More Michiganders Believe State Headed For Recession

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/26/2026) The May Detroit Regional Chambers Glengariff poll, released Tuesday, shows that 45.8% of voters – a decrease from the 49.6% polled in February – believe the state is on the right track.

The political breakdown of the right track was much larger, with 16.6% of Republicans and 69.8% of Democrats believing the state is on the right track.

The overall state feeling was also much lower regarding the nation, with 28.5% believing that the nation is on the right track, with strong Republicans being the only group in the positive, with 68% believing the nation is on the right track.

When it comes to economics, 36.8% believe Michigan is on the wrong track, which is a decrease from February, when 41.6% said the economy was on the wrong track for the state.

The reasons given by people for why the state was on the wrong track included: 25.2% because of inflation, 13.9% because of unemployment, 12% because of taxes or government spending, 9.5% saying wages are too low, and 6.6% because of the price of gas.

There were 73.5% of the people who told pollsters they were doing better or the same, with 17% saying better and 56.5% saying the same. Twenty-six percent said worse.

There are more people, 60%, seeing signs that the economy is weakening, with 47.2% of those saying there is no recession and 12.8% saying the state is in recession.

There were 41.8% of respondents who believed there would be a recession in 2027, which is an increase from 36.6% in February. Blue-collar workers had increased from 30.3% concerns from a recession in a year to 41.9% in May. White collar workers went from 40.9% in February to 45.7% in May.

One of the points that was presented at the Mackinac Policy Conference was a panel put together by the Detroit Regional called “The House is on Fire.”

The idea was put forward that Michiganders did not know about the structural problems that were being faced in the state of Michigan, with 58.8% not being aware that the fourth-grade reading scores were 44th in the country, or 75.2% were not aware that Michigan had dropped from 16th to 39th in per-person income over a 25-year period compared to other states.

“Voters think we’re about dead average in most of these critical rankings, but truth be told, we’re not dead average, we’re pretty much dead last,” Detroit Regional Chamber President Sandy Baruah said.

The majority, 81.2%, believed that both sides needed to work together to solve the fourth-grade reading problem and 84.8% said both sides needed to work together to solve the per-person income problem.

Henry Ford Health CEO Bob Riney said the whiplash back and forth between Democratic and Republican policies was creating an unstable environment for businesses.

He said Michigan was one of the three truly purple states and the state’s parties needed to work together.

“You have to be really, really on your toes, because you have such division about how ideology goes, but right now, we’re not wearing purple very well,” Riney said.