July 3, 2025 | This Week in Government: Blame Game Erupts as Legislature Fails to Complete K-12 Budget

After more than seven hours of session and four hours after the Senate adjourned, the House followed suit and left town Tuesday night without passing a K-12 budget.

There already was no doubt the Legislature would break the law requiring it to send all budget bills to the governor by July 1. There had been a glimmer – probably an overstatement – late last week of possibly at least getting the K-12 school aid budget to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But it became clear that negotiations between Whitmer, the Senate Democratic majority, and the House Republican majority over the weekend and into this week went nowhere.

The was no deal between the House and the Senate, and there was no deal between House Republicans and House Democrats.

Although both chambers have several session days on their calendar in July and August, the inability to complete a budget before the traditional start of the summer recess now almost assuredly means a high-wire act in September to complete the budget before the 2025-26 fiscal year begins Oct.0 1.

Legislators were quick to point fingers Tuesday night.

“It looks like they needed us today, yet again. Matt Hall and the Republicans tried to jam through a process that should be taking months of good faith negotiations into just a couple hours,” House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton Township) said. “He’s wasted everyone’s time, yet again… We could have all predicted this, that there wasn’t really a plan to get a viable option on the board, and we’ve been here, and we’ve wasted seven, eight hours of everyone’s time to do nothing. He has flip-flopped from the beginning on his desire to actually get a budget done.”

House Republicans laid the blame at the feet of the Senate.

“It takes both chambers to pass something,” Rep. Matt Bierlein (R-Vassar) said. “And the Senate went home.”

Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), chair of the Senate Appropriations PreK-12 Subcommittee , in turn attacked House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), who he said “is getting in the way every step of the way” of the budget process.

“On the one hand he says: ‘July 1 doesn’t matter.’ He’s been saying that for months,” Camilleri said. “All of a sudden in the last two weeks, he’s changing his tune and saying: ‘wait a second, this deadline is important, and we have to meet it.’”

He said there is a wide gap to close between the proposals from both chambers. He said many of the programs being proposed to be cut in the House budget are those that many lawmakers worked together to create in recent years, making things even more difficult.

For a couple weeks, the stalemate has been clear. Hall, with Whitmer’s apparent support, wanted to complete the K-12 budget and a road funding plan while leaving the rest of the budget – higher education, community colleges, and state agencies – to later in the summer. Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) called for resolving the budget in total in tandem with roads and objected to a partial budget solution now.

Puri argued that negotiations were coming too little, too late.

“We could have had these conversations in March, in April, in May and in June, but why did Matt Hall wait until July 1 to have any meaningful dialogue,” he said. “In the Dem trifecta, a budget was done on time every single time. The only piece that’s changed is you have a speaker who is making and turning this institution into a political approach of going after his failed agenda.”

Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said that all players in the House and the Senate needed to be part of the conversation to get something done.

“I just think we need to get all partners to the table,” Farhat said. “We can’t be left in the dark in this process. I do think there’s some actors that are working in good faith here today, and I appreciate their attempts, but we really have to really get everybody to the table going to get this done.”

Farhat said that he thought roads and the K-12 budget could be done independently of one another.

“There’s a strong desire to get a real school plan done and road funding done as well,” Farhat said. “I think the two can happen, independent of each other, I think they have to happen sooner rather than later, especially our schools.”

Hall, on the other hand, said he thought it was important to do the K-12 budget and roads together.

“It helps us unlock the rest of the budget,” he told reporters after session concluded. “We want to backfill education, and we want to backfill local governments, too, so you’ve got to work that all into it. And that’s why education and roads together makes sense.”

Hall said there were times he thought the Legislature was close to a deal, but ultimately, they couldn’t get there.

“I don’t think there’s a shared commitment to getting roads done,” Hall said. “It’s going to take quite some time to get something done here, because… I don’t see the Senate Democrats having a plan yet on roads. They can’t articulate any revenues or cuts publicly or privately. That makes it more challenging, and I think that we need to do roads and education together.”

Hall said he hoped to tie-bar and roads plan and the K-12 education budget together Tuesday night.

Indeed, there was an expectation the House would take the Senate’s K-12 budget bill, SB 166 , overhaul it with a new spending plan and pass it. That didn’t happen. The House instead passed three unrelated bills and adopted a resolution prior to adjourning until July 15. The Senate earlier in the day called off attendance at its Wednesday session. It also is not scheduled to return until July 15.

“Once the Senate Democrats adjourned, that presented an opportunity to work together with the House Democrats to put forward something that’s truly bipartisan to bring the Democrats in the Senate back to the table to pass it very quickly,” Hall said. “If we could get something done with House Republicans and House Democrats, maybe you could put 80-90 votes up… that was a true compromise, put it over to the Senate, I think it would have given us the best chance to move something before July 15.”

Hall said that the proposal House Republicans offered on Tuesday would have retained universal school breakfast and lunch as well as categorical funding for rural transportation for schools.

“Maybe taking five to 10 of those categoricals that we heard a lot about from Democrats, but also from our districts, and said, ‘let’s put that back in there,” Hall said.

The K-12 budget House Republicans passed in June would have rolled most categoricals into a single pot of money for districts to spend as they saw fit.

Ultimately, House Democrats didn’t agree to the deal Hall was offering them, he said.

A source speaking on background said that the deal between House Democrats and House Republicans wasn’t accepted by House Democrats because the deal was not balanced and that the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System wasn’t fully funded.

“I wanted to give the House Dems an opportunity to determine whether they were going to be relevant in the budget process, and they failed,” Hall said. “What I saw from Alabas Farhat and the Democrats is that the House Democrats don’t want to be relevant on the budget, and that’s fine. That’s a decision that they’re making. And so, we’ll just move ahead with the Senate and work with the Senate with Sarah Anthony, because ultimately, any deal has to be done between the House, Senate and governor anyway, and our caucus is pretty unified.”

Farhat said that House Democrats weren’t willing to accept just any proposal put forward by the speaker.

“We will take a look at all future proposals from the speaker. This one didn’t add up. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have 56 members that agree that today is Tuesday,” Farhat said. “Schools lost today. Local roads lost today. We will once again be ready in September to manage the circus.” A little before 4 p.m., Brinks confirmed everyone’s suspicions that Tuesday’s sessions were an exercise in futility.

“There’s 100% certainty that there will not be a negotiated budget bill in front of us today,” she said. “We will continue to do our due diligence, to be at the table and bring productive solutions.”

Brinks said the goal of her caucus is to not only complete the education budget but also the rest of the budget, whether it takes days, weeks or months into the fall. She repeatedly stressed the need to complete the entire budget at once and to do it right, not to merely do it quickly.

Democrats were reluctant to provide reporters with details on where exactly negotiations stood as the Legislature reached its nonbinding statutory budget deadline Tuesday. Brinks and others involved in the negotiations said they did not want to undermine the ongoing negotiations with specifics on areas of disagreement.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) declined to get into details of areas of disagreement, saying it could undermine the negotiations.

“Without getting into many details, our values are contemplated in these budget bills that we passed months ago,” Anthony said. “There’s always room for compromise with reasonable actors, so we’re open to that. But ultimately, we’re just not quite there yet.”

Anthony said Senate negotiators will continue to work behind the scenes in the coming days. She said the last weekend and recent days and nights have been packed with meetings and that will continue as the final product is being crafted.

Brinks, when asked what the plan for the rest of this week is, said when there is an agreement on the table the rest of the caucus will be able to be brought back for a scheduled vote.

“It’s unlikely that it will happen this week, but again, we remain at the table, ready to negotiate,” Brinks said.

There was no attendance or voting scheduled for the Senate on Wednesday. Its next session days are July 15-17.

She said the most logical way to proceed is to complete the entire budget at once rather than complete the education budget and a road funding plan separately as is the House’s preference. Brinks said it is important to know what effects there would be on anything done to provide road funding with the rest of the budget.

“People have made much of the July 1 deadline. That applies to the whole budget,” Brinks said. “They’re trying to split the baby here with that, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) in a statement expressed disappointment in not having at least an education budget finalized by Tuesday’s deadline.

“We are facing an education crisis in this state. Three in four fourth graders can’t read at grade level. Seventy-five percent of eighth graders aren’t proficient in math,” Nesbitt said. “States like Mississippi and Arkansas are lapping us. Yet Democrats continue to defend the status quo. The status quo is failing Michigan children. Our education budget must take the money and power away from the politicians and bureaucrats in Lansing who got us into this mess and put it in the hands of our local schools.”

The governor’s office did not issue a statement from Whitmer or Budget Director Jen Flood about the status of completing a budget.

The U.S. Senate’s passage of President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill sent Michigan officials of both parties into a frenzy on Tuesday as Republicans celebrated the bill’s tax cut provisions and Democrats lamented cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs – but the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” still faces a final hurdle in the fiercely divided U.S. House.

After a 29-hour “vote-a-rama” that ended with a 50-50 tie broken by Vice President JD Vance, senators passed an amended version of the budget reconciliation bill, which clocked in at a behemoth 940 pages and teeming with controversial provisions that caused several Republican senators to hold out on yes votes until the last minute.

Though some components proposed within the bill, like an order for the sale of public lands and a pause on state regulations on artificial intelligence, didn’t make the final cut, other big-ticket items like cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program remained mostly intact. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill would add roughly $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, a figure disputed by Republicans and the White House.

Now, the bill will be sent back to the U.S. House, where it originated and where Trump hopes to see passage by Friday, July 4.

“There is so much to be proud of, and EVERYONE got a major Policy WIN – But, the Biggest Winner of them all will be the American People, who will have Permanently Lower Taxes, Higher Wages and Take Home Pay, Secure Borders, and a Stronger and More Powerful Military. Additionally, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security Benefits are not being cut, but are being STRENGTHENED and PROTECTED from the Radical and Destructive Democrats by eliminating Waste, Fraud, and Abuse from those Programs,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social after the vote. “We can have all of this right now, but only if the House GOP UNITES, ignores its occasional “GRANDSTANDERS” (You know who you are!), and does the right thing, which is sending this Bill to my desk. We are on schedule – Let’s keep it going and be done before you and your family go on a July 4th vacation. The American People need and deserve it. They sent us here to GET IT DONE!”

Michigan Democrats were left seething at the passage of the bill, particularly the Medicaid and SNAP provisions, and urged the Republican members of the state’s congressional delegation, several of whom will seek reelection in competitive districts next year, to vote against the bill when it comes back to the lower chamber.

“Today, Republicans in the U.S. Senate approved a series of cruel and extreme cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits for millions of Americans. Let me be clear: with today’s decision, Republicans have sacrificed the health and wellbeing of hardworking American families to pay for sweeping tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. It’s unacceptable,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement posted to her social media channels. “Despite today’s setback, I’d like to thank U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin and U.S. Sen. Gary Peters for their consistent and committed advocacy against this dangerous bill. Now, Michigan’s House Republican delegation will have one final change to listen to their constituents, reflect on the disastrous impact of this bill, and vote no.”

Slotkin (D-Holly) slammed the bill as being a tax break for the wealthiest Americans that was rammed through without adequate public understanding of what it would do.

“History will not be kind to this bill, but it is important to remember it is not a done deal. It still has to be passed in the House,” Slotkin said in a statement calling on the public to continue pressing for a non-passage in the House. “So, raise your voices about how it will impact you or your business or your community. Call your representatives. Keep pushing.”

Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) explained his no vote on the bill simply.

“The bill that Republicans just passed will rip health care away from hundreds of thousands of Michiganders, make it harder for families across the country to afford food and pay their energy bills, and balloon our deficit by trillions of dollars,” he said in a statement. “Democrats did everything in our power to stop this legislation, but President Trump and Republicans in Congress are dead set on selling out hardworking Michiganders so they can pay for a massive tax cut for billionaires. This bill is reckless, irresponsible, and an unconscionable betrayal of American families. I voted no.”

The Republican Senate Leadership Fund praised U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) for his marshalling of the bill through the chamber and said it will renew the cost-cutting facets of Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from his first term in office.

“Leader Thune and Senate Republicans continue to deliver for the American people,” SLF Chair Cory Gardner said in a statement. “The Senate’s passage of the Working Family Tax Cuts will ensure Americans keep more of their money in their pockets, unleash American energy, and fund President Trump’s border security while cutting Washington’s waste and fraud. Leader Thune will continue to fight and deliver wins for the American people, and I’m grateful for his historic leadership.”

Democrats and advocacy groups are putting steep pressure on Republicans in competitive seats, like U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) who narrowly won his seat in 2024 and now has two Democrats hoping to unseat him, and U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township) who’s running for governor.

At the beginning of a 2026 election cycle that’s already shaping up to make affordability a centerpiece issue, Democrats have moved quickly to slam their opponents for voting in favor of policies they say will raise costs for many families and strip millions of Americans of health care and food assistance benefits.

“Millions of Michiganders will see their costs go up thanks to Republicans in DC choosing to help billionaires over working families,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel Jr. said in a statement. “Republicans are trying to gut Medicaid and SNAP programs and put thousands of jobs, and even more lives, at risk as hospitals are forced to close and families lose coverage.”

In her statement, Whitmer specifically called out Barrett, James, and U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland), whose district has recently been named by the Cook Political Report as a potential venue for a competitive race next year and an opportunity for Democrats to gain another foothold in traditionally right-leaning west Michigan.

“I encourage all the Democrats and Republicans in our congressional delegation including Representatives John James, Tom Barrett, and Bill Huizenga to think about the choice they face,” Whitmer said. “A vote to pass this budget is a vote to terminate health care and skyrocket the cost of food for your constituents. I implore you all to vote no.”

Also included in the Senate’s version of the bill are federal income tax exemptions for tips and overtime wages, a $10,000 deduction on auto loan interest for U.S.-made vehicles, and a permanent increase to the child tax credit to $2,200.

The bill also makes large increases to funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing, including over $46.5 billion for border wall construction, $45 billion to expand ICE’s detention capacity for immigrants, and roughly $30 billion for ICE to bolster hiring, training, and other operational expenses.

One of the provisions fought for in the House by blue state Republicans is an increase to the cap on the state and local tax deduction, from $10,000 to $40,000. In a departure from the House version of the bill, it will return to $10,000 after five years.

Angering clean energy groups are sections of the bill which roll back tax credits created under the Inflation Reduction Act, including for clean vehicles and electricity. That includes a last-minute total repeal of federal subsidies to wind and solar industries unless the projects were placed in service before the end of 2027.

The Michigan League of Conservation Voters and national environmental group Climate Power both condemned the bill, saying it would raise energy costs and backtrack on the progress the clean energy industry has made in recent years.

“This bill is a scorched-earth assault on the health, wallets and future of every Michigander,” LCV Government Affairs Director Bentley Johnson said in a statement. “At a time when families are battling rising costs, dangerous air pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change, Senate Republicans chose to side with billionaire polluters over the people they were elected to serve. This is legislative malpractice of the highest order.”

Climate Power Executive Director Lori Lodes said the bill would “hand our energy future to China” as it continues to invest in electrification and command the EV market, as well as make the energy grid less reliable in many areas of the U.S.

“Republicans promised American energy dominance, but they’re delivering rate hikes and power outages,” Lodes said. “They may call it beautiful – but to millions of Americans, it’s betrayal.”

The bill’s Medicaid and SNAP provisions, which would institute increased work requirements for benefits and require enrollees to renew their eligibility for benefits more frequently, remained the largest source of frustration and fear for progressive groups and medical officials.

Monique Stanton, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Michigan League for Public Policy, said the “shock of this bill is hard to overstate” and that the changes to Medicaid and SNAP would effectively push millions of Americans off of their benefits in the name of government efficiency while adding billions to military and homeland security spending.

“Republican leaders just voted to spend trillions of dollars to increase poverty and hunger, to strip away health coverage, and to create the biggest redistribution of wealth from poor to rich in U.S. history. Much of the bill – including billions of dollars to be spent on a ‘mass deportation plan’ that could upend our nation’s immigration system – lacks specificity and gives full discretion to the Trump administration, not Congress. And this shortsighted, harmful bill also adds $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficit,” Stanton said in a statement. “It’s just staggering.”

Stanton said the changes within the bill would mean Michigan will have to come up with $8.5 billion in Medicaid expansion costs and up to $304 million in SNAP costs to backfill the cuts within the state budget. According to data compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Insurance and Financial services, if the bill were implemented in the form approved by the U.S. House, 123,000 Michiganders could lose food assistance and over 700,000 could lose health coverage.

“The lawmakers who devised this scheme claim to be patriots, but we have a hard time understanding how. As we prepare to recognize 249 years of our nation’s independence, they have voted to approve a bill that tears the fabric of the United States, gutting support from working families, veterans, children, seniors and people with disabilities,” Stanton said. “It is shameful. There is time, though, for Republicans in Congress to consider the people they serve and change course as this big bill for billionaires is sent back to the House.”

Mothering Justice Chief Executive Officer Danielle Atkinson said her organization will also be committed to lobbying members of the House to vote against the bill, urging concerned voters of either party to contact their elected officials and apply pressure.

“Now, as the bill goes back to the House, Mothering Justice is committed to fighting against anyone who might support this horrendous bill – regardless of party. Now is the time to call your Member of Congress and let them know you will not stand for the federal government stealing money from working-class families. Tell those we elected to power that they must use every tool at their disposal to stop this bill from being passed into law.”

So far, the bill’s status in the U.S. House is in limbo. Axios reported Tuesday that at least 20 Republican members were refusing to vote in favor of the bill as passed by the Senate, angered by the Senate Parliamentarian’s removal of some of its provisions. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) maintains a slim majority that could make or break the bill’s passage by July 4 if members aren’t satisfied.

Blue state and moderate Republicans have also balked at pushing through the Medicaid cuts, citing large portions of their constituencies – mostly senior citizens – who rely on the program for their health coverage. With only 432 members currently voting in the House due to deaths in the Democratic conference, a tie is possible if a handful of Republicans defect – with no Vice President to step in and break it.

Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) took aim at Vance in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.

“The fact that JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to gut Medicaid and SNAP after he talked about how much the community he grew up with benefitted from those programs in his crappy book has, I’m pretty sure, earned him a special place in hell,” she said.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide the venue – state or federal court – for a longstanding legal battle between Enbridge Energy and Attorney General Dana Nessel over the future of Line 5, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to develop a new environmental impact statement for putting a tunnel around the pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.

The high court granted certiorari in Enbridge v. Nessel on Monday, just as the Army Corps concluded the public comment period on the tunnel project’s draft environmental impact statement with impassioned pressure from both environmental groups opposed to the tunnel project and labor and manufacturing advocates hoping to see it quickly permitted.

After a directive from President Donald Trump to speed up securing permits for the tunnel project earlier this year, the period for public input on the draft statement was condensed, to the chagrin of the project’s opponents.

“Folks from across the Great Lakes have been active over the past several years in engaging the Army Corps for a thorough review of the Line 5 oil tunnel,” Oil and Water Don’t Mix campaign coordinator Sean McBrearty said in a statement. “But the Army Corps is now violating the spirit and the intent of public participation under the National Environmental Policy Act, which is an affront to democracy and could result in harmful impacts to our Great Lakes for generations to come.”

The Great Lakes Michigan Jobs Coalition, made up of labor, manufacturing, energy and business groups, expressed its support for the Army Corps draft statement. Operating Engineers 324 Vice President Douglas Stockwell, a member of the coalition, said the statement shows the tunnel project can be conducted safely and permits should be granted from the state.

“Let’s grant these permits,” Stockwell said in a statement. “The Great Lakes Tunnel will be built safely, and the Army Corps’ analysis makes it clear – the tunnel is the best solution for the Great Lakes and for Michigan jobs.”

The tunnel project is supported by those who argue shutting down Line 5 would be extremely detrimental to the Upper Peninsula and rural areas in Northern Lower Michigan that rely on propane from the Canadian company. Tunneling the pipeline was proposed as an alternative to shutting it down entirely, despite ongoing concerns that a tunnel wouldn’t do enough to protect the Great Lakes in the event of a malfunction or that the tunnel construction would do further detriment to the straits’ ecosystem.

“Line 5 transports up to 23 million gallons of fuel each day – energy that powers Michigan’s manufacturing sector, supports regional supply chains, and keeps families and businesses moving,” Michigan Manufacturers Association Director of Environmental and Regulatory Policy Mike Witkowski said in a statement. “The U.S. Army Corps has heard from thousands of Michiganders who understand the importance of modernizing this infrastructure, and we’re confident those voices will be reflected in the final decision. It’s time to move forward with the Great Lakes Tunnel.”

Although a SCOTUS ruling on the venue for the case has no bearing on the tunnel project itself, it could signal forward movement in a lawsuit that’s been ongoing since 2019. For the groups fighting the construction of a tunnel and seeking the total shutdown of Line 5, a foray to the Supreme Court is just a distraction from the cause at home.

“Today’s news that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Enbridge’s venue appeal underscores a critical fact: the decision on the proposed Line 5 tunnel remains squarely in the hands of state authorities, who are currently reviewing crucial permits that will determine the project’s future,” McBrearty said. “While Enbridge takes its challenge of Attorney General Dana Nessel’s federal shutdown lawsuit to the Supreme Court, the Canadian corporation continues to profit financially from every delay in the legal process. Each day of legal maneuvering means millions more in revenue for Enbridge while Michigan communities bear the environmental and financial risks.”

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said the company is “encouraged” by the Supreme Court’s decision to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which remanded the lawsuit to a state court.

“In 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan determined that Enbridge had timely removed the Attorney General’s lawsuit because exceptional circumstances allowed for exceeding the 30-day time limit. The District Court cited the important federal issues in this case, including U.S.-Canada Treaty issues, and the fact that litigation of these issues was already pending in another case in federal court,” Duffy said in a statement. “However, the 6th Circuit reversed, deciding that district courts have no authority to give exceptions to the 30-day time limit. The 6th Circuit’s remand decision is in conflict with decisions from two other federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, which both held that there can be exceptions to the 30-day limit. The Supreme Court review will resolve this conflict in the courts of appeals.”

Ahead of the campaign finance reporting deadline later this month, candidates for the U.S. House have begun announcing their hauls for the first quarter of their campaigns, including 10th and 11th District Democrats Sen. Jeremy Moss, Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel, and former Biden administration official Eric Chung.

Moss (D-Southfield) is running to replace U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), who is vacating her seat in the 11th U.S. House District to run for the open U.S. Senate seat. Moss announced Wednesday that over its first quarter, his campaign raised over $425,000.

“In the last two months, support has poured in from all corners of the 11th district for our campaign to bring bold, new leadership to Washington. I’m honored to be the candidate for so many Oakland County voters who are investing in our efforts,” Moss said in a statement. “As president pro tem of the Michigan Senate, I’ve helped deliver tax relief to seniors and working families, pass new gun safety laws, and protect voting rights. I’ve shown I’m not afraid to take on big fights and I’m ready to bring that record to Congress.”

So far, Moss is the only candidate to announce in the 11th District.

Meanwhile, in the crowded Democratic primary in the 10th District, where five candidates are vying to replace U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), who’s leaving his seat to run for governor, Greimel reported raising over $400,000.

Greimel’s campaign said its first quarter figure exceeds what past MI-10 Democratic candidates have raised in their first fundraising quarters in both 2022 and 2024. He and Chung face attorney Christina Hines, U.S. Army reserve battalion commander Tripp Adams, and newcomer Alex Hawkins in the primary field.

“I’m proud to announce our fundraising success. Michiganders have invested in our race because they know my record of always fighting for working families,” Greimel said in a statement. “I’m honored to have earned the trust and support of so many. I look forward to continuing to connect with voters across the district to make sure they know they can trust me to listen to their concerns and fight for them in Washington.”

Exceeding Greimel in the 10th District is Chung, who reported raising $600,000. His campaign said their fundraising figure is more than double the quarter record for any previous challenger candidate in the district’s history.

“I’m proud to have enthusiastic support from thousands of Americans who believe in our campaign focused on an economy that works for Michiganders,” Chung said in a statement. “That the son of an autoworker and immigrants who lost everything to communism and war in Vietnam can become a lawyer serving our country at the Commerce Department and garner so much support in a campaign for Congress is a testament to the enthusiasm there is for a representative who will put workers and working families like mine first.”

No Republicans have launched campaigns to succeed James.

The deadline for quarterly campaign finance reports to be submitted is July 25.

A coalition seeking to ban political contributions from major corporations as well as large companies that hold or are seeking government contracts announced Monday it plans to pursue a ballot initiative.

Members of the Taking Back Our Power coalition during a virtual press conference said they hope to place a statewide initiative on the 2026 ballot that would ban political contributions from large corporations as well as prevent corporate donors from bypassing campaign finance laws by donating to 501c4 and 527 accounts.

The proposed initiative would primarily target major corporations such as DTE Energy Company and Consumers Energy Company, whom coalition members said have been able to guide policy in Lansing through contributions to lawmakers and spending during election campaigns.

Sean McBrearty, Michigan director for Clean Water Action, is co-chairing the coalition. He said legislation similar to the ballot initiative has been introduced in recent sessions but has not received hearings. Because of this, the coalition is looking to bypass the Legislature and take the proposal straight to voters.

“For too long, the corrosive influence of corporate money on our political system has consistently grown worse,” McBrearty said. “The dominance of dark money and contributions in corporate cash drowns out the voices of people across our state and has contributed to people losing faith in democracy itself.”

A bipartisan bill package similar to the proposed initiative was introduced in the House this spring (See Gongwer Michigan Report, April 23, 2025).

To make his case for the need for the initiative, McBrearty used the example of DTE during the 2022 election cycle having made donations to nearly every member of the Legislature.

The proposal would also seek to ban political contributions from companies that hold state and local government contracts exceeding $250,000. McBrearty said the $250,000 figure was decided upon because those with contracts of that size or smaller are not major companies who are obtaining significant influence through money.

“This is definitely not a cure-all for all of the problems with campaign finance and with our democracy,” McBrearty said. “This is a step forward. I think it is a major step forward that will make things more accountable and more representative of the people of Michigan in Lansing.”

He said the group plans to provide ballot language to the Board of State Canvassers  in July.

The group will need 356,958 valid signatures from voters to appear on the ballot.

DTE Energy spokesperson Ryan Lowry in a statement said the company has been compliant with existing laws governing political spending. He added that the DTE employee political action committee funding comes from shareholders and from voluntary donations, not from customer revenue.

“DTE is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and complies with all applicable laws regarding corporate donations and political contributions,” Lowry said. “In compliance with out IRP settlement, we have voluntarily expanded our disclosures to increase transparency for all shareholders. These disclosures showcase DTE’s commitment to our customers and communities we serve, helping us meet our aspiration of being best in the world and best for the world.”

Ponsella Hardaway with MOSES Action said an initiative is needed to curb corporate influence on policy making in the state.

“The people of Michigan are being left in the dark, in debt, without a voice. Enough is enough,” Hardaway said.

Ken Whittaker with Michigan United said there is no political will in Lansing to address corporate influence, so an initiative is the only way to resolve the issue.

“Too many politicians are bought and paid for,” Whittaker said. “Too many folks in power are hooked on corporate money. The system that we’re trying to fix is the same system protecting itself. If we wait for them to clean it up, we’ll we waiting forever.”

Kim Murphy-Kovalick with Voters Not Politicians said work has already begun to prepare volunteers for obtaining signatures.

“Do we want a government that serves us or a government that is bought and paid for by corporations?” Murphy-Kovalick said.