Michigan’s new Legislature: Older, whiter and more male than state

• House elections brought 12 new faces, two returning former lawmakers to the Michigan Legislature this session
• Few changes to demographic trends in state Capitol, where women, minority groups and youth are historically underrepresented
• 2024 cycle saw modest gains for Republican women, Gen Z, and Black legislative representation

A new cohort of Michigan lawmakers will have a fresh start at the Capitol this month, but some things will remain the same: The Legislature will remain older, whiter and more male than the state as a whole.

With only the House up for grabs last fall and dozens of incumbents on the ballot, the Michigan Legislature saw a far smaller shift than last session, when nearly half of all lawmakers were brand new to the Capitol.

This year, just 12 out of 110 state House members will be serving for the first time. Two more will begin their first full terms after winning special elections last spring, and two others will return after changes to the state’s term-limits law allowed them to run again. 

Their elections did little to offset longstanding demographic trends in the Legislature, where women, minority groups and young adults have historically been underrepresented when compared to the state’s overall population, a Bridge Michigan analysis found. 

The combination of redistricting and adjustments to the state’s term limit rules made the last cohort unique in size and impact, said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. 

The latest crop of new lawmakers, many of whom are from swing districts, will be “less likely to be able to make a huge difference” as a group when it comes to setting the legislative agenda, he said. 

“There’s much less fresh blood than last time, when basically half the Legislature was new,” Grossmann said. 

“In terms of demographics, there’s not a big change in racial representation or gender representation, and a continuation of seeing the gender and racial diversity concentrated in the Democratic side.” 

The biggest change this session, of course, is the chamber’s political makeup: Republicans took back control from Democrats and now hold a 58-52 majority. 

Later this year, voters in the 35th Senate District will also choose a replacement for Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, who stepped down after winning a seat in Congress.

Republican women make gains, offset Democratic losses

Women candidates in Michigan have made historic gains in recent election cycles — but the ranks of women lawmakers remained stagnant in 2024, putting the state no closer to achieving gender parity. 

Though women comprise just over half of Michigan’s population, women lawmakers have never made up half of the state’s legislative chamber.

About 40% of Michigan lawmakers serving this session are women: 14 of 38 in the Senate, and 44 out of 110 in the state House, along with one nonbinary member. At least 17 more women state legislative candidates would need to win election to achieve gender parity in the Legislature.

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Democratic women continue to make up a majority of both House and Senate Democratic caucuses, but a few incumbents lost competitive re-election bids and Rivet left for Congress. House Republicans, meanwhile, added three new women to their ranks for the 2025-26 cycle.

“The Democratic caucus did lose some women, but what was lost was gained on the Republican side,” said Cee Maul, the Michigan director of Vote Run Lead Action, a nonprofit focused on recruiting and training progressive women candidates for office. 

The group argues that more female representation would benefit the state as a whole by better reflecting the policy goals and attitudes of half the population. 

Heading into 2025, Maul said they expect Rivet’s open seat to be a top priority for advocates of women’s representation in Michigan. Beyond that, the process begins now for building out a bench of qualified women candidates for competitive 2026 contests, Maul said.

Elsewhere in the U.S., three states now have majority-women legislatures: Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, according to the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. Seven individual legislative chambers, including the California Senate, Arizona Senate and Oregon House, are also at or above gender parity. 

The number of openly LGBTQ lawmakers increased from three to seven last session, a state record. Those seven lawmakers will continue to serve this session.

Black representation increases slightly, still down from 2020

Michigan’s most recent redistricting process sparked concerns about the impact on minority representation, particularly whether Black candidates could be successful under maps that combined parts of Detroit with neighboring suburbs. 

A successful lawsuit brought by metro Detroit residents that was championed by current and former Black lawmakers resulted in new state House and Senate maps for the city and surrounding areas. 

The updated House lines, first put to the test in the 2024 cycle, were found by a federal three-judge panel to be fairer to Black voters by adhering more closely to county and municipal boundaries and increasing the overall number of majority-Black districts. 

The maps didn’t pit any incumbents against each other or require them to move to run for re-election, an outcome the litigants questioned but one the commission said was coincidental. 

In all, 15 Black lawmakers will serve in the state House this session, up from 14 last session. Black lawmakers will make up 12% of both the House and Senate this year, up from 11.5% last session but down from 13.5% in the previous term.

Statewide, Black residents make up 14.1% of the population, according to U.S. Census data. White, non-Hispanic residents make up 73.7% of Michigan’s overall population, but make up 82.9% of the Legislature. 

Majority of lawmakers are 45+

Baby boomers and Gen X lawmakers still make up 65% of the Legislature — but younger Michiganders are trying their hand at politics in greater numbers.

Across both chambers, lawmakers aged 45-64 make up 50% of the Legislature, while those aged 65 and up make up 15%. The median age of a state lawmaker in Michigan is 52. Statewide, residents 45 and older make up 44% of the total population. 

As a whole, Michigan has been trending older as well: The median age of a Michigan resident is 40.5, up from 36.9 in 2005, per U.S. Census data. 

The largest generation represented across both chambers is Generation X at 37%, though millennials aren’t far behind, making up 31% of the legislative body.

Candidates must be at least 21 years of age to run for office. 

House lawmakers are trending younger than their Senate counterparts. In the 2024 election cycle, six Generation Z candidates won election or re-election to office, up from four in 2022. No Gen Z lawmakers currently serve in the Senate. 

Incoming state Rep. Parker Fairbairn, a Gen Z Harbor Springs Republican who defeated embattled incumbent Rep. Neil Friske in a competitive GOP primary, said he personally ran because he saw a “real need” for a lawmaker with more of a presence in Lansing.

He said he sees the growing interest among young people to take a more active role in government as a positive development. 

“I think it’s important that we get a diverse background amongst the legislature,” he said. “It’s a good thing to have varying perspectives and varying opinions. And I think that’s what I’ll bring.” 

Most lawmakers are highly educated, have local gov experience

Statewide, roughly 33% of Michigan residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, U.S. Census data shows. 

Michigan lawmakers, by comparison, are far more likely to have university diplomas. Roughly 82% of House lawmakers and 90% of Senate lawmakers are college graduates, and at least a third of lawmakers in each chamber also have advanced degrees. 

Grossmann noted there’s little partisan distinction when it comes to lawmakers’ educational attainment, despite a growing gap in voter preferences: Non-college-educated voters in recent cycles have trended towards Republican candidates, while college-educated voters tend to prefer Democrats. 

“Overall, we still have an incredibly well-educated political class,” he noted.

More than half of Michigan lawmakers have held other elected positions at the local level, and 84% of state senators previously served in the state House. Several worked as political staffers before pursuing higher office themselves. 

Twelve lawmakers across both chambers have past military service.

Other common occupations among Michigan’s current crop of lawmakers include owning a business, teaching, farming and legal or law enforcement backgrounds. 

Term limit changes 

The slim turnover in 2025 was also due in part to recent term limit changes that allowed nearly every incumbent state lawmaker to make another bid for office. 

The new rules also allowed some previously term-limited lawmakers to run again, including Republicans Nancy Jenkins-Arno of Clayton and Tim Kelly of Saginaw, who won their respective elections and are returning to the Legislature. 

Previously, lawmakers could serve up to three terms in the House and two terms in the Senate for up to a total of 14 years if they won both offices. Now, lawmakers can serve a total of 12 years in office across either chamber.

In the 2023-24 session, lawmakers who would have been serving their third and final term under the old term limit laws were eligible to run again if they chose.

A few, including Republican Rep. Graham Filler of St. Johns and Democratic Reps. Abraham Aiyash of Hamtramck, Felicia Brabec of Ann Arbor and Rachel Hood of Grand Rapids opted not to run for a fourth term. 

But most who were eligible did, meaning roughly 20% of House lawmakers serving this session took advantage of new term limit laws and their incumbency status to continue their legislative careers. 

Incumbency didn’t guarantee reelection in some of the state’s closest swing districts, however. Two Democrats seeking a fourth House term — Reps. Nate Shannon of Sterling Heights and Jim Haadsma of Battle Creek —lost reelection bids to Republican challengers, races that helped the GOP cinch majority control.