2024 General Election Results: Carra reelected to Michigan House, Walberg reelected to U.S. House, Senate race pending
Republican Steve Carra faced Democrat Erin Schultes. Michigan District 36 includes both St. Joseph and Cass Counties, where Carra received nearly 70% of the votes.
Michigan state Rep. Steve Carra, R-District 36, was reelected to a third term Tuesday, November 5. District 36 includes St. Joseph County, where he received 19,204 votes (67.64%).
Carra, a Republican, faced Democrat Erin Schultes, who received 9,053 votes (31.89%) in St. Joseph County. Carra had less votes (10,504) but a larger percentage (68.85%) in Cass County. Schultes, whose pronouns are she/they, had less votes (4,703) and a smaller share (30.83%) in Cass County.
Watershed Voice has reached out to Carra for comments on his reelection. Earlier this year, Carra won the Republican state House primary on Tuesday, August 6, but did not issue a statement until Friday, August 9. As of Wednesday, November 6, one of Carra’s Facebook pages did have the following comments:
“Victory! It’s been an honor to represent St. Joseph and Cass Counties and I look forward to another term representing two of the best and hardest working counties in our state.”
Election results will be made official when canvasing boards meet. While Donald Trump will be America’s second president to have non-consecutive terms in office, other national races have not been determined as of midday Wednesday.
Michigan’s U.S. Senate race is still considered too close to call between challengers Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Elissa Slotkin. Rogers won in St. Joseph County with 18,544 votes (64.35%), compared to Slotkin’s 9,194 votes (31.90%). In Cass County, Rogers won with 17,890 votes (66.22%), compared to Slotkin’s 8,407 votes (31.12%). Slotkin won in Kalamazoo County, with 77,023 votes (56.61%), compared to Rogers’ 54,551 votes (40.10%). Rogers and Slotkin seek to succeed Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
St. Joseph and Cass Counties, and a portion of Kalamazoo County, are part of the same congressional district, Michigan’s fifth. The Associated Press called the U.S. House race for incumbent Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich. Walberg received 268,777 votes (65.7%) across nine counties, compared to Democrat Libbi Urban’s 133,936 votes (32.7%).
Cass County has 21 voting precincts, compared to St. Joseph County’s 23 and Kalamazoo County’s 105. One St. Joseph County precinct, Sturgis’ second, was the last to have its results entered, shortly before 12 a.m. Wednesday. Most of the county’s other precincts had partial-to-complete results hours before the last one did. Wanting to learn more about the delay, Watershed Voice was directed to St. Joseph County Clerk Gina Everson, who was unavailable as of publication time on Wednesday.
Additional races that were decided in both St. Joseph and Cass Counties include:
Constantine School Board, vote for two
Jerry Gray, 879 votes (35.02%) in St. Joseph County, 606 votes (33.97%) in Cass County
Cari Jourdan, 676 votes (26.93%) in St. Joseph County, 450 votes (25.22%) in Cass County
MaRinda Stamp, 920 votes (36.65%) in St. Joseph County, 704 votes (39.46%) in Cass County
Write-in candidates, 35 votes (1.39%) in St. Joseph County, 24 votes (1.35%) in Cass County
Constantine Public Schools operating millage proposal
Yes, 981 votes (49.27%) in St. Joseph County, 677 votes (44.98%) in Cass County
No, 1,010 votes (50.73%) in St. Joseph County, 828 votes (55.02%) in Cass County
White Pigeon Community Schools bond proposal
Yes, 1,321 votes (57.09%) in St. Joseph County, 363 votes (51.93%) in Cass County
No, 993 votes (42.91%) in St. Joseph County, 336 votes (48.07%) in Cass County
Frank Stanko is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.
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