(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/06/2024) Outside of Parker Fairbairn and Jason Woolford, who won their Republican primaries Tuesday night by defeating incumbents, five other candidates are likely going to be sworn into the House come next January due to winning in a primary without a competitive General Election. 

This leaves five seats in which the eventual winner will be selected in the primary. Here’s where those five seats stand:  

- 7th House District - Tonya Myers Phillips, a Sugar Law Center attorney, and political ally of House Majority Leader Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck), won amid a weak field against two perennial candidates. Phillips received 66.61% to Ernest Little's 15.84% and Abraham Shaw's 16.48% with 33% of returns reporting. 

- 33rd House District – Brabec staffer Morgan Foreman won her Democratic primary in her quest to succeed her old boss in the Legislature, 67% to 33% over Rima Mohammad. Foreman was supported by former Rep. Yousef Rabhi and several other local Democratic officials. She did live outside the district near Ypsilanti until recently, if that matters to voters, which in Ann Arbor it probably doesn’t.  Mohammad, the child of Palestinian refugees, was supported by Ann Arbor progressives and other liberals such as Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City).  

Mohammad was dragged down by her work on an unpopular school board, which has been forced to lay off 141 staffers amid $20.4 million in cuts. She also sponsored a ceasefire resolution at the school board level that the Jewish community felt was one-sided and an unnecessary distraction given the school board is viewed as being on the verge of a state takeover.   

- 35th House District – Branch County Republican Vice Chair Jennifer Wortz, who had the Farm Bureau endorsement and the support of the Consumers Energy PAC, Citizens for Energizing Michigan’s economy, was victorious in her campaign, winning with 52% of the vote. Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford received 30% of the vote while Tom Matthew earned 18%. 

Former Rep. Eric Leutheuser and the more Main Street Republicans lined up behind Wortz, too.  

Stockford ran a much different campaign than the low-energy effort he ran four years ago against Rep. Andrew Fink (R-Osseo), when he finished fourth out of four Republican candidates. Outside of being supported by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, the Grand New Party and former state House candidate Steve Meckley, Stockford was much more visible, giving him an edge amid the MAGA crowd. His issue was he didn't have the money Wortz generated. Matthew had some money, as it turned out, but his TV ads and mailers likely came too late in the campaign to have much impact. 

- 40th House District – The Democratic primary was the blowout we expected with former Congressional candidate Matt Longjohn – having been endorsed by the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party, defeated Lisa Brayton, 70 to 30 percent. Longjohn, a clinical assistant professor at Western Michigan University, made then-U.S. Rep. Fred Upton sweat back during his aggressive 2018 campaign, and he’ brought that same type of energy to his state House race, sources on the ground say. 

Brayton, a former Portage official, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor earlier this year for running for local office from an address at which she didn’t live. She also ran for the county commission as a Republican. Her Democratic bonafides clearly appeared suspect.  

- 64th House District – Joseph Pavlov, the cousin of the former state Senator, squeaked out a win over St. Clair County Commissioner Jorja Baldwin and former Rep. Gary Eisen, 31.82% to Baldwin's 3,581 and Eisen's 28.53%. Pavlov reportedly had the best ground game of the five Republican contenders. He was expected to be strong in Maryville and the district’s south end.  

Eisen isn’t known as a ferocious doorknocker, but he did send out at least four pieces of mail. A C(4) supporting his campaign that's connected to a Jason Wentworth fund sent out a fifth. From all his prior runs, Eisen has a built-in 20 percent base of support. Meanwhile, Baldwin was the most well-connected of the three.