Hertel elected to lead Michigan Democrats into crucial 2026 midterms

Former state Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing, speaks at the Michigan Democratic Party’s convention in Detroit on Feb. 22, 2025, after being elected to chair the party. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Michigan Democrats elected former state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing) to lead their party as efforts begin to rebuild after President Donald Trump won the state in 2024.

Hertel, who succeeds Lavora Barnes after she declined to seek another term as chair, was elected by voice vote Saturday at the party’s convention in Detroit following the decision by Al Williams, his only opponent, to drop out. The MIGOP held their convention a few blocks away, where they elected state Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) in an upset victory over Trump-endorsed candidate Meshawn Maddock.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2026, asked the packed room of Democrats to remember how they felt after Trump’s win in 2016 – and how that translated into major gains for Democrats in 2018 and 2022.

“We fought back and we won, and we’ve expanded rights and freedoms in our state,” Benson said.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who has reportedly also been considering a bid for the state’s top office, alluded to the possibility of launching a campaign, saying that engineers don’t wait to solve problems, they just get to work.

“I’ve been told to wait before. I hate it,” Gilchrist said. “Some people told me to wait to run for office. Some people want me to wait right now.”

Gilchrist quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., saying that “wait has almost always meant never.”

Benson touted her reforms to Secretary of State offices throughout the state and said she would focus on “eliminating red tape, cutting wasteful spending and making government efficient for all – which, by the way, you can do, Elon Musk, without tearing everything apart.”

While U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) touted the fact that she carried a district Trump won by a wider margin than he received, she said Democrats shouldn’t put an overly rosy spin on things.

“What people want me to say is, ‘It’s going to be okay, and here’s why.’ It’s not going to be okay,” McDonald Rivet said. “It’s not. People that we know and love are going to be hurt.”

But the party is already working to oppose actions by the Trump administration, speakers emphasized Saturday.

That includes more than 80 lawsuits throughout the country, with U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit) saying that Democrats are “suing the hell” out of the Trump administration.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said Democrats need to spend the next several months doing five things: “Litigate, legislate, educate, advocate, communicate.”

“I’m losing my voice, because I haven’t stopped raising it since he became president,” Dingell said as her voice cracked.

Most importantly, McDonald Rivet said, Democrats have to win elections.

The party is gearing up for a crucial midterm election cycle in which Michigan will have open races for U.S. Senate, governor, secretary of state and attorney general, and every seat in both chambers of the Michigan Legislature will be up for grabs.

McDonald Rivet said that she was able to win a Trump-voting district because her campaign “relentlessly focused on the things that unite all of us.”

“We want lower costs and good paying jobs, a pathway to the middle class for everybody willing to work for it and a world-class education for all of our kids,” McDonald Rivet said. “When we did that, when we focused on that, Donald Trump may have won our district by two, but we won by seven.”

Hertel said that key issues for Democrats to focus on will include fair wages, affordable housing, water affordability and ballot access.

“If we are not that party, that party will not exist in this country,” Hertel said.