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Michigan’s State Legislative Exhaust Port [1]

['Angela Marx', 'Sabrina Haake', 'News Corpse']

Date: 2026-06-14  

Hello folks. I have long heard of this site, but have refrained from joining it out of fear of not being a good fit for its community. So please bear with me as I try to get used to this format.

I thought I would try something with Michigan’s state legislative races in order to make the best use of available donation money for this cycle. After doing a bit of diving and researching publicly available databases, I found a small handful of legislative races that has heavy potential up ballot effects if enough donations to the candidates running in them. By this, I mean that supporting the campaigns running in the below State House districts will not only provide needed reverse coattails for the state’s U.S. senate race, but also provide crucial support towards flipping Michigan’s 10th congressional district. Think of these races as the exhaust port to the Republican Death Star. To respect this site’s policy of leaving Democratic incumbents alone (and also because Kevin Hertel is the only incumbent that comes to my mind who could possibly use extra help this cycle on the state legislative end), I will exclusively focus on offense races. I would also like to note that plenty of Republicans are aware of this phenomenon and are certainly providing enough volunteers, money, and surrogates to provide a full-fledged effort to keep these races in their win column. Without further ado, here are the key offense races:



HD-62: This is perhaps the hardest of the three targets, as the Republican incumbent, Alicia St. Germaine, won by a 12-point margin in 2024. I didn’t find any obvious weak points, although her previous support for authoring a bill making banning public street and highway protests has gotten some heat.



Three Democrats are running for the right to face her in the general election: Phil Anosike, Craig Plesco, and Matthew Smith. However, I have not been able to find any up-to-date campaign websites for any of these three Democrats. The only things that I was able to find was an outdated MCC Board of Trustees 2020 campaign website for Craig Plesco, and a UMich page for Matthew Smith. Any additional information on any of these candidates would be helpful.



HD-58: This particular district, on the other hand, is on much easier ground than HD-62. In fact, I would even say that Katrina Manetta, the presumptive nominee, is actually favored to kick out the Republican incumbent, Ron Robinson, as he only managed to win by 6.8 points in 2024. Katrina Manetta certainly knows how to organize through her work in co-founding Macomb Defenders Rising, and her platform is well-defined and carefully researched. It wouldn’t take much more support to flip HD-58, and the district is seen as a must-win area in order to regain control of the Michigan House of Representatives.



Katrina Manetta: https://katrinamanetta.com/



HD-55: This district is very close to being a lay-up, as Mark Tisdel, the Republican incumbent, only won by 7.4 points in 2024, and is facing a Democratic opponent that is very well-organized. The Democrat in question (and presumptive nominee), Alex Hawkins, has flawlessly transitioned from utilizing the considerable support that was originally for a MI-10 campaign to set up a top-notch platform that has allowed him to attain presumptive nominee status for this district. I anticipate that only a small amount of further support will be needed for Alex Hawkins to flip this critical district.



Alex Hawkins: https://www.alexhawkins.org/



Anyway, I figured that donating to these State House races would be more effective than supporting U.S. Senate or House races, since Democratic candidates there have already raised millions of dollars and have more than enough exposure. This is my first post, so if I already made any serious mistakes, I apologize in advance.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/14/800055284/community/michigans-state-legislative-exhaust-port/

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