Living in Michigan Can Be Tough in Election Years. Here's How the Trump-Backed Candidates Are Doing.

The summer of 2026 is absolutely flying by.

It has been almost three weeks since we passed the 250th birthday of the United States of America, and the summer keeps motoring along. Here in Michigan, we are just moments away from what seems to be the first snowfall.

Ok, that last part is a joke; we are currently at 86 degrees, and it is as humid as it can be in July. Which, if you live in Michigan, you know that it can be pretty darn humid.

So when I think of sticky situations that make me uncomfortable, I usually fall back on elections. That's why I'm thankful that I have a front-page presence here at RedState to talk about this, which helps relieve the situation I find myself in every 12 to 18 months.

On the ballot in November, we will decide federal elections, state elections, and local elections, and I'm sure it's the same where you live. Yet today I want to focus on some statewide races that could affect both state and federal elections and how President Donald Trump COULD impact them.

First up, we are electing someone to represent us in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol as a member of the Senate to replace retiring Democrat Gary Peters.

Peters is giving up his seat after 12 years of service as our U.S. Senator, and before that, he spent three terms in the House. Most people that I know in the state literally forget that Peters is even in the Senate. What I guess that means is that he is pretty boring, but he votes incorrectly on most of the issues that he has cast a vote on, which is maddening.

The GOP has it a bit easier in the candidate who is going for this office, as it is former Rep. Mike Rogers. He is a former federal official who served Michigan's 8th Congressional District from 2001 to 2015 and has had a fantastic start. He did run for the Senate seat in 2024 and was narrowly defeated by then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-07) by just over 19,000 votes, 48.6 percent to 48.3 percent.

President Trump endorsed Rogers early on for the seat and made it a clear choice on who people who exhibit common sense should vote for.

However, the fun in this race is going to clearly be with the Democrats on who they decide to pick as their Senate nominee.

First up, we have Abdul El-Sayed, who seems to be just a swell fella who tends to step in it occasionally. Why, on Monday, the clean-up crew had to go out and start smashing things while shaking their heads.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing backlash from within his own party after using controversial rhetoric to describe the stakes of his victory in a recent donor meeting.
“If I win ... well y’all came at me so now I get to come at you, and you know, primarying people like John Fetterman, I have no problem to do that,” he said, according to audio of a Zoom meeting obtained by POLITICO. “Ideally you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different,” El-Sayed added later, referencing how he could help propel the progressive moment.

What do people, I mean Democrats, like to pick on Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)? I'm confused.

The other person left running for Senate on the Democrat side is current Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11). She has served for nearly eight years and (obviously) wants to move up to the Senate and apply her skills there.

Well, skills might be stretching a bit much.

She does do a helluva Chris Farley from Saturday Night Live, imitating a character he created by the name of Matt Foley, with a "stick it to 'em" vibe, though.

Watch this:

Pretty stellar, right?

I feel like jumping through a brick wall right now. Our governor, Gretchen Whitmer (D), was so inspired by this video that she dropped everything to endorse her.

Odd right?

Now, on the GOP side, for the folks running for governor, it gets a lil messy.

The Democrats are pretty well locked up with current Sec. of State Jocelyn Benson. The Michigan Secretary of State handles voting, and Benson has had problems with that for almost eight years, and the 2020 election is a sticking point for those who remember Donald Trump lost this state and many questions were asked.

Current Rep. John James (MI-10) faces off against someone in the primary who ran for president in the 2024 election cycle and Michigan governor in 2022, businessman Perry Johnson.

James won the endorsement of President Trump in June, which I covered right here (Donald Trump Made It Official Yesterday in Michigan, and I Hope It Means We Get a Conservative Governor), and that should be the end of the story.

Yet the people supporting Johnson are being quite persuasive, and I know a few of them.

However, I seem to recall a similar event in the 2010 race for governor, and that turned into Republican Rick Snyder. I'm pretty sure anyone living in this state during that time frame will not recall that time fondly; I mean, other than people who like Rick Snyder, who I think might be people named Snyder.

Michigan has a chance at keeping the momentum of President Trump's 2024 victory here and holding the state red.

Actually, purple, but that is for a discussion for another time.

This, of course, will be a task for setting up a victory in November, but the first leap in this process will be next Tuesday, August 4th, primary day here in the Great Lakes State. I know general elections are not always easy to do here, but if you want to set up the best chance to actually have success in November and actually have change occur...

Let's see how we do.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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