A Grand Rapids Name on the Statewide Ticket: Winnie Brinks and the Race for Governor
State Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids is the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, running with Jocelyn Benson against Republican John James and Jay DeBoyer. However Tuesday ends, West Michigan has a direct line into the state's biggest race.
Grand Rapids rarely gets its name this high on a statewide ballot. Winnie Brinks, the state Senate Majority Leader who represents Grand Rapids in the Senate's 29th District, is the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor — the running mate of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the party's nominee to succeed term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. John James is the nominee for governor, with state Rep. Jay DeBoyer as his running mate.
Brinks' path runs through this city's politics: she served in the state House representing Grand Rapids before winning her Senate seat, and rose to lead the Senate's Democratic majority. The lieutenant governor's job in Michigan is formally modest — presiding over the Senate, breaking tie votes, and standing first in succession — but running mates are chosen to say something about a ticket, and Benson's choice says West Michigan matters to a Democratic campaign that must hold Kent County's fast-growing suburbs to win statewide.
Kent County is precisely the kind of place both campaigns are fighting over: a county that anchored Republican Michigan for generations and has become steadily more competitive as Grand Rapids and its suburbs have grown. Turnout here on Tuesday will be read nationally as a signal in both the governor's race and the open U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, who are competing to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Also on Tuesday's ballot for Kent County voters: all of Michigan's congressional delegation, every seat in the state House and Senate, races for attorney general and secretary of state, Michigan Supreme Court seats, statewide proposals, and county and local offices. Whatever the results, a Grand Rapids legislator will either be preparing to move into the lieutenant governor's office in Lansing or returning to lead the state Senate. Furniture City News will have the county's full results on election night.
