Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist said there was a “credible bomb threat” directed at his home Thursday, although a law enforcement search turned up no explosives.
It is one example of multiple reported threats directed against Michigan Democratic elected officials following the fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday.
Gilchrist in his second term serving under Governor Gretchen Whitmer is now seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2026.
He said the threat came in the form of an email and a voice message saying an explosive device had been attached to the door of his family’s Detroit apartment. Gilchrist said his building was swept by a law enforcement bomb squad.
Now, he said state and federal authorities are investigating the threat.
“That investigation will be ongoing to see what they can turn up,” he said on the Michigan Public Television show “Off the Record. “But this is an interagency effort to make sure we understand and can get to the bottom of it and that, ultimately, who carried this out can be held accountable.”
Gilchrist says it’s important that violent threats are treated seriously.
“And I think it is also incumbent and imperative for all of us to just make sure that how we show up and how do the work that we do, how we communicate, how we do our jobs, we do so in way that doesn’t sort of foster or fester this kind of energy to be in our communities,” he said.
State Senator Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township) also reported his home was swept for a bomb following a threatening message. He said law enforcement agencies found nothing dangerous. State Representative Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) said they were among other House Democrats who have been threatened.
Spokespersons for the Michigan House and Senate Republicans did not reply to emailed requests for comment and information on any threats against GOP lawmakers.
Earlier this month, Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in their homes by a gunman with political motives, according to federal authorities. Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also critically injured in a separate early morning attack by the gunman.
