MIRS Team Names Farhat As Minority Lawmaker Of The Year

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/22/2025) Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) was named MIRS' Minority Lawmaker of the Year on the MIRS Monday podcast. The second-term legislator was recognized as a liaison between Republicans and Democrats on subjects like public safety, economic development and road funding.

Farhat started this year as the minority vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Although he remains on the committee, his leadership role was removed by House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) in July for not joining Republicans in supporting life-without-parole legislation for minors guilty of brutal crimes.

Hall claimed he offered changes to the proposal – like to not place minors under consecutive sentences for multiple charges – in exchange for Farhat's yes vote. But Farhat did not deliver it, while Republicans were down three members.

But also this year, Farhat received the first-place ranking for whom Capitol insiders – including legislators, lobbyists and Capitol staff personnel – viewed as the most effective House Democrat. The survey, with results released in late May, featured about 500 tabulated respondents, commissioned by MIRS and conducted by the EPIC-MRA.

Sixteen percent of survey participants viewed Farhat as the most effective, while 10 percent chose Rep. Will Snyder (D-Muskegon); 9 percent picked Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), Hall's most obvious ally among House Democrats; 8 percent chose Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Lansing), an ex-House Appropriations chair and 7 percent selected House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton).

Farhat was dubbed a top Democratic negotiator behind the $1.8 billion road funding package the Governor signed in October.

The deal consisted of having all state taxes paid at the fuel pump going toward road improvements, which will equate to a $0.524 per gallon tax on motor and alternative fuel beginning next month.

It will also utilize a new 24 percent wholesale tax on marijuana. Additionally, it decouples – or de-matches – Michigan's tax structure for businesses from federal practices, not offering the same large federal tax deductions that President Donald Trump signed off on for manufacturing and research and development (R&D) purchases covering all of 2025 and going back to 2022.

Moreover, Farhat collaborated with Hall and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's office to construct a Public Safety and Violence Prevention Trust Fund, creating a new category within the state's tax revenue-sharing obligations to local governments. Specifically, $75 million was dedicated in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget to locally-run violent crime and safety initiatives.

Farhat has been an advocate as well for Michigan's Middle Eastern families – with Dearborn being an Arab American-majority community – concerned about mass deaths amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. He's condemned conservative politicians for accusing Dearborn of enforcing Sharia law.

"He just seems like he's in the mix on everything," said MIRS editor Kyle Melinn about Farhat on Monday’s podcast episode.

Melinn explained that Farhat continues to be a bridge between Democrats and Republicans on economic development efforts going into the new year.

"He's got several bills on brownfields, and is working behind the scenes to get some type of agreement reached, whether it's a 'HIRE Michigan' type format, where companies get to keep the income tax paid out by their employees, or it's … expanding the brownfield program and using existing sites for future development, whether it's big projects or small projects," Melinn said.

Farhat additionally saw his HB 4090 signed into law, permitting the state to sell the 96.14-acre Detroit Detention Center to the city for $1.

Other nominees for 2025's Minority Lawmaker of the Year, as part of MIRS' "Best Of" series for policy movers and political shakers, were Reps. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) and Will Snyder (D-Muskegon) as well as Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater).

Previous MIRS' Minority Lawmakers of the Year include:

- Former Rep. Graham Filler (R-St. Johns) in 2024.

- Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) in 2023.

- Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Lansing) in 2022.

- Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Twp.) in 2021.

- Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit) in 2020.

- Former Sen. Curtis Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) Jr. (D-East Lansing) in 2019 and 2018.

- Former Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren) in 2017.

- Former Sen. Jim Ananich (D-Flint) in 2016, 2015 and 2014.

- Former Rep. Ellen Cogan Lipton (D-Huntington Woods) in 2013.

- Former Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) in 2012.