the ballot in 2026 to replicate that.

The first question that needs to be answered is whether Miller will seek a third term. Her 2025 fundraising was unimpressive. As of Oct. 20, 2023, she had raised $107,000 during the year and had $87,000 on hand. As of Oct. 20, 2025, she had raised only $23,000 for the year. She did have almost $80,000 on hand, but the fundraising drop-off is something to watch.

Miller had some health issues that caused her to miss session late in 2024, but those didn’t stop her from winning a second term nor reporting to work for the finals days when Democrats needed everyone there. Incumbency is a big advantage in this district that covers parts of four counties. No challenger can come close to Miller’s name recognition. Her reelection decision will be key.

5. Did Republicans already miss their chance to topple Mentzer?Yes, it’s a familiar refrain between Miller’s 31stDistrict and the 61st District held by Rep. Denise Mentzer, D-Mount Clemens. There were some questions about whether Mentzer would run again in 2024. She did – and won but barely, by 1.44 percentage points.

That tiny margin was despite Democrats spending millions on her and Republicans providing little to no support for their nominee. This was a Trump +5.5 district, though just Rogers +1.5.

Republicans have completely flopped on candidate recruitment here the last two elections. They need to find the equivalent of Rep. Ron Robinson, R-Utica, here. Republicans lost the nearby 58th District in 2020 and 2022 because they nominated fringe, weak candidates. Finally, in 2024, they found a good one in Robinson, and he flipped the seat.

This was a Whitmer +13 seat in 2022. Mentzer’s fundraising so far this cycle is weak, just $7,800 through Oct. 20, though she does have $45,000 on hand – not great, not terrible. Unlike Miller, Mentzer has filed paperwork to run.

On paper, given the 50/50 nature of this seat, and the fact that Mentzer has yet to face a legit Republican candidate backed by the full force of the House Republican Campaign Committee, this remains a top five seat.

Two Republicans from 2024 are back, with both Robert Wojtowicz and John Grossenbacher having filed already. Maybe Republicans will invest in Wojtowicz, who lost to Mentzer in 2024, this time around.

6. Can Marquette move 109thback to Dems?Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton, finally delivered the 109th House District to Republicans in 2024 when he defeated former Rep. Jenn Hill, D-Marquette, by 1,600 votes.

The 2026 election will be a test on whether the long-time Democratic stronghold in Marquette can reassert itself or if the 109th, like many other Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula districts, has made a seemingly permanent flip to the Republicans.

Democrats will certainly make a play to get the seat back. There is already a three-person Democratic primary in the district, including Marquette County Commissioner Dana LaLonde, Anna Aho Rink, a former physician’s assistant at the Marquette Planned Parenthood before it closed, and Gabriel Roydes.

Unlike the other U.P. seats, there’s still a very solid Democratic base of support, if reduced. This district was Harris +0.2 points, Slotkin +1 and Whitmer +12. Hill lost, in large part, because of Bohnak’s massive celebrity and popularity from his years as a TV weather forecaster.

Ordinarily, with a midterm spelling 10,000 fewer voters than 2024, that would be a challenge for Bohnak. But he ran more than 2 points ahead of Trump, so he’s less dependent on the president’s presence than other Republicans.

7. Schmaltz’s 46this still a 50/50 seat:Democrats have yet to capitalize on the 50/50 nature of the 46th House District seat that includes Jackson and the surrounding areas. But it is still a close seat on paper where Democrats can try again.

In 2024, Democrats had the Jackson mayor on the ballot and still weren’t able to win. Rep. Kathy Schmaltz, R-Jackson, won reelection by 4.1 points, despite massive Democratic spending. The environment won’t be as strong for Schmaltz in 2026, but it will still be tough to unseat her.

So far, one Democrat has filed to run here, Jacob Boswell of Jackson, a recent college graduate and software engineer.

This seat went from Trump +0.3 in 2020 to Trump +3. It was Whitmer +11 in 2022. It was drawn to be a 50/50 district, and it is, but Democrats have yet to find the right formula.

8. Witwer heading into ’26 with fewer troubles: Rep. Angela Witwer’s 76thHouse District is another that is close on paper, but the incumbent Delta Township Democrat has proven steady.

Heading into 2026, Witwer is the subject of fewer headlines that could serve as a campaign ad for an opponent, which is a plus for her. She has the upper hand with incumbency and the environment, but Republicans are likely to make a play here.

Republican Bill Kaiser of Lansing has filed to run here but has no social media presence.

This was Harris +0.1 and Slotkin +3, but Witwer won reelection by 4.2 points in another sign of her political strength.

9. The open Koleszar seat raises questions: Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, is running for Senate and leaving the 22ndHouse District open in 2026.

Dynamics have changed during Koleszar’s time in the House with his district trending more Democratic. Still, although he won with 54% of the vote in 2022, that decreased slightly to 52% in 2024. Livonia still has a lot of Republicans.

Being open in 2026 raises the question of what kind of candidates each side will recruit. So far, Democrats have Lisa McIntyre, a member of the Northville School Board (editor’s note: This story has been changed to reflect there is a Democratic candidate). There is no candidate on the Republican side, yet.

This seat was Harris +3.6, Slotkin +4 and Whitmer +14. Livonia also was Duggan’s longtime hometown before he moved to Detroit to run for mayor, though it’s unclear how a strong Duggan performance here could affect the rest of the ticket.

10. Was Xiong’s close call a fluke?Rep. Mai Xiong, D-Warren, cruised to the House via special election with 65% of the vote in April 2024 but then later that same year received 50.82% against the same Republican candidate under a wildly different looking district as a result of redistricting. She won by 4.6 points.

It was a closer-than-expected race in a seat that was considered a safe bet for the Democrats.

Xiong will have a full House term under her belt in the 13th District, and Republicans won’t have President Donald Trump on the ballot in 2026. Trump is a unique force in bringing out lower propensity voters in Macomb County. This district was Trump +1 in 2024 and Whitmer +19 in 2022. It’s hard to find a district anywhere else that swung so dramatically.

In another sign of Trump’s unique appeal in the area, it was Slotkin +3.

Republicans don’t have a filed candidate here yet. But the 2024 numbers should mean an increased focus on this seat from both sides, especially considering the ongoing feud between Xiong and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township.

Watchlist

Robinson in the 58th: The aforementioned Rep. Ron Robinson, R-Utica, feels like a safe bet for a second term despite having flipped his seat in 2024. He unseated a Democratic incumbent by more than 6 points. Yes, Trump won’t be on the ballot in 2026, but this is a Republican-tilting seat – Trump +12, Rogers +8. Katrina Manetta of Shelby Township has filed for the Democrats. We’re keeping an eye on it only because it’s Robinson’s first time defending the seat.

Tisdel in the 55th: No doubt, most Democratic strategies to find the seats they need for majority (five if Whitsett is back, four if she isn’t) involve the 55th District held by Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills. Rochester and Rochester Hills have become purple.

The problem for Democrats is four-fold. One, Tisdel fits the district in persona and politics. Two, Democrats are still building a bench here. Three, there’s a piece of heavily Republican Oakland Township that’s part of the district that is a great help to the GOP. Four, the Democratic gains here seem to have stalled some compared to other Oakland seats.

Consider the following: In 2012, the seat was +11 Romney. Then in 2016, it was +7 Trump. In 2020, it was +2 Biden. In 2024, it was +0.5 Trump.

Compare that to other onetime Republican districts in Oakland like 21st District in the Novi area (+2 Romney, +5 Clinton, +8 Biden, +13 Biden) or the 56th in Troy (+2 Romney, +4 Clinton, +16 Biden, +14 Biden).

Tisdel won by more than 7 points in 2024. Democrats have several candidates in Alex Hawkins, Jim McMahon,l and Rhonda Yates. Tisdel overcame the top of the ticket losing in 2020 and 2022 and then won huge in 2024 once he had some wind at his back, even if light.

It’s tough sledding for the Democrats. But it’s a Republican seat in Oakland County, so it’s on the watchlist.

Conlin in the 48th: The one true “Huh?!” of the 2024 cycle was the close call for Rep. Jennifer Conlin, D-Ann Arbor, to Republican Brian Ignatowski of Lakeland in this district that combines liberal northern Ann Arbor with conservative pieces of Livingston County. Conlin prevailed by 4.43 percentage points. To be clear, while this was far closer than expected, it wasn’t really that close.

Ignatowski is back for another try in 2026. This was a district then-Vice President Kamala Harris won by 5 points in 2024. If Ignatowski couldn’t win it with Trump on the ballot, it seems he will have a hard time finding another 3,000 votes without him. But he earned a spot on the 2026 watchlist with his 2024 effort.

Coffia in the 103rd: Rep. Betsy Coffia, D-Traverse City, said Monday she is seeking a third term. She underwent treatment in the middle of 2025 for a brain tumor and a rare form of cancer but long ago resumed her work in Lansing.

Republicans don’t have a candidate.

This district is getting bluer. Republicans threw the kitchen sink at Coffia in 2024, and she won by 4.2 points. This was a Harris +10 seat and a Whitmer +12 seat. It’s hard to see what the Republican path to victory is here, especially considering Coffia’s door-to-door work and fundraising strength, even if that was slowed in 2025 while she was working to restore her health.

Not on the list

Rep. John Fitzgerald, D-Wyoming, in the 83rd District. If Tommy Brann couldn’t beat him, no one can. Harris +8, Whitmer +14.

Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield. This was a Harris +7 seat. So Arbit’s 6.5-point margin in the 20th District tracked pretty closely. Still, the notion of Republicans finding another 4,000 votes in a midterm here seems far-fetched.

Rep. Jamie Thompson, R-Brownstown Township. Democrat Janise Robinson is back for a rematch in the 28th District Downriver. It’s hard to imagine Democrats investing again here after Thompson’s 8.7-point romp over Robinson in 2024. This was Trump +12, Rogers +7.

Open 84th District (now held by Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker). Glanville is the Democratic equivalent of Tisdel, someone who matches her district in persona and politics. But her decision to run for the Senate, maybe, makes this one interesting. Unlike other Grand Rapids suburbs, Walker and Grandville remain Republican leaning. Democrats have their candidate in former U.S. Army medic Khristian Silvis. Republicans do not. This one’s not on the list because it was Harris +9, Slotkin +9 and Whitmer +16. It’s pretty clear which way the wind is blowing. But Democrats will have to show they can own the seat without Glanville.

Rep. Nancy DeBoer, R-Holland. Democrats are making noise about going after DeBoer. That’s based on this being 50/50 at the top of the ticket (Harris +0.4, Rogers +2, Whitmer +1). There have been changes here, but DeBoer is a center-right Republican who’s popular and well-known. Trump may have (barely) lost the seat, but DeBoer ran up a 12-point victory margin, an indication of her personal political strength.

Rep.                             =-, D-St. Joseph. Andrews won by 6.3 points in a district that was Harris +10, Slotkin +6 and Whitmer +12. Republicans basically gave up on it in 2024. The unusual design of the district along the Lake Michigan shoreline essentially rules out a challenger with broad name identification.

Partway through the second school year since the Legislature passed landmark literacy and dyslexia laws aimed at addressing low elementary reading proficiency, implementation is ongoing to train and enact new curricula, and place literacy coaches in the state’s schools.

Department of Education officials provided an update to the State Board of Education Tuesday on the state’s timeline for implementing PA 146 of 2024, which is roughly halfway complete. The timeline sets the goal of the 2027-28 school year to round out the process of fully enacting the reforms required in the law, which include using evidence-based reading curriculum and assessment methods rooted in the science of reading.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signaled that literacy will be a priority for her final year in office,

MDE has completed the tasks set forth by the law that had to be squared away by Jan. 1, 2026, including providing a list of “viable and reliable” screening and progress monitoring assessments for schools to use to measure reading outcomes and publishing a list of elementary reading curricula and materials recommended by a literacy advisory committee as being aligned with the science of reading.

Both of those lists were published Dec. 18, 2025. From the submissions of curricula and materials, three Tier-1, class-wide options were selected to establish what will eventually be a larger set of state-endorsed curricula which schools can choose from and reference for literacy instruction. The department’s next steps are to open a second request for submissions period for curricula and materials, which will remain open until September.

MDE has received and approved 561 applications for Section 35m grants, and those districts are currently submitting budgets to the department for approval. Districts can submit monthly, rolling-basis budgets to MDE for grant funding as well.

Within the competitive framework for READ Innovation grants, for which districts applied with their own innovative reading curricula, 39 applicants have been chosen to advance to the second phase of the contest process.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenn Maleyko said he hopes to continue the policy efforts of his predecessor to make LETRS training mandatory for Michigan teachers to further promote science of reading methods. Currently, there are 5,843 graduates of LETRS training in Michigan and 5,814 active participants.

The board heard from Kent City Community Schools staff, including a literacy coach, about the implementation of LETRS training in the district’s elementary classrooms. The district has seen an organic growth of the training driven by teachers seeking out professional development, which administrators said has been noticeable in students’ performance.

“When I look at the data from the classrooms where the teacher has done LETRS training and coaching, I see a huge difference in their scores,” Kent City Elementary School Principal Julie Scott said. “Their data is tremendously different.”