Bill Huizenga was locked in a neck-and-neck race with Sean McCann in southwest Michigan’s 4th Congressional District early Wednesday morning, while Tom Barrett was trailing Will Lawrence in mid-Michigan’s 7th District. The had not called either race as of 6 a.m., with 4 percent of ballots still uncounted.
That made the Michigan House Election Results the main reason readers were still checking the count before sunrise. Lawrence declared victory early Wednesday and said his "people-powered movement took on the richest and most powerful people in the world, and we won," even as the final tally had not yet been settled by the count.
The 4th and 7th districts were two of the three most contested races for Michigan’s congressional delegation, and they carried real weight in a delegation that had been split 7-6 before the races were decided. Huizenga was seeking a ninth term after winning handily in each prior re-election bid, which made the closeness of his race stand out all the more. McCann, who had represented parts of southwest Michigan in the state Legislature on and off since 2011, was helped by the kind of name recognition that can matter when turnout is high and margins are thin.
The other tight race had already started to move a direction of its own. Christina Hines held a 6 percentage point lead over Michael Bouchard in Macomb County’s 10th District, where an estimated 10 percent of ballots were still to be counted and the had not called the race as of 6 a.m. Bouchard conceded, while Hines said she was "could not be more excited to get to work" and promised to "ensure everyone has access to affordable, quality healthcare."
Elsewhere, incumbents held firm and won re-election. That left the night’s biggest unfinished business centered on the 4th District, where Huizenga’s long record in the seat had done little to protect him from a race that stayed too close to call at daybreak. The final answer still depended on the remaining ballots, and until those were counted the closest race in Michigan remained the one between Huizenga and McCann.
