After a year of work, listening, compiling and drawing, the state has their new congressional maps for the next decade.
Tuesday afternoon, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission approved their “Chestnut” map. Immediately, it will create some major changes across the state.
With the current map, Northern Michigan is represented by three congressmen, Rep. Jack Bergman, Rep. John Moolenaar and Rep. Bill Huizenga. That won’t be the case moving forward.
Huizenga lives in Zeeland, so he is now living in 4th District, potentially setting up a primary race against Michigan’s longest running incumbent, Rep. Fred Upton. Either way, it is no longer near Northern Michigan.
Bergman will stay in the First District, covering the entire Upper Peninsula and a majority of the Northern Lower.
Moolenaar had a decision to make. The new map put him in the same district as Democrat Dan Kildee. He could have run against Kildee and try to win a seat for the GOP but he announced he will try to run for the now created Second District. It is made up of formerly much of his current district and much of what Huizenga will vacate.
Moolenaar does not live in the new district, but with congressional races, you do not need to live in the district you represent. It just helps.
This doesn’t even get into the incumbent matchups now set up in Southeast Michigan but even with minimal changes in Northern Michigan, the political landscape has been shifted greatly.
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