Detroit residents had a chance to vote in Tuesday’s primary election to select candidates that will appear on the November general election ballot. 

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the 13th Congressional District, which includes most of Detroit and several Downriver communities, incumbent Democrat Shri Thanedar held off a challenge from City Councilmember Mary Waters.

Thanedar won the primary with 54% of the vote.  He had a large advantage in campaign finances and used part of that money to run a flurry of television ads in the days leading up to the election. Thanedar will face Republican Martell Bivings in November, who was unopposed in the GOP primary. 

James Hooper won the Republican primary in the 12th Congressional District, which represents about a third of Detroit.  He defeated Linda Sawyer 60% to 40%  Hooper will go on to face incumbent Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in November. Tlaib was uncontested in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 12th District.   

Michigan voters also narrowed the list of candidates running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin won the Democratic primary, defeating actor and entrepreneur Hill Harper by a 3-1 statewide margin. Former Congressman Mike Rogers prevailed in the GOP contest for Senate, outpacing former Congressman Justin Amash. Rogers and Slotkin will appear on the November ballot. 

In the Wayne County Sheriff race, incumbent Democrat Raphael Washington won the nomination for his party, defeating Joan Merriweather by a 2-1 margin. He’ll face Republican challenger T.P. Nykoriak, who defeated Republican Articia Bomer, in November.

Additionally Wayne County voters passed two ballot initiatives. Proposal P, a measure renewing a millage to help fund county parks for five years, passed by a large margin. Voters also approved Proposition A, which removes language in the Wayne County Charter requiring it find a new auditor every eight years.

Voters in Detroit overwhelmingly passed Proposal L, which renews the city’s Library Operating Millage for another 10 years, with 85% of residents supporting the measure.

For more primary election results, visit wdet.org/series/michigan-election-results.

Other headlines for Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024:

• The Jackson House will be honored during a ceremony at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Thursday night.
• The Detroit Police Department is holding annual National Night Out events this week, with some events planned for Wednesday night.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Many Bangladeshi Americans in Michigan are celebrating on Monday amid news that the country’s prime minister resigned and fled the country.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision to flee comes after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule.

Student protestors have been asking the government to end the quota system, which allocated one-third of all government jobs to the descendants of those who fought in the Independence War of 1971. That left a small number of jobs for others in a country with more than 170 million people.

The government met protestors with force — killing hundreds and wounding and arresting thousands.  More than 200 people have been killed by government forces in the last few days as people demanded answers about the deaths of student protestors. 

Thousands of protestors celebrated the news of her resignation in the capital Dhaka.  But the celebrations soon turned violent in places, with protesters attacking symbols of her government and party, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.

A community gathering is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at Jayne Field in Detroit. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Other headlines for Monday, Aug. 5, 2024:

•  The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says it is providing more than $118 million in food benefits to 983,531 students through its new Michigan Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program.
• The Michigan Department of Transportation is inviting the public to give online feedback about its five-year transportation program.
• The Hamtramck Police Department is seeking youth applicants ages 12-15 for the first Hamtramck Police Youth Academy.
• Central City Health is offering free dental exams and x-rays this month in Midtown Detroit.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

In Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, Democrat Carl Marlinga is set to face off against Republican incumbent John James, who defeated Marlinga in the last election by only about 1,600 votes — or one-half of one percentage point. 

Marlinga, a former Macomb County judge and prosecutor, says national donors did not put much effort into his campaign last time because former Congressman Andy Levin decided Democrats had a better chance in a different district. 

“If he could not win this district, what chance would anybody else have? But they didn’t have the local knowledge about my years as a prosecutor, as a probate judge, as a circuit court judge – the knowledge of what I would bring to the table,” Marlinga said. “Now they do.” 

Marlinga says there are clear issues separating him from the Republican Congressman now, including issues over reproductive rights, limiting inflation and finding ways to keep raw sewage from overflowing into Lake St. Clair.  

“I’m the guy with the record protecting the lake,” Marlinga said. “John James is the guy who wants to drill for oil in the lake.” 

Republican party officials counter that members like James —  who was unopposed in his primary — will fight to stabilize the economy, lower prices and secure the nation’s borders. 

The 10th Congressional District race was the third-closest in the nation in 2022. Now, with the Democratic party’s new presidential ticket, Marlinga says excitement about the Harris-Walz campaign could play well across the electorate.

“We have a ticket that is just designed perfectly for the voters of this county,” he said. “Macomb County is known as the home to Reagan Democrats from years ago. We tend to vote Democratic but we are suspicious of extremes at either end — right or left.” 

Republicans, both nationally and in Michigan, contend that the Democratic presidential candidate will cater too much to progressive causes. 

U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar defeated Detroit City Council member Mary Waters in the Democratic primary for the Detroit area’s 13th Congressional District.

Waters, who had been endorsed by Mayor Mike Duggan, argued during her campaign that the district should have a Black representative as it did for decades.

“I have never ever seen so many people who were unhappy with representation,” said Waters. “Nobody, not one person said to me, not then or now that they were satisfied with the representation that they were receiving.”

Throughout the campaign, Duggan has also said that Thanedar has not done enough for the district. But Thanedar says his team has closed more than 1,800 constituent cases successfully.

“People don’t care whether their problem is a federal problem or a state problem or a local problem,” said Thanedar. “They want it to be solved. And my team is very focused on it.”

Thanedar’s campaign held a major cash advantage over Waters, running several campaign ads on television, and his win likely leaves Detroit — a city that is nearly 80% Black — without Black representation in Congress for a second consecutive term.

But Thanedar, who was born in India, says when he speaks to residents, their main concern is not his ethnicity…but how he can help his constituents.

“It’s not about who I am, my race, my skin color. For them it is someone that will help them,” he said. “Whether to close the economic gap, whether to create those skill sets so they can get a good paying job, whether someone who can lower health care costs.”

However, Waters maintains that constituents have not been happy with the Congressman’s performance in office.

“Had you been doing your job the community would be able to connect with you, they would know who you are,” she said. “Had you been providing constituent services like you were supposed to there would be no need to spend that kind of money against a candidate who barely raised $150,000.” 

Thanedar was first elected to Congress in 2022. He’ll face Republican Martell Bivings —who ran uncontested — in November’s general election.

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report. 

Wayne County voters approved two ballot initiatives on Tuesday that will renew a millage to fund improvements to parks and recreational facilities and remove a requirement to find a new financial auditor every eight years.

Proposition P renews the county’s existing millage to provide continued financial support for parks and related facilities, generating approximately $14 million annually from 2026 to 2030. 

The funds raised through this millage will be directed toward capital improvements and infrastructure projects in major parks, including Hines Park, Elizabeth Park, Wayne County Family Aquatic Center at Chandler Park, and improvements to municipal parks in more than 40 Wayne County communities.

For a home assessed at $100,000, the renewed millage will add around $12 per year to homeowners’ property tax bill.

The proposal passed with more than 74% of the vote.

Voters also approved Proposition A, which removes language in the Wayne County Charter requiring it find a new auditor every eight years, and instead, allow any qualified auditing firm to be awarded a contract for services when the contract is competitively bid.

More information about the proposal, which passed with 52.4% of the vote, can be found here.

Lastly, voters in Detroit also approved Proposal L, which renews the city’s Library Operating Millage for another 10 years. The 3.9943 millage renewal — which will not raise residents’ taxes — will provide city libraries with almost all of its operating budget for the next decade.

Homeowners in the city will continue to pay $3.99 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The millage renewal also includes changes to Detroit’s tax capture policies that will boost library funding by an additional $3 million next year.

Officials said if the proposal had not passed, Detroit’s 22 libraries would have closed.

Detroiters voted overwhelmingly to renew the millage, with over 85% of voters approving the measure.

WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers has secured the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and will face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the November election.

Slotkin and Rogers, long considered the front-runners for their respective party nominations, will now face off in what is expected to be one of the most expensive Senate races in the country. Slotkin enters with a massive fundraising advantage and emerges nearly unscathed from a sparse primary, while Rogers has the backing of national Republican groups and former President Donald Trump.

Slotkin defeated actor Hill Harper in the Democratic primary, while Republicans chose Rogers over former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Both candidates will now compete for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement.

Stabenow threw her support behind Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin early in the Democratic primary process. At a party for Slotkin Tuesday night in Detroit, Stabenow said her support never waned.

“There is no one more qualified, more talented, more hard working, who I could pass the torch to than our next U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin,” she said.

In a victory speech to a small crowd of supporters, Slotkin — who defeated Harper by a 3 to 1 margin — talked about focusing on core issues like the economy and women’s reproductive rights.

Slotkin told the crowd she provides an alternative to personal attacks and outrage over social issues.

“For everyone who believes our country is better than our current politics – I ask you to give me a shot. My message is simple – join us on team normal.”

North of Detroit, in Oakland County, Rogers thanked supporters at a watch party for “not giving up on politics.” Like Slotkin, Rogers represented a mid-Michigan swing district in Congress, and he similarly positioned himself as the common sense candidate in his speech. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan since 1994.

With Democrats holding a razor-thin majority in the Senate and Republicans in the House, competitive races like those in Michigan have drawn 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.

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, Slotkin and Rogers 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 they have campaigned with their eyes on the general election.

National groups on both sides have already reserved millions of dollars worth of 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 left her mid-Michigan 7th Congressional District seat open, historically one of the nation’s top battleground districts. Both party candidates ran unopposed in their primaries there, setting the table for a November matchup between Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. and Republican Tom Barrett.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee’s retirement will leave an open seat in the 8th Congressional District, which extends northward from the outskirts of Detroit and covers areas such as Flint, Saginaw and Midland. First-term state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, who had been endorsed by Kildee, defeated state Board of Education President Pamela Pugh and Matt Collier, the former mayor of Flint, to secure the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, former TV anchor Paul Junge defeated Mary Draves, a former chemical manufacturing executive at Dow Inc., and Anthony Hudson to win the GOP nomination. Junge lost to Kildee by over 10 percentage points in 2022.

Meanwhile, several incumbents in battleground districts now have their November matchups set following Tuesday’s primaries.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who in 2022 became the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in decades, will face Paul Hudson, an attorney who defeated Michael Markey Jr. in the western Michigan district’s GOP primary.

A district just north of Detroit will see a rematch between freshman GOP Rep. John James and Carl Marlinga, a longtime Macomb County prosecutor who defeated three other Democrats in the primary. Marlinga lost to James by 1,600 votes, and national Democrats have made the seat a top target this cycle.

Down-ballot races also held 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.

Story by Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press. WDET’s Russ McNamara and Associated Press writer Isabella Volmert contributed to this report.