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HOWELL, Mich. — Republican Tom Barrett is projected to win Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, defeating his Democratic opponent Curtis Hertel Jr., 50.4% to 46.5%.
Barrett, an Iraq war veteran and former Michigan state representative, will fill Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s open seat, which she left vacant to seek Michigan’s Senate seat this cycle.
This is Barrett’s second bid for the district after losing to Slotkin in 2022.
Hertel’s campaign echoed Vice President Kamala Harris’ national campaign strategy, running to the center on tax and border issues in campaign ads and touting endorsements from Republicans in his state.
Meanwhile, Barrett’s campaign trumpeted his endorsement from Donald Trump, and leaned into the candidate’s record as a combat veteran and legislator.
Barret is very much of the Trump mold, proposing border controls, tax cuts, and a more cautious relationship with Chinese investors in the United States on his website.
Barrett, who lost in the 7th District amid the debate over the abortion issue in 2022, chose not to make it an issue of his campaign in 2024, a pivot which Democrats critcized as a flip-flop.
Throughout the campaign, Hertel used language one would expect to hear from a Republican to describe his policy proposals ” Curtis is leading the fight to bring next generation auto plants to Michigan, not China,” reads his website, souding almost like Donald Trump himself.
Hertel also distanced himself from extremist language on the issue of climate change, avoiding the typical Democratic talking points on government-mandated electric vehicle prodcution and the phasing-out of fossil fuels.
“With rising temperatures and stronger, more unpredictable weather events the new norm, we need to be supporting Michigan’s agricultural industry and working to support families affected by storm damage and rising insurance costs,” reads his tame campaign statement on climate change.
In a district where Republicans and Democrats are represented equally, both candidates rushed to the ideological center this cycle.
