Big bucks fuel battle for Michigan House. See top donors to Democrats, GOP

• Labor unions, DeVos family among biggest donors shaping fight for control of the Michigan House
• Democratic fundraising outpacing Republicans ahead of the August primary, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis
• Total grassroots fundraising is down from 2022 as a pandemic-era boom continues to fade

LANSING — Michigan Democrats continue to benefit from union donations as they defend their narrow two-seat majority in the state House, where Republicans are relying more on big individual donors to fuel their fight. 

House Democrats, who won a 56-54 majority two years ago to help secure the party’s first governing trifecta in four decades, have outraised Republicans by about $4 million this cycle, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis of contributions to candidates, leadership committees and caucuses. 

All told, those major party accounts have raised more than $28 million combined.

Fundraising alone doesn’t win elections, but it will likely play a big role in the handful of competitive districts that are expected to decide the makeup of the House for the final two years of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s term. 

Republicans aim to flip at least two districts, and a recently redrawn swath of metro Detroit threatens to tilt the odds slightly in their favor. 

With the Tuesday primary just days away, these are the donors who may help decide which candidates advance to the general election — and beyond. 

DeVos donations, union PACs

Of Republicans’ 25 largest donors, 18 are longtime Republican donors and their families. More than a third of the money House Republicans have raised has come from individual contributors giving $10,000 or more.

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• Former Gov. Rick Snyder helping raise funds for House Republicans

The DeVos family, west Michigan heirs to the Amway fortune, continue to be the largest single source of donations in the battle for the House: Combined, they’ve given more than $800,000 to Republicans this cycle. 

Democrats, by contrast, have relied much more heavily on political action committees representing industries or interest groups. Unions, in particular, remain the backbone of Democratic fundraising. 

PACs representing organized labor have given more than $2.4 million to Democrats this election cycle. The Laborer International Union of North America and its local chapters are the most prolific, distributing roughly $473,000 to House campaigns and PACs so far. 

Through a PAC, Michigan Realtors have been the most prolific interest group, contributing $447,000 to 138 House committees — including 97 of 110 state House incumbents, Democrats and Republicans alike. 

Whitmer and Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have both been actively fundraising, despite being term-limited and unable to run again for their current offices. Their associated PACs have together given House Democrats more than $500,000 using money raised in part from wealthy technology executives and Hollywood power players.

War chests and ‘dark money’

While incumbents generally enjoy a strong advantage in primaries, fundraising at this point of the cycle provides a window into the sort of spending voters can expect later in the campaign season when political ads begin to fill the airwaves.

The committees representing each House caucus are particularly important as they have much higher contribution limits than campaigns and can work to directly support their candidates with unlimited spending heading into the general election. That’s something other political action committees can’t do, and is a key factor in the most competitive districts.

Democrats and Republicans already have $6.4 million and $7 million, respectively, in their caucus war chests, a number that is only expected to increase over the next months.

One significant unknown is the level of outside and “dark money” spending that will pour into competitive districts. Traditionally the largest source of dark money has come from Michigan’s political parties, who use accounts that don’t have to report their donors to run legislative attack ads. 

With the internal turmoil that has rocked the Michigan Republican Party over the past 18 months, it remains unclear how large their war chest could become with only a few months under the leadership of current chair Pete Hoekstra.

Grassroots enthusiasm dwindles — at least in dollars

Since the 2018 election cycle, Democratic legislative campaigns in Michigan had enjoyed an explosion of small-dollar donations less than $20, largely made online. In the 2020 election House Democratic candidates received nearly 170,000 small-dollar donations. In 2022, that number had halved, to 84,000.

Less than 100 days before the November general election, data shows that Democratic campaign fundraising from smaller Michigan donors is lagging.

Democratic candidates have so far reported about 18,000 donations worth less than $200. That’s down from 26,000 at this point in 2020. 

Northern Michigan Democrats in contested districts, such as Reps. Betsy Coffia of Traverse City and Jenn Hill of Marquette, have had some of the most success with individual contributors. Republicans, on the other hand, have largely relied on larger donors giving more than $200.

Democrats have more than made up the difference from industry and interest group PACs, whose contributions to Democratic campaigns have nearly doubled since that party took control of the Legislature in the 2022 elections. When including candidates’ leadership PACs, they’ve taken in more than $10 million, compared to the slightly more than $4 million raised by Republicans.

Democrats also had help from some wealthy out-of-state donors. Chris Stolte, the co-founder of Tableau Software, and his wife gave more than $500,000 to Democrats this election cycle, half of which went to efforts in the House.

Out-of-state donors in general have been a boon for Democrats, who have raised more than $1.4 million from 15,000 donations outside Michigan. Republicans, meanwhile, reported just 518 non-Michigan donations totaling $320,000.

Incumbent PAC advantage

In Michigan legislative elections, one longtime trend is the financial leg up incumbents have on their opponents. 

Sitting legislators often raise money from PACs and Lansing fundraisers that their primary challengers don’t have access to. 

For Democratic incumbents more than two-thirds of their fundraising came from PACs, while their challengers relied on individual donors for more than three-fourths of their campaign cash. 

The same is true of Republicans, who received about 53% of their campaign fundraising from PACs as compared to their challengers, who raised 90% of their money from individual donors.

For example, Republican state Rep. Gina Johnsen of Lake Odessa has both an individual and PAC edge as she seeks to fend off conservative primary challenger Jon Rocha in the 78th House District. 

While Johnsen has raised $66,000 from individual contributors compared to Rocha’s $28,000, Johnsen has also raised another $34,000 from PACs representing the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association, among others.

There are exceptions, such as in the 50th district where Republican state Rep. Bob Bezotte of Howell has been outraised by two primary challengers, Dominic Restuccia and Jason Woolford, as Bezotte fought a ballot disqualification.

Some members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus have also been outraised, including Rep. Matt Maddock of Milford, who has raised less than challenger Robert Ziegler, and Rep. Neil Friske of Charlevoix, who has been outraised by largely self-funded challenger Parker Faribarn.