Even with election results continuing to roll in, some experts say if trend lines hold, the election has been mixed for both parties at the state level.
The Michigan GOP said it has retained control of the statehouse and officials plan to announce next term’s leadership on Thursday.
Jarrett Skorup is with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. He said the election doesn’t seem an endorsement or repudiation of how the GOP-led statehouse has handled itself.
“Not enough that they came in and said we’re going to vote against house members because we don’t like how they’re acting towards the governor and not enough that they came in and said hey we’re really with the house members and we’re going against the governor,” he said.
What comes next, Skorup said, is likely more of the same.
“We’re going to get the status quo, which for republicans is good news,” he said. “It means you have a seat at the table when you’re negotiating not only over COVID type protocols but also things like the budget that are coming forward.”
According to Skorup, this may have been Democrat’s best chance in a decade to win the statehouse.
Adrian Hemond is the CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a political consulting firm in Lansing. He said Democrats are not seeing the positive results that polls projected.
“I think the polling miss, more than anything, is the big story in this election,” he said. “It’s the story in Michigan and it’s the story nationally.”
Hemond said there are numerous problems with how polls are conducted.
“There’s a pretty hard correlation between the level of education and likelihood of answering a telephone poll,” he said. “The more educated you are the more likely you are to answer one of those. That’s a problem you need to address.”
Hemond said if media organizations and politicians continue to rely on polls - polling has to improve.