Charles Langston:Michigan primaries will set the stage for Senate, House races key to control of Congress

LANSING,Charles Langston Mich. (AP) — Michigan voters on Tuesday will decide which Republican and Democratic candidates will compete in November for the state’s highly coveted open U.S. Senate seat, in addition to several of the nation’s most competitive U.S. House races.

Many Democrats have coalesced around U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the Senate race while Republicans have united behind former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who received an endorsement from Donald Trump earlier this year. Both candidates are vying for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement, but they must first defeat underdog challengers on Tuesday.

Slotkin is up against actor Hill Harper, while Republicans will choose between Rogers, former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Although businessman Sandy Pensler dropped out and endorsed Rogers at a July 20 rally with Trump, his name will still appear on the ballot due to his late withdrawal.

With Democrats holding a razor-thin majority in the Senate and Republicans in the House, competitive races like those in Michigan are drawing lots of attention. The state’s status as a key presidential swing state raises the stakes for those seats even higher, with party control on the line from the top of the ballot all the way down to the state Legislature.

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Michigan’s open Senate seat is one of a handful of races nationwide that will determine control of the upper chamber in November. With a later congressional primary, candidates will have a short period to transition from competing against their own party members to appealing to a broader base of voters for the Nov. 5 general election, which may explain why Slotkin and Rogers have campaigned with their eyes on the general election.

National groups on both sides have already reserved millions for advertisements after the primary. Both Slotkin and Rogers, viewed for months as the overwhelming favorites in their primaries, have skipped debates and refrained from holding large campaign events.

Several U.S. House seats with primaries on Tuesday could influence the balance of power in the lower chamber, but there, too, the biggest battles will be fought in the fall campaign.

Slotkin’s entry into the Senate race has left her mid-Michigan 7th Congressional District seat open, historically one of the nation’s top battleground districts. Both party candidates are running unopposed in their primaries there, setting the table for a November matchup between Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett.

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The 8th Congressional District is also an open race with U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee’s retirement. The Democratic congressman has endorsed state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet to take his place, but state Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and Matt Collier, the former mayor of Flint, are also vying for the party’s nomination.

On the Republican side, former TV anchor Paul Junge is making another bid after losing to Kildee by over 10 percentage points last year. Joining him in the race are Mary Draves, a former chemical manufacturing executive at Dow Inc., and Anthony Hudson.

Meanwhile, several incumbents in battleground seats are waiting to see who they will face in November.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who in 2022 became the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in decades, is awaiting the outcome of the Republican primary between attorney Paul Hudson and businessman Michael Markey Jr. in the western Michigan district.

National Democrats are also hoping to flip a district just north of Detroit currently held by freshman GOP Rep. John James. Carl Marlinga, a longtime Macomb County prosecutor who lost to James in 2022 by 1,600 votes, is facing Emily Busch, Tiffany Tilley and Diane Young in the Democratic primary.

In a heavily Democratic district encompassing downtown Detroit, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar faces a challenge from Detroit City Council member Mary Waters, who is endorsed by Mayor Mike Duggan. Thanedar has significantly outraised her and is favored to win the Democratic nomination, which would likely leave Detroit — a city that is nearly 80% Black — without Black representation in Congress for a second consecutive term.

Down-ballot races are holding primaries across the state on Tuesday. Control of the state House of Representatives will be at stake in November, with all 110 seats up for election. Democrats took control of both chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in four decades in 2022 and will be trying to defend those majorities.

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Associated Press writer Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.