Action Center

The mid-term election of 2022 had a historically large turnout as voters across Michigan turned out in droves. An unprecedented number of races were neck and neck throughout the evening and into the morning. Democrats will have the majorities in both the Michigan House and Michigan Senate – something that has not happened since 1983.

Michigan is also breaking social work records. With this election, Michigan has become one of the only states to have a US Senator (Debbie Stabenow), a US Congresswoman (Hilary Scholten), State Senators (Stephanie Chang & Ruth Johnson), and State Representatives (Felicia Brabec, Betsy Coffia, Kim Edwards, & Carrie Rheingans) with social work degrees. Come January we will also have a record number of elected officials with social work degrees in the Michigan Legislature (6).

Rep. Joe Tate will make history as the first speaker of the House who is Black.

Rep. Tate was elected as the leader of the House Democratic Caucus for the 2023-2024 legislative term. This will be the first time Democrats have held the majority in the House in more than a decade, and the majority caucus gets to pick the speaker, who will be formally elected when the Legislature convenes in January.

Sen. Winnie Brinks will become the next Senate Majority Leader in January. In the last 63 years, there have been three Democratic majority leaders of the Michigan Senate, the last one being Westland Democratic Sen. William Faust, who was the chamber's majority leader until Republicans took the Senate in 1984. Conservative lawmakers have steadily held a Senate majority until voters provoked a new shift on Tuesday, with Democrats securing themselves 20 out of 38 state Senate seats for 2023.

Below is the list of our endorsed candidates who won their elections.

Governor/Lieutenant Governor: Gretchen Whitmer & Garlin Gilchrist

Secretary of State: Jocelyn Benson

Attorney General: Dana Nessel

Michigan Supreme Court:

Richard Bernstein

Michigan Board of Education:

State Senate:

State House:**

Local Races:

*Candidates with a BSW or MSW degree

Endorsed Proposals

Proposal 2

Proposal 2 won 58.6 percent of the vote this week. It will now amend the state constitution to allow nine days of early voting, permit private funds for election administration, and require state-funded absentee ballot boxes, among other things. It will also continue to allow registered voters to vote without an ID as long as they sign an affidavit.

The initiative makes Michigan one of two dozen states to allow early in-person voting and one of 20 states to require the state to cover postage costs for absentee ballots and pay for ballot drop boxes for every 15,000 voters in a municipality.

Proposal 3

Michigan’s Proposal 3 ballot measure prevailed by a wide margin this week, marking a historic victory for abortion rights advocates. The constitutional amendment will enshrine rights to reproductive services into the state constitution and effectively invalidate a currently-blocked 1931 abortion ban, which would have criminalized most abortions. The ballot measure won 57 percent to 43 percent.

Under state law, constitutional amendments that are approved by voters take effect 45 days after election day. In our case, that means December 24th.

Can the proposal be undone?

The only way to amend or invalidate Proposal 3 would be if voters approve another constitutional amendment to that effect.

What’s next?

The effect of Proposal 3 will be determined by the court - if any state law is challenged - or by state lawmakers. The newly elected state Legislature - where Democrats will control both the state House and Senate come January - favors abortion rights. There are a few Michigan laws on the books that unnecessarily restrict abortion access, including one that limits insurance coverage for abortion and one that requires a 24-hour waiting period.

A Democratic-controlled Legislature means lawmakers could loosen current abortion regulations or invalidate some of them under the new constitutional amendment.

Michigan Chapter