Return of the trifecta: Michigan Democrats reclaim full control of state government

DETROIT — Michigan will have a new Democratic Party majority in the state Legislature after Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial returns.

The party and its top incumbent officials in the state Legislature declared victory on Wednesday morning after it became clear that they would have a new trifecta, as Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was also elected to the office of governor on Nov. 3.

As of early Wednesday morning, Michigan Democrats have secured 19 seats in the state Senate while the Republicans secured 14 seats, the Associated Press reported.

The AP also reported that the Democrats secured 51 seats in the state House, compared to the 43 seats that GOP secured on election night.

Those unofficial returns show that the balance of power in the legislative branch will return to where it was in 2023 and 2024, when the party held both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Democrats’ main priority was protecting their state Senate majority and preventing it from falling into Republican hands in a demonstrably favorable year for the party. Democrats also aimed to capitalize on their momentum in 2026 to retake the House.

With a Democratic wave cresting in Michigan on Tuesday, the party achieved both victories.

“Since winning back the majority for the first time in nearly 40 years in 2022, we knew we would have a new mission in 2026 – defending and expanding that majority. And today, Senate Democrats have done just that,” Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks said in a statement. “This newly expanded majority will allow Senate Democrats to reach new heights.”

Brinks will join Benson in the executive office as the lieutenant governor-elect. In that role, she will still retain a top leadership position in the chamber she is now leaving, as the lieutenant governor is the president of the Senate and breaks ties, if needed.

“I look forward to working with our new caucus as Lieutenant Governor to drive costs down and wages up throughout this great state,” Brinks said.

Michigan Senate Democrats must also choose a new leader going into the 2027 legislative session.

Current House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) is the likely pick for House speaker now that Democrats have also taken back the state House. He will replace current Republican House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), if elected to the position by his caucus as expected.

Puri said what Michigan experienced on Tuesday night was not a “blue wave,” but a “tsunami.”

“For the last two years, I served in the Michigan House as a minority leader, and I watched the institution be driven into the ground,” Puri said at the Democrats’ watch party in Detroit. “I watched healthcare be ripped away from our sick. I watched food and benefits taken away from our needy, and I watched tax cuts to billionaire corporations. The people of Michigan spoke up tonight and said that they’ve had enough, and they delivered a House Democratic majority.”

Puri will become the first Indian American and Sikh speaker of the Michigan House.

Following the momentous win, state Rep. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor), said the victory was the culmination of intense focus on the issues of affordability and the damage that they said the Republicans had done to their gains during the last Democratic trifecta. Morgan added that Republicans in Washington, D.C. also had a hand to play in creating the environment that made 2026 such a favorable year for the opposing party.

“The hard work for us was just showing the people of Michigan that we will actually make their lives better. We will make their lives more affordable. We will create opportunity, and we will make our state better for the long term,” Morgan told Michigan Advance. “And I believe that people saw that, and they also looked at Washington D.C. and realized that everything Donald Trump was doing was hurting their daily life. 

Morgan said he was “extremely excited about what we can do over the next years to make life better for every Michigander.”

Brinks on Wednesday morning said that the Senate’s top priority would be to push for a Michigan Voting Rights Act, which they have had in mind through the period of divided government from 2025 and 2026.

Morgan said that the House’s first priority was to focus on making life more affordable for for Michiganders — at the rest would fall into place. That includes potential Freedom of Information Act reform to extend the law to the governor’s office and the Legislature, and other accountability issues. But affordability would come first.

“Government transparency, ethics, and accountability, those are critical … but the most important thing that I’ve heard consistently from voters while knocking doors all over the state of Michigan is that people need life to be more affordable,” Morgan said. “That’s what we’re focused on as priority number one.”

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said that, “when Democrats are in power, we make progress for working people.”

“With our last trifecta, we restored workers’ rights, cut taxes for families, fed kids at school, and lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty,” Hertel said in a statement. “Now, we will continue that critical work. With the leadership of Governor-Elect Benson and the future leaders of the state legislature, we will keep building toward a Michigan where every person has a chance to thrive.”