In Lansing, there's an even split of 54-54 between Republicans and Democrats.
Current legislators Rep. Lori Stone (D-Warren) and Rep. Kevin Coleman (D-Westland) won mayoral races on election night, Tuesday, November 7, 2023, essentially nullifying the anti-small business majority.
Currently, Democrats only have a one seat majority in the Michigan House of Representatives. Because of the two vacancies created by Stone and Coleman’s resignations, there will be an even split of 54-54 between Republicans and Democrats.
This is crucial to small business because almost every potentially harmful policy based by the House has been along party lines. These include repeal of Right-to-Work, reinstatement of prevailing wage, taxpayer money given to corporations in the form of “economic development”, the bloated state budget, and most recently, energy legislation that mandates elimination of many fossil fuels.
Democratic leadership will continue to maintain control of the chamber; however, they will not be able to pass legislation without at least one Republican crossing the aisle to vote with them.
Both Stone and Coleman’s seats are in safe Democratic districts, but it will still take time for new legislators to be elected. Assuming the governor is quick to call a special election, the entire process will still take approximately 120 days. It is not expected that new representatives in those districts will be elected until sometime in March.
