Michigan's 2014 elections U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Governor • Lt. Gov • Attorney General • Secretary of State • State Senate • State House • State ballot measures • School boards • Judicial • Candidate ballot access

2018→ ←2010

Michigan Gubernatorial Election

Primary Date: August 5, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winners: Rick Snyder Brian Calley

Incumbents prior to election: Rick Snyder Brian Calley

Rick Snyder Brian Calley

Michigan State Executive ElectionsTop Ballot Governor • Lieutenant Governor Secretary of State •Attorney General

Battleground RacesMichigan House of Representatives

Current trifecta for Republicans

State executive offices in Michigan

TheMichigan gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election took place onNovember 4, 2014. IncumbentsRick Snyder (R) andBrian Calley (R) ran for re-election. Snyder and Calleywon concurrent four-year terms in office.

Aprimary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Michigan utilizes anopen primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary. All candidates appear on the same ballot and a voter may only vote for candidates of one party at any primary.^[1][2]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, seethis article. Theattorney general andsecretary of state did not appear on the primary ballot, and thegubernatorial andlieutenant gubernatorial positions did not have contested primaries in 2014.^[3]

Snyder and his Democratic opponent,Mark Schauer, were engaged in a close race for the governor's seat. Learn more about polling trends by checking out thepolls section. Gubernatorial races in Michigan had experienced growing margins of victory since 2002, as shown by the margin of victory analysis chart linkedhere. You can also learn more about the campaign's television ads by checking out thecampaign media section.

The gubernatorial race was not the only race on the November ballot that could have shifted the partisan balance of power in Michigan. TheMichigan House of Representatives was identified by Ballotpedia as one of the top 20 legislative chambers to watch in 2014. Heading into the election, both legislative chambers and the governor's office were held by a single party, making Michigan astate government trifecta. Learn more about the chamber's most competitive races on thebattleground chambers page.

Candidates

General election

Rick Snyder/Brian Calley -Incumbents
Mark Schauer/Lisa Brown^[4][5]
Mary Buzuma/Scott Boman
U.S. Taxpayers Party candidatesMark McFarlin/Richard Mendoza
Paul Homeniuk/Candace R. Caveny

Did not qualify

Robin Sanders^[6]

Declined potentials

Virg Bernero - 2010 Democratic nominee for Governor of Michigan^[5][7]
Gary Peters - U.S. Representative, Michigan, District 14^[5]

Results

General election

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Rick Snyder/Brian CalleyIncumbent	50.9%	1,607,399
	Democratic	Mark Schauer/Lisa Brown	46.9%	1,479,057
	Libertarian	Mary Buzuma/Scott Boman	1.1%	35,723
	U.S. Taxpayers	Mark McFarlin/Richard Mendoza	0.6%	19,368
	Green	Paul Homeniuk/Candace R. Caveny	0.5%	14,934
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0%	50
Total Votes				3,156,531
Election results viaMichigan Department of State

Race background

First-termRepublicanGov.Rick Snyder won re-election in 2014.^[8] In December 2012, in the wake of the passage of aright-to-work law that provoked protests, particularly from unions, a Public Policy Poll showed decreasing chances for the governor to win another term compared to a similar poll released the previous month. His approval decreased by 28 points, with respondents preferring each of the poll's four hypothetical Democratic challengers over Snyder for 2014.^[9][10]

At a Republican leadership conference in September 2011, Snyder told an interviewer that if he felt satisfied with the legacy he established during his first term, he would be inclined to pass the torch to others.^[11]

In late September 2013, Snyder began airing commercials talking about his successes in office.^[12][13] Around that time, Snyder was publicly campaigned against for 2014 by theAFL-CIO.

The general election race took shape following August party conventions that saw Snyder and Democratic candidateMark Schauer win their party nominations. A Mitchell Research survey showed a five-point lead for Snyder when all candidates were available to respondents.Head-to-head polling grew closer after August 2014, with Schauer and Snyder narrowly winning polls from EPIC-MRA andDetroit News-WDIV, respectively. A We Ask America poll in late September showed a tie race between Schauer and Snyder, with 10 percent of voters undecided.^[14]

Endorsements

Former New York City mayorMichael Bloomberg endorsedRick Snyder ahead of the general election. Bloomberg also purchased $2.3 million in TV ads on behalf of Snyder, citing the governor's independent-mindedness as a reason for the support. The former mayor also endorsed Democratic candidateGary Peters in theU.S. Senate race.^[15]

Convention challenge for Calley

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley faced a challenge fromWes Nakagiri in the August 23 state Republican convention, and received enough precinct delegates to hold off the challenge.Gov. Rick Snyder announced his desire to see Calley join him on the ticket, but party rules dictated that the convention's delegates select nominees rather than the general public. Eleven employees from the governor's and lieutenant governor's offices sought delegate seats in the primary. The Michigan Advocacy Trust also distributed mailers supporting pro-Calley candidates inClinton County^[16] Calley defeated Nakagiri during the convention, with reports noting that the lieutenant governor received at least 60 percent of delegate votes.^[17]

Debates

October 13 debate

Rick Snyder (R) andMark Schauer (D) discussed Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings, education spending and same-sex marriage during a debate at Wayne State University. Snyder argued on behalf of the state emergency manager's decision to take Detroit into bankruptcy, noting that the city was only months away from shedding $9 billion in debts. Schauer countered that pensioners in the city should not have been asked to cut their plans, citing legal and constitutional protections for public pension plans.^[18]

Schauer criticized the governor's tax reform plan implemented in 2011, which he claimed cut $1 billion in education funds, raised taxes on the middle class by $1.4 billion and cut taxes for high-income earners by $1.8 billion. Snyder defended his tax plans by noting that education spending was up $1 billion during his term in office and tax reform brought fairer rates to small business owners.^[18]

Snyder, who opposed same-sex marriage during his 2010 campaign, stated that he would abide by a federal appeals court ruling regarding Michigan's ban on the practice. Schauer criticized Snyder for what he claimed was evading a question about his stance on same-sex marriage and supporting a law that banned benefits for the partners of state employees.^[18]

Polls

All candidates

Major party candidates

• An asterisk denotes incumbent status.

Campaign media

Mark Schauer

Rick Snyder

Outside groups

Democratic Governors Association

Republican Governors Association

Michigan Nurses Association

Ad spending

The Wesleyan Media Project published a report on September 30, 2014, highlighting spending on gubernatorial races from September 12-25. This report found that Democratic and Republican groups spent a total of $46.84 million on TV ads in 15 states with gubernatorial elections. The following chart details the group's findings, including spending amounts and number of ads:^[19]

Note: Abolded number indicates the highest total for this category. A number initalics is the lowest total for this category.

Past elections

Margin of victory analysis

The average margin of victory in the past three races for governor was 12.1 percent. The smallest margin of victory was 4 percent in 2002, while the largest margin of victory was 18.2 percent in 2010. Percentages of votes for third-party candidates have increased from 1.2 percent in 2002 to 1.9 percent in 2010. The following chart compares the margin of victory for winners of gubernatorial races with the margin of victory for candidates who won the most votes for the top race on the ballot:^[20]

Margin of victory analysis
Year	Gov. candidate margin of victory (%)	Party of winning candidate	Top race on ballot	Party of winning candidate	Margin of victory (%)
2010	18.2		-	-	-
2006	14.1		U.S. Senate		15.6
2002	4		U.S. Senate		22.7

Note: There was no statewide vote for federal office in 2010.

2010

See also:Michigan gubernatorial election, 2010

Governor of Michigan, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Rick Snyder	58.1%	1,874,834
	Democratic	Virg Bernero	39.9%	1,287,320
	Green	Harley Mikkelson	0.6%	20,699
	U.S. Taxpayers	Stacey Mathia	0.6%	20,818
	Libertarian	Ken Proctor	0.7%	22,390
	Write-in	Write-in candidates	0%	27
Total Votes				3,226,088

2006

Governor of Michigan, 2006
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jennifer GranholmIncumbent	56.4%	2,142,513
	Republican	Dick DeVos	42.3%	1,608,086
	Libertarian	Gregory Creswell	0.6%	23,524
	Green	Douglas Campbell	0.5%	20,009
	U.S. Taxpayers	Bhagwan Dashairya	0.2%	7,087
	Write-in	Write-in candidates	0%	37
Total Votes				3,801,256

2002

Governor of Michigan, 2002
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jennifer Granholm	51.4%	1,633,796
	Republican	Dick Posthumus	47.4%	1,506,104
	Green	Douglas Campbell	0.8%	25,236
	U.S. Taxpayers	Joseph Pilchak	0.4%	12,411
	Write-in	Write-in candidates	0%	18
Total Votes				3,177,565

Voter turnout

Political scientist Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project studied voter turnout in the 2014 election by looking at the percentage of eligible voters who headed to the polls. McDonald used voting-eligible population (VEP), or the number of eligible voters independent of their current registration status, to calculate turnout rates in each state on November 4. He also incorporated ballots cast for the highest office in each state into his calculation. He estimated that 81,687,059 ballots were cast in the 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of the VEP.^[21] By comparison, 61.6 percent of VEP voted in the 2008 presidential election and 58.2 percent of VEP voted in the 2012 presidential election.^[22]

Quick facts

• According toPBS Newshour, voter turnout in the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the 1942 midterms, which took place during the nation's involvement in World War II.^[23]

• Forty-three states and the District of Columbia did not surpass 50 percent turnout in McDonald's analysis.

• The three states with the lowest turnout according to McDonald's analysis wereTexas (28.3 percent),Tennessee (28.6 percent), andIndiana (28.8 percent).

• Maine (58.5 percent),Wisconsin (56.5 percent), andColorado (54.5 percent) were the three states with the highest turnout.

• Twelve states increased voter turnout in 2014 compared to the 2010 midterm elections.^[24]

Note: Information from the United States Elections Project was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of$19,824,474 during the election. This information was last updated on May 14, 2015.^[25]

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Rick Snyder/Brian Calley	Michigan Governor/Lieutenant Governor		$12,625,208
Mark Schauer/Lisa Brown	Michigan Governor/Lieutenant Governor		$7,193,253
Mary Buzuma/Scotty Boman	Michigan Governor/Lieutenant Governor		$4,295
Paul Homeniuk/Candace Caveny	Michigan Governor/Lieutenant Governor		$1,539
Mark McFarlin/Richard Mendoza	Michigan Governor/Lieutenant Governor		$179
Grand Total Raised			$19,824,474

Key deadlines

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Michigan + governor + election"

See also

• Governor of Michigan
• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan
• Michigan state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014
• State executive debates, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Governor of Michigan
• Michigan Lieutenant Governor
• U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan announces 2014 candidates
• Michigan Green Party candidates
• Michigan Libertarians nominate candidates at state convention

Footnotes

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