Mallory McMorrow cruises to victory in metro Detroit state senate primary

Democratic rising star Mallory McMorrow easily handled her primary opponent, winning a metro Detroit state Senate seat in one of the few races involving two incumbent lawmakers after the redistricting process.

McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, won after receiving more than twice as many votes as fellow incumbent state Sen. Marshall Bullock, D-Detroit, per unofficial results. Both ran to represent the new 8th Senate District, which spans from Ferndale and southeast Oakland County to the northwest corner of Detroit, after redistricting pushed the pair of sitting lawmakers into a race for the same seat.

The primary win in the heavily Democratic district means McMorrow will very likely return to Lansing for another four-year term in the 38-member state Senate.

"Earlier this morning, I received a congratulatory phone call from Senator Marshall Bullock. Together, Marshall and I ran a primary race that we both can be proud of. I am honored to call him a colleague and a friend," McMorrow said in a statement Wednesday morning.

"It’s time to turn our attention to what’s next — building relationships so that every resident knows they’ve got me in their corner — and fighting to win back the MI Senate for the first time since 1984. I’m humbled and grateful for the opportunity and look forward to the work ahead."

A Bullock spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With Oakland County and Detroit reporting almost all votes counted by 9 a.m. Wednesday, McMorrow had more than 32,500 votes compared with about 15,000 for Bullock. The Associated Press called the race for McMorrow on Wednesday morning.

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McMorrow is a former design executive who first joined the state Senate in 2018. But she did not garner substantial national attention until earlier this year, when her fiery rebuke of a GOP senator suggesting she supported sexually grooming children went viral.

Since then she has raised more than $1 million for her own campaign, other Michigan Democrats and Democrats around the country. She has vowed to use those funds to improve the chances that Democrats take control of at least the upper chamber in Lansing.

Bullock, a former city of Detroit employee, faced long odds from the moment he decided to run in the district.

The new district included only about 15% of the voters Bullock currently represents, compared with roughly 40% of McMorrow's constituents, according to an analysis conducted by McMorrow's campaign. The viral speech helped McMorrow raise roughly 10 times the amount of money as Bullock as well.

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Michigan Democrats hope redistricting following the 2020 election — the first districts drawn by a group of citizens as opposed to the GOP-controlled Legislature — gives the party its best chance to win the House or Senate in decades. But the process also forced several Democratic incumbents to weigh running against one another and created the likelihood of fewer Black Detroiters in the Legislature.

The general election is Nov. 8.

Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mallory McMorrow wins Michigan 8th Senate District primary race