It was looking likely that Republican incumbent Jack Bergman would be running unopposed in Michigan’s first district, as due to a technicality, Democrat Matt Morgan got kicked off the ballot, and he was the only Dem running. However, that is no longer the case. Morgan will appear on the November ballot against Bergman and this race has the potential of being quite competitive.
Morgan needed to receive 5% of the total votes cast in the district for governor in the Democratic Primary in order to be put on the ballot. Not only did he get the votes he needed, he got 8 times as many! He even got more write-in votes than the Republican incumbent Jack Bergman got in Marquette County. Marquette County alone gave him enough votes to qualify.
IN APRIL, MICHIGAN officials who oversee elections kicked Democrat Matt Morgan off the congressional ballot, leaving the Republican incumbent, Rep. Jack Bergman, to run unopposed in the general election.
That was the plan, at least, until primary day on Tuesday, when more than 30,000 Democratic voters cast write-in ballots in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. That’s nearly eight times as many votes as Morgan needed to be resurrected and placed on the November ballot.
Morgan, a progressive Marine veteran, pulled off the successful turnaround without help from the national party or progressive organizations set up to support veterans. Instead, he had filmmaker Michael Moore and a team of hundreds of volunteers who made sure voters knew that even though there was nobody on the ballot, they could still vote for Morgan.
In Marquette County, in fact, Morgan got nearly as many votes as Bergman did. The county credited him with 4,388 votes to Bergman’s 4,522, even after disqualifying a chunk of votes.
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Michigan Democrats, get out there, register voters, and make the #BlueWave happen!
Campaign website: mattmorganformichigan.com