In Michigan, the Best Candidates Just Happened to Be Women

I am from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - a "Yooper," for those in the know - and am terribly proud of the amazing, qualified women who were voted into office a week ago. That said, I am concerned that the tone of this article suggests that the women elected who did focus on "women's issues" or rode in on a "pink wave" are any less qualified or deserving of their victories. Gender may not have been at issue in Michigan this election cycle, but it is an issue for our nation. No matter how the women who were elected got there, they all deserve our praise and well wishes. Congratulations!

Being a Michiganian, I was intrigued by the slate of candidates and the final results. Look at the names: Elizabeth Clement (R) (Incumbent) ✔ Kurtis Wilder (R) (Incumbent) Samuel Bagenstos (D) Megan Cavanagh (D) ✔ Kerry Lee Morgan (L) Doug Dern (Natural Law) Since the party preferences didn't show on the ballot, the only clue is their name. As you can see, the winners (check marked) were the ones with clearly feminine names. I don't know if the "best' won, that is yet to be determined. But it clearly was Women's Day in Michigan.

Perhaps if all the business and government leaders in the world had been females instead of males.....then females would have prevented WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and the little fights in the Arab countries from ever occurring. Correct? Or are females just as angry and warring as males? In terms of human behavior, the more things seem to change......the more they remain the same. Correct? Then some will say, "no hope left for humanity." But actually there is hope if you believe in God. That hope is great for Christians. So what hope is there for atheists and agnostics???

What is the point of this article about the ostensible unremarkability of gender other than to remark about gender? Get on with governing.

I want to believe this is a good thing. I know these women and other newly elected officials are excited to plunge in and change our universe. BUT I hope they heed the warning of hundreds who have gone before them. They can be corrupted too. They can have their voices quieted. It tskes tremendous strength and courage to do the right thing in the face of the demands of US politics. Remember the Hunger Games? The rebels took out President Snow, only to install a new corrupt leader.

You are walking a fine iine. Yes, it is good that women were part of the victory parade but don't step over the line into identity politics. Hillary tried that and was beaten by an ego maniac demagogue and tossed onto the dust bin of history. Obama did not, ie ran as an American and not as a black and served two terms. If these women stress their gender, they will most likely be history in the next election. Americans hate identity politics, male or female.

I asked my wife how many years it's been since womyn have suffrage rights in the USA while we were waiting at the polls last week. Since 1920. The same legislative package also ushered in the Volstead Act and all the absurdity of Prohibition. Womyn need to assert their demographic superiority as they slightly outnumber men, in their political participation. Challenging as it is not to adopt established behaviors of glad-handing and reckless promising to potential electors, they must leverage their nurturing side and bring that to the political process at the highest levels. Though it must be recalled that Margaret Thatcher seriously contemplated using tactical nukes against Argentina in the contrived Falkland Islands War of 1982.

I am going to load up on Detroit Municipal Bonds immediately. Thank you, New York Times!

A very exciting and promising time in Michigan. I am anxious for the voting lines to be redrawn so that elections better reflect the actual voters. This is just the beginning for Michigan to move upwards toward equality, clean water and air, better schools and of course the repair of the damn roads!

I was forced by the recession to leave MI and find a job in PA. I visit as often as I can, and I am so proud to see what's happening in my home state. I am especially thrilled to see a Democratic woman governor, who is unafraid to address the problems within the state head on, and not try to avoid them or sweep them under the rug. Go Michigan!

I have to say that I'm very happy that Michigan's women won so many elections -- but also that they had help -- from Michigan's republican former officials, who deliberately poisoned at least one city with unclean water, and who took home rule from several Michigan cities with a majority of black citizens. We should all take a look at this and remember that no citizen and no town should go unserved in our country -- that all of us are important, not to be swept under the rug by inconsiderate politicians such as those who just lost their jobs.

Hundreds of thousands of good paying automotive jobs have been exported to Mexico since the passage of NAFTA. Many factories were shuttered and more jobs were lost after the Democrats lobbied for China's induction into WTO. The Democrats, working with the Wall Street and corporate lobbyists, undermined the interests of the working class. It remains to be seen if the Michigan Democrat women politicians will stop taking money from the special interests, bring back the jobs and restore prosperity to the state.

Although she was not elected to office, we shouldn't forget Katie Fahey, the powerful volunteer leader of the movement to pass Proposal 2 that will revamp Michigan's redisticting for our upcoming elections. The success of her effort is nothing short of a miracle.

I hope you can show the old men running the democratic party and for that matter, the old women running the democratic party, how to campaign. Keep up your yard signs up. Send out new ones, get new bumper stickers so that your supporters will know that they have friends and that they are not alone. Keep your volunteers together. Learn how to reach out to new voters, independents and fence sitting Republicans. Why start campaigning now? Well, we can expect attacks on Social Security and Medicare to continue. We can expect attacks on a woman's right to choices in the realm of reproduction and access to medical care to continue. We can expect attacks on Obamacare to continue. We can expect attacks on voter rights to continue. We can expect continuing efforts to disenfranchise voters. We can expect more attempts to garner tax cuts for the rich. Congratulations to all the Democrats that lost. Don't stop campaigning. Let's have some pizza party organizational meetings. Thanks for putting up a great fight. No thanks to the Democratic Party (Chuck Schumer) for not doing enough to help. No thanks to the stuffed shirt think tanks in Washington DC, big on advice, short on getting their hands dirty and doing the grunt work.

Why are there so few comments on this important essay? It cannot be that it is poorly written, nor that the subject is not interesting and historic. I prefer to think that the reason is that EVERYONE knows that smart hardworking, articulate, caring women will beat men nine out of ten. Provided the system is not too rigged. Next thing you know, men and women of color who are smart, hardworking, articulate and caring will have better odds than they have been having.

The 2016 primaries included a female candidate. Why didn’t women support her? Or are women only qualified when they spout a liberal agenda?

Trump, Lindsey Graham, and the Geriatric Old Party are afraid of women. They are terrified of their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, wives, and daughters who have decided to fight for representation and wrestle control from those who never had any intention of representing us. Whose only goal is to represent their personal interests and line their pockets at the expense of 51% of their constituents who are women. They care nothing about health care, the cost of housing, insurance, housing, child care, education, and infrastructure. Who wants to drive on old bridges, crumbling roads, darkened roads with monster pot holes. They fear the caravan of women who are tired of being ignored and want to prove Senator Grassley wrong. Women are angry not lazy and will be coming for your seat old man!

As an older white male, I think it's great. Maybe just maybe Flint can now get clean water? An issue that was too much to ask of Republicans. They were too busy trashing regulations across the entire country. Maybe future men candidates can take their cue from the women and focus on the issues that affect people's lives. For me, this blue female wave was like a breath of fresh air.

I’m from Michigan. I’m a male. I voted for Debbie and all the candidates that she mentioned in her editorial that I could. Reading it brought a tear in my eye.

Enjoy the glow. The dispatches from Lansing will be self-congratulatory and glowing until the reality of a mean, uncompromising State House and Senate sets in. I am afraid that Michigan will get a reprise of the Granholm years when obstructionist Republicans controlled the legislature and thwarted her at every turn. The Women won because they controlled the vote in the cities and suburbs and the law of political physics in Michigan predestined that there will be Democrats in power for the next 8 years. . They lost, for the most part by wide margins, in the rural areas. Republicans dominate rural Michigan. Republicans will continue to dominate the house and senate because the Democrats simply lack the demographic substrate in out-state Michigan. They have ceded it to the Republicans. Until the Democrats change or the rural population somehow becomes more receptive to the message, whatever it is, things will remain the same. It would be better if Michigan repealed term limits. Then political parties, lobbyists and special interests posing as concerned citizens would have less influence.

Hurrah, Michigan! Congratulations to Ms. Stabenow and the other courageous women who stepped up to take power. However, Ms. Stabenow, I do not agree with you that being a woman is not what helped you get re-elected. You are the recipient of the loss suffered by the most qualified candidate with the most national and international capital to ever run to be President of OUR United States of America - Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Please admit and celebrate that. It takes nothing away from YOUR qualifications. Please do not play into the centuries-old male power-over model that would try to claim that women are lesser. Celebrate your feminism AND qualifications. They are both crucial because women like you are stepping up across America to claim one-half the power in OUR governments and every segment of society and create systemic change. Women must work together to make ti happen. NOW is the time. OUR story starts now.

This essay is another reason why Stabenow ought to be in the Oval Office. I met Sen Stabenow at an event in Dallas, Texas several years ago and heard her speak. I sincerely believe that she is the single best choice for Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Primary. Of all the candidates that have surfaced thus far, only she is able to speak to the lived experienced of working men and women. She has an intimacy with local government that gives her an intuitive grasp of the kinds of everyday "issues" that most people care about. She doesn't need some K Street focus group to tell her what ails mid-western communities impacted by the global forces of economic change. Stabenow is our FDR for the 21st Century.

Go Michigan! now set your sights on passing a Proposition to create an Independent Election Commission staffed by civil servants who are neither 'elected' by any party support, nor 'selected' by the government in power. Ahem, may i suggest once again the kind of set-up we have here in India? An Election Commission which works around the year at Central and State levels, conducting National and State elections ... the numbers are awesome, given that India is the 2nd most populous country after China ... yet there haven't been the kind of controversies that seem to occur all too frequently in the USA, especially in these highly polarized times. Election results are not immediately announced, nor is it left to the candidates, to declare themselves 'winners', even before the counting is over. In this election it's heartening to learn that a couple of states have passed some such propositions. But it's dismaying to see how many accept that a candidate can also be the authority in charge of conducting 'free and fair' elections, as happened in Florida and Alabama. It's as obvious as the nose on one's face, that such a situation is inherently untenable. Wake up folk ...

As as lifelong Michigander, pleased that our state showed its true blue nature this time. Would also add to Senator Stabenow's excellent piece that the campaign for the anti-gerrymandering Prop 2, which passed, was conceived and led by a young woman, and one of the main organizations spearheading the voter-rights expansion in Prop 3 was the League of Women Voters.

Thank you, Senator Stabenow. I'm inspired by all the women who ran for local and national office in Michigan and across our nation--even though some great female candidates didn't win this time. It will encourage more and more smart, capable women to be brave and to get on the field instead of watching the game.

I was raised by a smart, strong woman. I married two smart, strong women (sequentially, OK?). I have a hard time relating with people - women and men - who aren't smart. May you women who have been elected remain smart, honest, and aware of your place in history - not grabbing power but using it wisely. The men who think and care in this country are looking to you to do a far better job than the old Republican white guys who have abused their power for decades. Please redirect our country to a better place; assuming you do, perhaps we'll stop talking about "women" candidates and start talking about qualified, inspired and honest candidates, many of who will be women. May I live that long!

You were given a place top-of-note in the Grey Lady - and I am sure the all-female ticket had nothing to do with it - picture my eye-roll. I look forward to the time when women are not celebrated because of their sex but rather because they are simply amazing. Which - just in passing - many of the current crop of electees are.

What makes electing Women to elective office so significant is that the lobbying mob (mostly men) won't be able to influence them. Haley and Elissa are highly intelligent and were elected to help the middle class get good health care and the education to get good-paying careers. This is only one election. We need to build upon this result. As we say in Ann Arbor on game day: "Go Blue."

On Senator Stabenow's Facebook page, you would be disheartened by the vicious hatred -- mostly shown by men, but also by some "cool girl" women -- against her. I'm sure everyone remembers the Trumpoonian "You lost, get over it" tagline that we've all had to put up with for two years. Looks like they can't accept that when they lose. Michigan's on the way back from Mordor, and I hope other states follow its example.

Really proud to be a Michigander this election cycle. In addition to electing an overwhelming number of dynamic Democrats (many of whole are women), we also passed three statewide propositions: (1) legalizing recreational marijuana (providing much needed tax revenue, among other things); (2) eliminating gerrymandering; and (3) improving voting rights.

Despite my name, I now live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I am particularly proud of the accomplishments described here by Senator Stabenow. Just as impressively, Michigan passed two proposals that will impact state politics and government in the future. We voted to make voting easier, and we voted to end gerrymandering in our state. Yay for us! (Time to change my commenter's name...)

"...we won because we had strong, highly qualified candidates who each earned their nomination." Yes! That's how I vote. Wish everyone felt this way.

and.... I'm looking forward to seeing the impact of the proposal that was voted in to get rid of gerrymandering. Our rep (Justin Amash, Republican) benefits from one of the most gerrymandered districts in this region. The district is so geographically stretched that we never see him, because he simply doesn't need our votes.