LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Campaigning against Bill Schuette in 2018, Governor Gretchen Whitmer gained momentum by promising to “Fix the Damn Roads” among other promises which paved the way for her gubernatorial victory.  

Now, four years later, she has fixed 13,000 miles of Michigan’s broken roads, but Michigan faces other challenges including greater economic inflation, lower standardized test scores across the state, and crime rates have greatly increased.  And one of her biggest campaign promises of 2020 was how she would “fight like hell” for women’s rights to choose whether they could have an abortion of not.  

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Fox News called the election at a little after 11 pm Tuesday night with only about 40% of the votes having been accounted for.  Late last night Dixon called for supporters to hold out hope and that the media group had called the race too early. 

At time of press Whitmer has won the gubernatorial election with 98% of the votes counted, she leads with 54.5% of the votes to challenger Tudor Dixon’s 43.9% of the votes.  Reports from today indicate that Whitmer performed strongest in: Wayne, Ingham, Oakland, Washtenaw counties. 

In 2018, Whitmer won against Schuette with 50.2% of the votes compared to his 46.9% of the votes – she won this year by nearly 10% over challenger Tudor Dixon. 

She won in Wayne County, 70% to 28%, roughly 2% more of the votes went to Dixon than Shuette in this county.  Whitmer also beat Dixon in Washtenaw County – 75% to 24% – increasing her dominance in the county by almost 6%.  Similarly, she increased her lead in Oakland County since the last election by nearly 7%, gaining 61% to Dixon’s 38%.  Ingham County was also a majority blue vote with 69% for Whitmer and 29% for Dixon, a nearly 3% increase in Democrat votes from 2018.  

Eaton County stayed blue since the last election by nearly the same margin 53% to 45%, despite its previous support for Trump in 2016.  Macomb County gave Whitmer the majority of the votes at 52%.  Kent County continued its blue trend since 2018, though Whitmer increased her supporters there to earn 54% to 44%.  

Dixon conceded the election the morning of Nov. 9, and called Whitmer to congratulate her. 

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She said the following in a statement: 

“I called Governor Whitmer this morning to concede and wish her well.  Michigan’s future success rests not in elected officials of government, but all of us. It is incumbent upon all of us to help our children read, support law enforcement, and grow our economy.  Thank you to our volunteers and supporters for working so hard to forge a better Michigan. We came up short, but we will never stop fighting for our families.” 

Nearly 4.5 million voters made their voices heard in this election also choosing to re-elect Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.  Prop. 3 also passed with a majority of votes enshrining abortion in the state’s constitution.  The contested Elissa Slotkin and Tom Barrett race ended in a Democrat Slotkin victory as did several other congressional districts. 

“This victory has reminded us all that this office does not belong to any person, or political party, it belongs to all of us- the people of Michigan,” Gov. Whitmer said in a victory speech, “Over the next four years let’s build a Michigan where everyone is treated with dignity, can enjoy their personal freedoms, and chart their own path towards prosperity.”

For the first time in 40 years, the Democrat party holds the office of governor and both the state house and senate.  With a Democrat political majority, Republicans will now have to reach across the political aisle to pass bipartisan legislation.