Federal Court Approves New Michigan State Senate Map for 2026 Elections
A federal three-judge panel signed off on a new Michigan state Senate map after striking down a previous set of districts for being racially gerrymandered. Michiganaders will vote under the new map beginning in 2026.
Last December, the same panel concluded the Michigan Independent Citizen Redistricting Commission (MICRC) impermissibly used race as the predominant factor in drawing a total of 13 Detroit area state House and Senate districts and ordered a redraw to bring the maps into compliance with the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
The ruling stemmed from a legal challenge brought by Black voters who alleged the commission intentionally lowered the percentage of Black voters in certain House and Senate districts without a justified interest. Both the MICRC and the state’s top election official had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and halt the redraw, but the justices declined to do so.
Following last year’s decision, the state’s citizen-led redistricting commission adopted new Michigan House districts for use in the November 2024 elections following approval by the three-judge panel. The panel created a later deadline for the commission to redraw the state Senate maps in light of the fact that elections in those districts won’t take place until 2026.
In today’s order approving the new Senate districts, the panel said it “agrees that the new…Senate map complies with federal law to the extent the Commission did not impermissibly rely upon race when drafting it.”
According to reporting from the Detroit Free Press, the new state Senate map includes 14 redrawn districts, six of which were struck down by the court in last year’s order. The MICRC arrived at the final map following a contentious process that involved debate over various proposals and multiple rounds of failed votes among the commission’s Republican, Democratic and Independent members.
Under the new map, two out of six of the state Senate districts deemed unconstitutional by the court — namely the 3rd and 6th Senate Districts — contain a majority-Black voting age population.
Black voters who filed the lawsuit did not object to the commission’s new districts and a court-appointed redistricting expert found no “major flaws” with the map that “would suggest it failed to address the race-related constitutional concerns of the Court.”
An expert hired by the MICRC assessed the redrawn district lines as skewing slightly more Republican than the old map on some measures, but data from the commission show Democrats still have a slightly higher average winning margin overall under the new Senate map. Democrats currently hold majorities in both the Michigan House and Senate, but it remains to be seen whether the party will hold onto power in the 2024 and 2026 legislative elections.