August 2nd, 2022 Election Results in the Upper Peninsula
In the 37th State Senate District, Senator Wayne Schmidtt is term limited, and could not run for re-election. In the Republican nominee race John Damoose came out ahead of runner up, Tristen Cole by 10 points. For the Democratic primary, Barbra Conley defeated Jim Schmidt, earning more than 80 percent of the vote. Democrat Nominee Conley will face off with Republican Nominee Damoose in November.
State Senator Ed McBroom held off challenges from two other conservatives, to win the Republican nomination in the 38th district. McBroom earned the nod from more than three-quarters of the vote, defeating Matthew Furyck and Kayla Wikstrom. McBroom will face Democrat John Braamse in the November election.
While 107th House District Representative Jon Demoose makes a run for the 37th Senate seat, republicans had the only contested race. Nick Friske led the Republican field, defeating Parker Fairbairn, Johnathon Scheel, Bob Carr, and David Laughbaum. Friske defeated the nearest runner up by over 1000 votes. He will go up against uncontested democratic nominee Jodi Decker come November.
In the 108th, Representative Beau LaFave is term limited. In the republican race John Prestin defeated his other three challengers. Prestin took the popular vote by 14 points over runner up Mark Simon. Prestin will go against uncontested Democrat nominee Chris Lopez in November.
In the 109th State House District, Marquette City Commissioner Jenn Hill finished more than 10 points ahead of Forsythe Township Supervisor Joe Boogren for the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side, perennial candidate Melody Wagner earned a seven-point victory over Ron Gray. Hill and Wagner will fight for the right to replace Democrat Sara Cambensy, who is term-limited. The 109th was recently redrawn to include Baraga County. In what may be a hint as to the partisan breakdown of the new district, democratic voters outnumbered republican voters yesterday, 10,584 to 8,156.
Locally, Schoolcraft Township Supervisor Joel Keranen won the four-way race for the republican nomination for district two Houghton County Commissioner. Keranen drew 571 votes, well ahead of runner-up Lou Ambuehl, who had 341. Kevin Kader will continue his role representing District Two, until his interim role on the Houghton County Commission ends in November. Kader was appointed by the Houghton County Commission following the sudden passing of long time public servant Al Koskela, back in April. The board also picked Kader for the interim role, for his commitment to not run in the primary. Keranen will appear as the Republican nominee for the County Commissioner District Two seat in the November election.
And in Stanton Township, a proposal that would have established a planning commission to draw up land use and zoning guidelines failed, 316 to 259.
In Ontonagon County, both of the requests designed to help payoff millions of dollars in outstanding pension obligations to former Ontonagon County Memorial Hospital workers failed by margins of more than two-to-one. One would have boosted millages across the county by two mills. The other would have increased millages within the village by 20 mills. Both increases would have run through 2028. All other millage requests in ontonagon county passed.
In Keweenaw County, Gary Bracco easily defeated Kenneth Rowe for the Republican nomination for County Road Commission. All of the millage issues on the ballot in Keweenaw County passed.
Check out full results with our friend over at Keweenaw Report, here.