The 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Michigan, concurrently with the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

of Michigan's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Rick Snyder and Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley were term-limited and were unable to seek a third term in office. The filing deadline was April 24, 2018. The Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties chose their nominees in a partisan primary on August 7, 2018. 2018 was the first year the Libertarian Party held a gubernatorial primary alongside the two other major parties in the state of Michigan. The Working Class Party, U.S. Taxpayers Party, Green Party and Natural Law Party chose their nominees at state party conventions. The race was not as close as expected, with Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was elected with 53.3% of the vote to Republican Bill Schuette's 43.8%. Schuette performed best in more sparsely populated areas, while Whitmer was supported by large margins in large and medium cities, such as

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Ann Arbor, and Lansing. Whitmer also performed well in the Detroit suburbs. Whitmer carried former Republican stronghold Kent County (location of her native

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

), the first Democratic candidate to do so since James Blanchard's landslide 1986 reelection. Democrats swept the statewide races by also holding onto the Senate seat that was up for re-election, and picking up the positions of secretary of state and

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

. They also captured every state university trustee seat that was up for election as well as the State Board of Education.

Republican primary

Candidates

Endorsements

Debates

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominated

* Gretchen Whitmer, former Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney and former Minority Leader of the Michigan Senate

Eliminated in primary

* Abdul El-Sayed, former executive director of the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion * Shri Thanedar, author and entrepreneur

Write-In

* Bill C. Cobbs, businessman

Declined

* John Austin, former president of the Michigan Board of Education * Mark Bernstein, member of University of Michigan Board of Regents * Mike Duggan, Mayor of Detroit * Geoffrey Fieger, attorney and nominee for governor in 1998 * Mark Hackel, Macomb County Executive * Dan Kildee, U.S. representative * Andy Levin, energy consultant and son of Congressman Sander Levin (running for Congress in MI-9) * Barbara McQuade, former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan * Gary Peters, U.S. senator * Matt Simoncini, CEO of Lear Corporation * Bart Stupak, former U.S. representative

Endorsements

Debates

Polling

Results

Libertarian primary

The Libertarian Party is one of three parties that have a primary in Michigan.

Candidates

Nominated

* Bill Gelineau

Eliminated in primary

* John Tatar

Endorsements

Debates

Results

Green Convention

The Green Party chose candidates for the 2018 ballot at its state convention on May 5, 2018, at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Candidates

Declared and nominated

* Jennifer Kurland, president of the Redford Union School Board

U.S. Taxpayers Party

Candidates

Declared and nominated

* Todd Schleiger

Natural Law Party

Candidates

Declared and nominated

* Keith Butkovich

General election

Predictions

Endorsements

Polling

with Bill Schuette and Abdul El-Sayed
with Bill Schuette and Shri Thanedar
with Brian Calley and Gretchen Whitmer
with Brian Calley and Shri Thanedar
with Bill Schuette and Geoffrey Fieger
with Bill Schuette and Mike Duggan

Fundraising

Debates

Two televised debates between Schuette and Whitmer were scheduled. The first debate was held on Friday, October 12, and hosted by Grand Rapids television station WOOD-TV. That debate mainly concentrated on issues and there were no surprises or major errors from either candidate. The second debate was hosted by Detroit television station WDIV and was held on Wednesday, October 24. The two again clashed on various issues, but Schuette made a gaffe when he mixed up Whitmer's name with that of former governor Jennifer Granholm.

Campaign

While Whitmer's Democratic primary opponents publicly endorsed Whitmer in the general election, Republican nominee Schuette left the party split after the acrimonious battle with lieutenant governor Calley, with outgoing governor Rick Snyder refusing to endorse Schuette. Schuette also tried to hide his endorsement by

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

from the primary in the general election. His actions as attorney general also came back to haunt him. Whitmer held consistent leads in polls over Schuette over the entire year.

Results

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Alger (largest city: Munising) * Baraga (largest village: Baraga) * Manistee (largest city: Manistee)

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Clinton (largest city: St. Johns) * Isabella (largest city: Mount Pleasant) * Kalamazoo (largest city: Kalamazoo) *

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

(largest city:

) * Leelanau (largest CDP: Greilickville) * Macomb (largest city: Warren) * Oakland (largest city:

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

)

By congressional district

Whitmer won seven of Michigan's 14 congressional districts.https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::5a43a57b-ba16-4a6d-ad53-1fcfcd8a253b The seven districts she won all elected Democrats to Congress, and the seven that Schuette won all elected Republicans, though he won the district that elected Justin Amash by a very narrow margin of 0.4% and the district that elected Fred Upton by an even thinner 0.2%.

Notes

Partisan clients

References

External links

Candidates
at Vote Smart
Candidates
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

Official campaign websites
Bill Gelineau (L) for GovernorJennifer Kurland (G) for GovernorBill Schuette (R) for GovernorGretchen Whitmer (D) for GovernorTodd Schleiger (UST) for Governor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michigan gubernatorial election, 2018 Gubernatorial 2018 2018 United States gubernatorial elections Gretchen Whitmer