El-Sayed and Benson Capture Michigan with Record Turnout and Shifts in Rural and Urban Areas

Jocelyn Benson and Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's governor's race and US Senate seat by outperforming recent Democratic benchmarks. Unofficial results from the election held on Tuesday show both candidates exceeded the vote shares of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential contest. This performance helped Democrats retake control of the US Senate and placed Benson in a position to succeed outgoing Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Benson defeated Republican John James by more than 10 percentage points. El-Sayed, who campaigned on universal healthcare and taxing the wealthy, beat Republican Mike Rogers by approximately seven points. The victories relied on high voter participation and a statewide shift toward Democratic candidates. More than 4.8 million voters cast ballots in Michigan, a number that appears to be a midterm record. This total exceeds the 4.5 million votes cast in 2022 but remains below the 5.7 million recorded in the 2024 presidential election.

All 83 counties in Michigan shifted toward Democrats compared to the 2024 election, according to an Associated Press analysis. Wayne County, the state's most populous, saw a 14-percentage point shift. Rural areas including Dickinson, Branch, and St. Joseph counties also experienced double-digit shifts toward the Democratic ticket. Benson won 18 counties, while El-Sayed won 14. These gains in populous areas offset losses in other rural regions, allowing both candidates to secure statewide victories despite not winning every county.

Performance in Detroit and Wayne County proved decisive for both campaigns. As of 7 a.m., approximately 93% of Wayne County ballots were counted. El-Sayed and Benson each received more than 70% of the vote in their respective races. This margin surpassed the 63% that Harris secured in Wayne County in 2024. In Detroit, Benson won about 93% of the vote and El-Sayed won about 92%. Both figures exceeded the 90% Harris received in the city two years ago. Mike Rogers received only 5% of the vote in Detroit, down from the 7% he won in his 2024 loss to Elissa Slotkin.

Voter dynamics in Oakland County reflected specific demographic shifts. Rogers courted Jewish voters, citing El-Sayed's opposition to US support for Israel and his comments following a March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township. In West Bloomfield Township, Rogers won 46% of the vote, up from 42% in 2024. However, El-Sayed's margin of victory there shrank to 2,240 votes from Slotkin's 5,538-vote margin in 2024. El-Sayed won Oakland County with 56% of the vote, topping Harris' 54% in the same county. Lauren Slutsky, a 55-year-old resident of Huntington Woods, voted for Rogers, stating that El-Sayed had not proven he would stand against antisemitism. At the same polling place, Steve Gold, wearing a "Jews for Abdul" shirt, supported El-Sayed's push for Medicare for All.

Metro Detroit communities with larger Muslim populations shifted back to Democrats after breaking for Trump in 2024. El-Sayed won Dearborn by 65 points, and Benson won the city by 60 points. In 2024, Trump had won Dearborn by six percentage points. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud reported that the city's turnout of 45,464 voters was the highest in the city's history.

College towns provided additional support for the Democratic ticket. El-Sayed won Washtenaw County with 74% of the vote, while Benson received about 75%. Both candidates outperformed Harris, who won 71% of votes in Washtenaw County in 2024. Similar outperformance occurred in Ingham, Kalamazoo, Isabella, and Kent counties, all of which are home to universities. Jack Morean, a 19-year-old Michigan State University student from Grand Rapids, voted for Democrats across the ballot at an on-campus precinct in East Lansing. Morean described the current government as abhorrent and said he was voting for change to address apparent divisiveness.