Tom Barrett, a G.O.P. former state senator, has defeated Curtis Hertel, a Democratic former state senator, according to The Associated Press, flipping an open Michigan seat and handing House Republicans a crucial victory in their drive to keep their majority.
Mr. Barrett had run for the Lansing-based seat in 2022 and come up short, losing to Representative Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic former defense official who was widely considered one of the party’s strongest campaigners.
This year, the political winds were blowing in Mr. Barrett’s favor. Ms. Slotkin vacated the seat to run for Senate, depriving Democrats of the advantage of incumbency. And this time, unlike last cycle, there was no referendum on abortion rights on the ballot. In 2022, a ballot question asking whether Michigan should codify a right to an abortion in the state’s Constitution drove up turnout among women and young voters, bolstering Democrats.
Mr. Hertel, who served as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s chief lobbyist for six months before running for Congress, had hoped to appeal to voters in the district by campaigning on reproductive rights, as well as a centrist pitch focused on reaching across the aisle. He attacked Mr. Barrett for stating on his campaign website last cycle that he was “100 percent pro-life — no exceptions.”
Mr. Hertel’s campaign was also banking on a swell of student turnout energized by Vice President Kamala Harris’s late ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Biden stepped aside amid concerns about his age.
But Mr. Hertel was never able to shrug off the connotation of his lobbying work for Ms. Whitmer, even as he outspent Mr. Barrett’s campaign.
Mr. Barrett leaned on his credentials as a former Army helicopter pilot who served in Iraq to make the case that he would be a more moderate voice in the House Republican conference.
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