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HOUGHTON -- While Democratic statewide candidates swept the top offices, the Republican candidates continued to win more votes in the Copper Country.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer received 43.9% of the vote in the four-county area, down 0.5 percentage points from 2018, while Republican Tudor Dixon received 54%. Statewide, Whitmer received 54.5% of the vote, an increase over her 53.3% showing against Bill Schuette.
The other two Democratic statewide candidates, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel, also trailed locally but made gains over their 2018 performance.
In the Secretary of State race, Republican challenger Kristina Karamo received 53.6% of the vote, versus 44.1% for Benson. That number for Benson was up a percentage point from her first campaign in 2018.
In the attorney general race, Republican Matthew DePerno received 55.6% of the vote versus Nessel's 42.2%. Nessel's share of the vote is up more than a percentage point from her 2018 campaign versus Tom Leonard.
At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman's 59.4% of the four-county vote in his winning campaign against Bob Lorinser was down two percentage points from 2020, though he ran 3.8% ahead of his performance in the 2018 midterms.
State Sen. Ed McBroom saw a large jump across all four counties in his second campaign. He added 12.9 percentage points to his vote total, finishing with 63.6% of the Copper Country vote against Democrat John Braamse. The win also saw him receive 60.3% of the vote in Keweenaw County, where he had garnered only 44.2% of the vote in 2018 running against Democrat Scott Dianda.
The share of Republican votes in the state House went up by 3.6 percentage points from 2020 to 61.7%. After redistricting, Baraga County was moved from Rep. Greg Markkanen's 110th district to the 109th district. In that county, Republican candidate Melody Wagner received 0.3 percentage points less than Markkanen had in 2020. Markkanen was re-elected in the 110th district, while Democrat Jenn Hill defeated Wagner in the 109th.
Two of the three state proposals before voters won the approval of the majority of the Copper Country.
Michigan Proposal 1 amends the Michigan Constitution to require lawmakers and top state executive officials to file personal financial disclosure reports. It also changes legislative term limits to an overall total of 12 years, instead of two four-year terms in the Senate and three two-year terms in the House. It received 60.3% of the vote, winning a majority in all four counties. Statewide, it passed with 66.5%.
Proposal 2 amends the Michigan Constitution to create early voting and right to sign an affidavit as an alternative to showing photo ID to vote. It also requires state-funded return postage and drop boxes for absentee ballots, and clarifies that the state canvassers board has a non-discretionary duty to certify results. Locally, 52.9% of voters approved, versus 60% statewide. A majority of voters backed it in every local county but Baraga, where it received 48%.
Proposal 3 amends the state constitution to add the right to choose to have an abortion and use contraceptives, and allows the state regulation of abortion after the point of fetal viability. In the four-county area, 48.3% of voters approved of the proposal, below the 56.7% statewide. Keweenaw County was the only county locally where it received a majority vote, getting 55%.
Gazette reporter Graham Jaehnig contributed to this article.