After a long, sometimes bruising primary campaign, the Republican and Democratic party nominees in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District talked about unifying their respective parties Tuesday night ahead of a toss-up November election.
The mid-Michigan district includes Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.
State Senator Kristen McDonald Rivet had garnered slightly more than half the Democratic primary vote with an estimated 49% of ballots counted early Wednesday morning. She defeated state Board of Education president Pamela Pugh and former Flint Mayor Matt Collier.
McDonald Rivet said it's now time to come together to keep the mid-Michigan congressional seat in Democratic hands. The seat is currently held by Democrat Dan Kildee, who is retiring at the end of this term.
“We need to quickly unify and get to work for November because there is a lot at stake,” McDonald Rivet told supporters last night in Saginaw.
McDonald Rivet will face Republican Paul Junge in November.
Junge easily defeated former Dow Chemical executive Mary Draves and trucking company owner Anthony Hudson to win the Republican party’s nomination in the 8th District.
The Republican primary included sometimes pointed attacks between the candidates.
But Paul Junge said now it’s time to come together to defeat the Democrats in November.
“Look, sometimes it’s a little rough, but you have to put what’s best for the country and for your party, and I think we’ll do that,” Junge said Tuesday night at his primary watch party in Burton.
It’s Junge’s second try to win the 8th Congressional District seat.
Two years ago, he lost to Kildee, who was the Democratic incumbent.
Kildee announced last year he would not seek another term representing mid-Michigan in Congress. This is the first congressional race in the Flint area not to feature either Dan or his uncle Dale Kildee on the ballot in nearly half a century.
Kildee was standing by Democratic nominee Kristen McDonald Rivet Tuesday evening as she spoke to her supporters in Saginaw.
