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Mayoral wins by Reps Coleman, Stone cause tie in State House
Republicans were watching Kevin Coleman's race and the race involving Democrat State Representative Laurie Stone, who is now mayor elect in Warren.
FOX 2 (WJBK) - The question was, how many hours of sleep did you get Kevin Coleman, the newly elected mayor of Westland.
"Maybe three and a half hours," he said.
Republicans were watching Coleman's race and the race involving Democrat State Representative Laurie Stone, who is now mayor-elect in Warren.
And with two Democrats leaving the legislature, the State House has now 54 Democrats and 54 Republicans, the Democrats lost the majority.
FOX 2: "Do you think you actually got some Republican votes, because they wanted this result?"
"I'm going to be honest with you, I had a few Republican voters come up to me at the polls yesterday and they said, 'Yeah, we're going to get you in that mayor's office so we can get you out of Lansing," Coleman said.
To fill those two empty seats, Governor Gretchen Whitmer will have to call a special election that Coleman says will likely take place in January or February. Yet he says there won't be a lot of votes until the special election.
"You know, my prediction is we won't see the legislature meet until the seats are filled," he said. "So you know, I know there was some consternation about the 54-54 split, but I think we'll be back to 56-54 by the time you see the session come back."
In both the Warren and Westland races, the UAW supported Coleman and Stone.
FOX 2: "Was that a factor in the win?"
"It was a major boost to my campaign to get UAW and labor support," Coleman said. "And we really kicked into high gear once I got that endorsement."
In fact, Mayor-elect Coleman says the UAW has a lot of clout.
FOX 2: "Do you think this UAW clout will carry over into the next year's election? Maybe the presidential primary?"
"Absolutely, yeah," Coleman said. "I think the UAW has got more power than we've seen in several years. They're showing it, they've proven in the last couple of months. They're going to be a huge part of who our next state rep is, and then going into probably expanding that Democratic majority. That's my prediction.
Both Coleman and Stone will be sworn in next week as mayor.
Kevin Coleman