Michigan's 11th congressional district election was held on November 6, 2012, for a seat in the

113th United States Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Presidency of Barack Obama, Barack Obama's presiden ...

alongside a presidential election, other elections to the United States House of Representatives and elections for class I of the United States Senate. In Michigan, all of the state's 14 congressional seats were at stake. Michigan's junior United States Senator Debbie Stabenow is running for re-election. Additionally, all 110 seats in the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...

were at stake. In reapportionment done following the

2010 United States census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, the district was redrawn to favor then

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Thaddeus McCotter Thaddeus George "Thad" McCotter (born August 22, 1965) is an American politician, radio host, and a member of the Republican Party who was the U.S. representative from from 2003 to 2012. The district at the time consisted of portions of Detroi ...

. The election was held alongside a special election to fill a vacancy in Michigan's 11th congressional district caused by the July 6, 2012 resignation of Republican member of the United States House of Representatives

. The primary for the special election was held on September 5, 2012.

Background

After a failed, short-lived presidential campaign, McCotter opted to run for 6th term in the House. On May 25, 2012, it was announced that McCotter had fallen short of the required 1,000 signatures to appear on the ballot for the August 7 GOP primary. On May 29, 2012, McCotter announced his intentions to seek the GOP nomination as write-in candidate. McCotter ended his write-in campaign shortly after on June 2, 2012. McCotter resigned from Congress on July 6, 2012. On August 11, 2012, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced charges against four former McCotter staff aides, for their roles in obtaining and submitting fraudulent election petitions.

Primary election

Republican

After McCotter's resignation, the only other Republican who qualified for the primary ballot was political novice/ Tea Party activist

Kerry Bentivolio Kerry Bentivolio (born October 6, 1951) is an American politician and educator who is the former United States Representative for , in office from 2013 to 2015. Bentivolio, a Republican, defeated Democratic nominee Syed Taj, a physician, in th ...

. After McCotter's resignation, several candidates considered mounting a write-in campaign, including Birmingham-based foreclosure attorney David Trott, former state Rep. Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, state Sen. Mike Kowall of White Lake and former Oakland County Republican Party Chairman Paul Welday. Eventually, State GOP leaders rallied around former state Sen.

Nancy Cassis Nancy Cassis (born January 26, 1944) is an American teacher and psychologist. As a Michigan Senator who initially ran against Dick DeVos, she dropped out of the contest before Michigan's 2006 gubernatorial Republican primary. In the Michigan S ...

Candidates

*Kerry Bentivolio *Nancy Cassis (write-in) Declined/Withdrew * David Trott *Andy Raczkowski *Mike Kowall *Paul Welday Disqualified from Ballot *Thad McCotter

Results

Democratic

Only two candidates, both with low name recognition qualified for the Democratic primary ballot before McCotter's resignation. They were Dr. Syed Taj, a member of the Canton Township Board of Trustees and Bill Roberts, a Lyndon LaRouche activist whose main goal was to impeach President Barack Obama and campaigned with posters with Obama having a mustache similar to Adolf Hitler.

Results

General election

Candidates

*Kerry Bentivolio, Republican nominee *Syed Taj, Democratic nominee * Steven Paul Duke,

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 ...

nominee *John J. Tartar, Libertarian Party nominee *

William Daniel Johnson William Daniel Johnson (born 1954) is an American white nationalist, attorney, and the chairman of the American Freedom Party. Background Johnson graduated from Brigham Young University where he majored in Japanese and later served as a Mormon ...

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 ...

nominee

Results

References

{{United States elections, 2012 10th congressional district Michigan 11 2012 11 special