Democratic nominees win both Michigan Supreme Court races

Two Democratic nominees defeated their Republican nominees in the Michigan Supreme Court race.

Democratic nominee Judge Kyra Harris Bolden defeated Republican nominee Patrick O’Grady, District Judge in Branch County, 60.5% to 39.5%, with two-thirds of the votes counted Wednesday morning.

Democratic candidate Kimberly Thomas, a law professor at the University of Michigan, led Republican candidate and current Rep. Andrew Fink 60% to 40%.

Fink, R-Hillsdale, announced the race in a statement released around 1 a.m. Wednesday and wished Thomas “sincere congratulations.”

“I am proud of our efforts, especially given the relative lack of resources we have had to overcome in the name of equal justice under the law – a cause to which I remain as committed as ever,” Fink said.

Bolden and Thomas’ victories increase the Democratic-nominated majority on the Supreme Court from 4-3 to 5-2.

Bolden and Thomas claimed victory just before midnight at a Michigan Democratic Party watch party at the MotorCity Casino in Detroit.

“I stand here before you today,” said Bolden, who was appointed to the bench in 2022, “not only as the first Black woman to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court, but I was also the first of each and every one of you was selected.” .”

Thomas thanked the supporters on stage in the Casino Theater.

“The deeper I got into it, the more people got into it,” Thomas said. “I met people all over the state, in Ann Arbor and Detroit and Houghton and Muskegon and Cheboygan and Monroe and everywhere else, who cared deeply about our courts and wanted a court that was fair and promoted access to justice.”

Bolden, who was appointed to the court by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022, will serve a partial four-year term on the court. She was appointed after Democratic nominee Judge Bridget McCormack left the bench.

Thomas and Fink were running for an eight-year term on the court, hoping to fill a seat that remains vacant after Republican nominee Justice David Viviano said he would not seek re-election.

Bolden and Thomas, who both ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, dominated their Republican-nominated opponents in fundraising for their campaigns and in third-party spending for their campaigns.

The Democratic-nominated Supreme Court majority has in recent years paved the way for voting and abortion rights initiatives to make it onto the ballot. State law protects LGBTQ people from discrimination. and the Supreme Court, after enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, is likely to be the final arbiter in legal disputes that challenge the constitutionality of some long-standing abortion regulations.

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