The Michigan Democratic primary is over. The choices have been made. And whatever disagreements Democrats had during the primary season, the task now is considerably simpler: win in November.
For Democrats in Michigan, 2026 cannot be an election in which voters focus only on the top of the ticket. The future of the state will be decided from the governor’s office to the Michigan Legislature to one of the most consequential U.S. Senate races in America. That means Democrats need to rally around candidates at every level — including right here in Chelsea.
For those of us in Chelsea and western Washtenaw County, that begins with Jan Maino, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 46th House District.
Maino is challenging Republican incumbent Kathy Schmaltz in a district that stretches across parts of Washtenaw and Jackson counties and includes Chelsea and Sylvan Township. It is exactly the kind of district Democrats must compete for if they hope to regain control of the Michigan House.
Maino brings a decidedly community-based résumé to the race. A licensed social worker, nonprofit executive, school board leader and longtime community volunteer, she has spent her career working with families, educators and service organizations. Her campaign emphasizes lowering everyday costs, strengthening public education, expanding access to mental-health care and protecting good-paying jobs.
But winning a competitive state House district requires more than having a good candidate. It requires money for mail, digital advertising, field organizers, signs and the less glamorous infrastructure of getting voters to the polls.
Support Jan Maino:
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Chelsea-area Democrats also have an important job in returning Sue Shink to the Michigan Senate.
Shink represents the 14th Senate District, covering portions of Washtenaw and Jackson counties. She flipped the district Democratic in 2022 and now faces Republican Tawn Beliger. Shink has built her political identity around conservation, working families and practical local government. Before entering the Senate, she chaired the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, and her campaign stresses her record as a problem solver rather than an ideological show horse.
Keeping seats such as Shink’s matters enormously. State legislative races receive a fraction of the attention of contests for governor and U.S. Senate, but Lansing determines what Michigan does about education, reproductive freedom, labor rights, environmental protection, voting rights and countless other issues that affect people’s lives every day.
Support Sue Shink:
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Then there is the race that could help determine the direction of the entire country.
Democrats chose Abdul El-Sayed as their nominee for the U.S. Senate after a hard-fought primary. Now the primary has to be over in more than name. Both his rivals, Rep. Haley Stevens and State Senator Mallory McMorrow, are imploring Michigan Democrats to support El Sayed.
El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers for the open seat being vacated by Gary Peters. The stakes extend far beyond Michigan: control of the United States Senate could hinge on what happens here. Rogers is actively trying to paint El Sayed as a “radical” merely because he is a Muslim. Meanwhile, Rogers, who was not residing in Michigan when he declared his intention to run for Michigan’s Senate seat, was handpicked and recruited by Donald Trump because Rogers pledges to support, without challenge, Trump’s agenda to grift billions of dollars from the Oval Office, wage a “forever war” with Iran, keep our energy, grocery and auto purchases high and abuse the constitution’s separation of powers provision. Rogers is the radical al. El Sayed is committed to returning government to its proper function and rollback Trump’s powers by thwarting his illegal and vicious agenda.
That makes Democratic unity essential.
El-Sayed ran as an unapologetic progressive, advocating Medicare for All, reducing corporate influence in politics, making housing and education more affordable, building an economy more responsive to working people and for ing reform of ICE to force the Department of Homeland Security to abide by proper and legitimate law enforcement standards. The agency has gone rogue under Trump and is arresting law abiding immigrants who have been in process of becoming legal residents and citizens
His campaign has also demonstrated an unusual capacity for grassroots fundraising: it reported raising more than $4.5 million during the second quarter, much of it through individual donors. That’s why we need you. Even $5, $10, $20 donations are needed and welcome.
Republicans understand the importance of defeating him. The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently announced another $6 million in advertising aimed at El-Sayed and supporting Rogers. And wealthy right-wingers like Elon Musk and Betsy DeVoss have pledge to spend more.
Democrats should understand the implication. Whatever candidate someone supported in the primary, sitting out the general election because El-Sayed wasn’t that candidate effectively helps elect Mike Rogers. A political party cannot win if every primary becomes a loyalty test that continues after the voters have spoken.
Democrats had their debate. Democratic voters made their decision. Now El-Sayed needs the financial, organizational and electoral support of the entire coalition.
Support Abdul El-Sayed:
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And Michigan Democrats must rally just as strongly around Jocelyn Benson for Governor.
Benson enters the general election after decisively winning the Democratic nomination and will face Republican John James, a Trump lackey who is just as committed to the illegal abuse of the constitution as Mike Rogers. As Michigan Secretary of State, Benson has already occupied one of the most politically consequential jobs in the state. Her gubernatorial campaign is built around affordability, housing, healthcare, education, energy costs and economic development, along with protecting voting and other fundamental rights.
Her campaign also illustrates why fundraising matters. Michigan’s gubernatorial contest will be one of the country’s major races, and Republicans and their allies will spend heavily to win back the governor’s office after eight years of Gretchen Whitmer.
Benson therefore needs more than favorable polling or enthusiastic Democrats. She needs the resources to organize and communicate across a large, diverse state — from Detroit and its suburbs to Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
Support Jocelyn Benson:
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The larger lesson is that Democrats cannot treat political participation as something that happens every two or four years when they walk into a voting booth.
Campaigns require volunteers knocking doors, people making phone calls, neighbors talking to neighbors and — inevitably — money. A $25 contribution to a state House candidate can be particularly meaningful because legislative campaigns operate on a completely different financial scale from presidential or U.S. Senate campaigns.
And local races build the political infrastructure that statewide candidates need.
A volunteer knocking doors for Jan Maino in Chelsea is also identifying voters who can support Sue Shink, Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson. A voter brought to the polls because she cares about the Michigan House may cast the vote that helps elect a Democratic governor or senator. The ticket reinforces itself.
That is why the Democratic strategy in Michigan should be straightforward: organize locally, vote the entire ballot and stop abandoning candidates after contentious primaries.
There will always be differences between progressives, moderates and the many Democrats who don’t fit neatly into either camp. Those debates are healthy. Primaries exist precisely so that voters can settle them.
But general elections are about governing power. And we are having to already brace for illegal intervention in the election by Trump. Trump is turning the area around the White House into a bunker of barriers and fences anticipating that Democrats, as many as two million, will march on Washington if he meddles with and interferes with voting.
In Chelsea, that means helping Jan Maino win House District 46 and returning Sue Shink to the State Senate. Statewide, it means electing Jocelyn Benson governor. Nationally, it means sending Abdul El-Sayed to the United States Senate.
The primary asked Michigan Democrats whom they preferred.
November asks a much bigger question: what kind of Michigan — and what kind of country — do they want to live in?