The 2008 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 4, 2008 Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

Carl Levin Carl Milton Levin (June 28, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services C ...

won reelection to a sixth and final term.

General election

Candidates

Scott Boman Scott Avery Boman (born April 14, 1962) * Edited by WDIV Staff http://clickondetroit.com (website). is an American Libertarian politician from Michigan. He has consistently earned among the top votes of any third-party candidate in every Michiga ...

(Libertarian) * Doug Dern (Natural Law) *

, incumbent U.S. Senator (Democratic) *

Jack Hoogendyk Jacob "Jack" Hoogendyk ( ; born 31 July 1955) is an American businessman and Republican politician, a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives and 2012 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan. Early life, educat ...

, State Representative from

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

(Republican) * Harley Mikkelson (Green) * Michael Nikitin (U.S. Taxpayers)

Campaign

Levin's 2002 opponent

Andrew Raczkowski Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski (born December 29, 1968) is an American politician from Michigan who was the 2010 Republican nominee for . Early life, education and career A resident of Troy, he is a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Rese ...

considered running again, but military commitments forced him to drop out. State representative

declared his candidacy to challenge Levin.

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

engineer Bart Baron was also running. Baron apparently failed to qualify for the August 5, 2008 party primary ballot in the

Michigan Secretary of State The Michigan Department of State is administered by the Secretary of State, who is elected on a partisan ballot for a term of four years in gubernatorial elections. The Secretary of State is the third-highest official in the State of Michigan. A ...

's office. So only Hoogendyk was listed on the Republican side in the Michigan primary election. Levin was unopposed on the Democratic side. The filing deadline for candidates to run was May 13. Minor party candidates who ran included Harley Mikkelson of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

Scotty Boman Scott Avery Boman (born April 14, 1962) * Edited by WDIV Staff http://clickondetroit.com (website). is an American Libertarian politician from Michigan. He has consistently earned among the top votes of any third-party candidate in every Michiga ...

of the

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties Lists of political part ...

, Michael Nikitin of the

U.S. Taxpayers Party The Constitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers' Party until 1999, is a political party in the United States that promotes a religious conservative view of the principles and intents of the United States Constitution. The party plat ...

and Doug Dern of the

Natural Law Party The Natural Law Party (NLP) is a transnational party founded in 1992 on "the principles of Transcendental Meditation", the laws of nature, and their application to all levels of government. At its peak, it was active in up to 74 countries; it con ...

. Levin, who maintained a huge fundraising advantage over his opponents, easily won re-election.

Predictions

Polling

Debates

On October 19 WGVU Public television hosted a Senatorial debate to which only Democratic Senator

and Republican State Representative

were invited. They debated topics such as the economy, immigration, and foreign policy. Levin blamed job loss in Michigan on President Bush, while Hoogendyk blamed Levin. Levin supported a Federal bailout of the auto industry, while Hoogendyk opposed the idea. The event, which was moderated by WZZM TV 13's News anchor Peter Ross, was met with protest by supporters of excluded candidates. One of the protesters was Libertarian candidate

, who asserted that he met the stations qualifications. WGVU required the candidates to show at least 5% support in a statewide scientific poll, but Boman said no statewide poll had been done that included him. An exclusive WXYZ poll included all of the candidates, but only contacted respondents in the 7th and 9th Congressional district. Boman also claimed that public broadcasters should have invited the other candidates since it is supported with tax dollars. Senator

and State Representative

met again, the following day (October 20), for a forum hosted by the Detroit Economic Club.

Results

Levin was declared the winner right when the polls closed in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Levin won all but six of

's 83 counties. Levin unsurprisingly won major metropolitan areas, such as Wayne County home of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Ingham County Ingham County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 284,900. The county seat is Mason. Lansing, the state capital of Michigan, is largely located within the county. (Lansing is the only ...

home of

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

. He also became the first Democratic Senator since

Donald Riegle Donald Wayne Riegle Jr. (born February 4, 1938) is an American politician, author, and businessman from Michigan. He served for five terms as a United States House of Representatives, Representative and for three terms as a United States Senate, ...

in 1982 to carry Kent County home of

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

. When combining the suburban and rural counties, it was too much for Hoogendyk to overcome. Levin’s 3,038,386 votes is the most received by any political candidate in the state’s history.

References

External links

Elections
from the ''Michigan Secretary of State''
U.S. Congress candidates for Michigan
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in si ...

Michigan, U.S. Senate
from

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

Michigan U.S. Senate
from ''OurCampaigns.com''
Michigan U.S. Senate race
from ''2008 Race Tracker''
Campaign contributions
from

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...

Hoogendyk (R) vs Levin (D-i)
graph of multiple polls from Pollster.com * Official campaign websites (Archived) *
Carl Levin
*
Jack Hoogendyk
*
Harley Mikkelson
{{2008 United States elections

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...