Good evening. I'm Val Lego.
I'm Juliette dragas.
Welcome to our special coverage
of the 2022 midterm elections.
Our crews are spread across
the state and West Michigan.
Tonight we have reporters in Detroit,
Novi and in Grand Rapids covering
the statewide races for Governor,
Attorney General and Secretary of State.
We also have crews across W Michigan
following the third Congressional
District race between John Gibbs
and Hillary Scolton and West
Michigan's state Senate races.
The biggest race is the governor's
race as newcomer Republican.
Peter Dixon is challenging incumbent
Democrat Gretchen Whitmer,
and we have the latest #21%
of the votes are counted.
Governor Whitmer is holding on
to a lead 52.8% over Dixon's
45.6% thirteen on your sides.
Keely Lovern joins us now live from
the governor's watch party in Detroit.
And Keely, have you seen the governor yet?
Hey, good evening, guys.
Actually know, we have not seen the
governor yet and really no word on
when she's expected to take the stage.
You see behind us.
But we have heard from several
other pretty major leaders in the
democratic world here in Michigan.
We heard from the Chair of the
Michigan Democratic Party.
That's lavora Barnes.
We had several rabbis come up and speak.
Pastor Solomon Kinloch,
he's from the Triumph church here.
We also heard from Knight Mike Duggan.
Excuse me, he's the mayor of Detroit.
And we heard.
I'm Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Everybody bringing a lot of really
good energy here to the stage.
We're taking kind of a break right now,
but we do expect to see the Lieutenant
Governor, Garland Gilchrist,
of course, Governor Gretchen Whitmer,
and then several other big names as well.
Two of those people,
the Secretary of State
Jocelyn Benson and then Attorney
General Dana Nessel, all both waiting
to see if they will be reelected.
All of those major democratic names
are here tonight at the Motor City
House Hotel and Casino in downtown Detroit,
and we are continuing to monitor.
All of this action here,
hundreds of supporters coming out to
show their support for Gretchen Whitmer.
And we'll continue to bring you the
latest coverage reporting live in Detroit.
I'm Keely Lovern, 13 on your side.
Thank you, keely.
Tudor Dixon is a newcomer to politics,
and in the last few weeks the polls have
shown her closing in on the gap on Whitner.
Dixon is having her watch party
in downtown Grand Rapids at the
JW Marriott and 13 on your side.
Charlie Tinker is at the parley.
Charlie is. It's still early
in the vote counting process,
but what's the move?
Bendixen's campaign.
I really, really not not giving up or saying
anything about it whatsoever just yet.
We really have heard some bold
predictions so far in this watch party.
Nobody really willing to say either way
whether they think it's it's a win or lose.
In the Dixon Column tonight, again,
we're still watching those votes be counted.
Still, pretty early in the race,
The Associated Press had Governor
Whitmer leading by just over 100,000
votes at last check. But again,
still a lot of votes to be tabulated.
So I hope, I I guess would would
remain sort of the theme here.
A lot of spirited crowds out here.
We saw folks out in front of the
stage taking selfies and have
seen that throughout the night.
Still no appearance from
the candidate herself.
We are told that she may make an appearance
with some brief remarks at 11:15,
so just about 10 minutes away from now.
Not clear what the content
of those remarks will be,
but we will bring those to
you as soon as she does.
Take the stage and make any announcement
that she winds up making again.
That will be on air and online.
Meantime, we're live in Grand Rapids
at the JW Marriott,
Charlie Tinker,
13 Niners side.
We are also closely watching the Attorney
general and Secretary of State races,
so let's take a look at the
latest attorney general numbers.
This is 19% of the votes counted,
so not even 1/5.
Dana Nessel is leading her challenger,
Matthew de Perno 51.5% to
46.1% for Secretary of State.
Incumbent Jocelyn Benson is
being challenged by Republican
Christian Karamo Christina,
and here are those numbers.
This is 22% of the precincts reporting,
so a little over a 5th, 54% to 44%.
And there were three proposals on
the statewide ballot tonight and Kirk
is in The Newsroom with a look at
the hotly contested proposals. Kirk
yeah, but I'm going to tell you
about all three in just a moment.
But perhaps the one that is
getting the most attention is the
reproductive freedom for all.
Better known as proposal three.
It would amend the state.
Constitution to guarantee individuals
reproductive freedoms and guarantee
a woman's right to an abortion.
Right now. Let's show you what it says.
Right now it is 55% yes, 45% no.
Again, these are preliminary
numbers of about 15% of the
precincts are reporting in now.
Earlier I spoke with Marissa Kovac,
with the ACLU about these early numbers.
Michigan voters want to see their
reproductive rights protected.
They want to preserve the rights
that we have had protected under
Roe V Wade for the last 15 years,
continue to be protected in Michigan.
And that they want to ensure that
these deeply personal private medical
decisions stay within between a woman,
her doctor, her family,
anyone else she chooses to involve,
but certainly not politicians.
And what we're seeing today with
voter turn out and enthusiasm
I think is showing for that.
Now I also spoke with Anna Visser,
who was with right to life,
who told me that she was not
discouraged by these early numbers.
From what we've seen on, you know,
in our field work and on the
grounds regardless of how people
felt about abortion, a lot of them,
majority of them were willing to vote
no for proposal 3 because it is so
radical and because it is so extreme.
And so we're hoping that that will be
translated out in the polls tonight.
OK, we want to now show you proposal two,
which would also amend the state
constitution to recognize the
right to vote without harassment.
It also allows 9 days of
early in person voting.
Right now the number is 57% yes,
43% no, and proposal one would
change the term limit legislation
for elected state officials.
Currently, legislators can only be
elected to the State House three times
and the state Senate twice if approved.
Proposal one would limit lawmakers
to 12 years in office total,
but they can serve in one
branch the whole time.
And the numbers now for proposal one,
yes, 65%, no, 35%.
Again, it's still relatively
young in the evening and these
numbers could certainly change.
We will continue to monitor these three
proposals and the numbers are updated
every two minutes on our website,
13 on yourside.com.
For now,
we'll send it back to you in the studio,
another race with high interest.
Not just in West Michigan and Michigan,
but the whole country is the
third Congressional District,
and that's the seat to replace Peter Meyer.
Republican John Gibbs defeated
Peter Meyer in the primary,
and now he's running against
Democrat Hillary Scullton.
You are looking at the latest numbers.
This is a these are not
the most updated numbers.
So we are going to come back to
these later because we had 24%
of the votes counted earlier,
so we're going to get back to those as well.
13 on your sides.
Nate Belt is covering the Gibbs watch party.
He joins us now live from
Wyoming with the latest.
Yeah, Juliet, you can hear behind
me and see behind me as well-being
parties still going strong here in
Wyoming for the John Gibbs campaign,
folks are dancing right now
to Faith George Michael.
They want to have a little faith
in these polls out here.
Now, we did hear from John Gibbs earlier,
but he told us he only came out once to
speak with media and really to speak with
the crowd only at one time this evening.
He's been back in the war room for a while.
We've seen him back there.
And what he said is, you know, they feel.
Confident.
They felt good all night.
They felt good coming into it.
And now as you can tell the folks
here still feeling good and this is
going to be expected to be a tightly
contested race as we continue to see
results come in through the rest of
tonight and into the morning as well.
Now you mentioned this race
also having nationwide impact.
John Gibbs of course running heavily
on the fact that he is endorsed
by former President Donald Trump.
He did work under the Trump administration
while the former president was in office.
So again, this is a.
They race being watched nationally,
and of course,
we're gonna continue to keep an eye
on it here in West Michigan as well.
You can find it both on air and online.
13 on yourside.com for now.
We'll send it back to the studio
live in Wyoming.
Nate Belt,
13 on your side.
Alright, thank you, Nate.
The race between Scolton and
Gibbs remains closed with roughly
half the votes of vote counted,
13 on your sides.
Carla Byron is live at Scolton's
watch party at Paddock Place
in Grand Rapids, Carla.
Well guys, let me tell you,
every time that the results flash on
the TV screen in the room next door,
I hear of wave of cheers
from school supporters.
So they are liking what they see right now.
So Scolton addressed the
crowd around 8:30 PM.
Of course, she thanked her family
and team for their support.
Her message to her voters
is thank you as well.
She says she has been seeing
this support in the early vote.
She's asking for patience,
though, as we may not know
the results until tomorrow.
Although she says signs are
looking good if she does win,
she named a few reasons why.
It is our broad message of inclusivity for
folks who are looking for something new.
Politics has become so
divisive and so tiring,
and we hear from people all the
time that they're attracted to our
fresh new approach to politics.
And she believes it's her deep
connections to the district that is
what is going to carry her in this race.
And regardless of what the outcome is
tonight, she says she will accept the
outcome and the will of the voters.
And if there is a call in the race tonight,
we do expect to hear from scolton.
So we will bring you that as soon as we can.
Reporting live in Grand Rapids,
Carla Byron, 13 on your side.
There are two other congressional
races here in West Michigan.
Both the 2nd and 4th districts
have Republican incumbents running
against Democratic challengers.
In the 4th District,
ABC News has called the race
for Bill Heisinger over
challenger Joseph Alfonso.
In the second district,
ABC has called the race for
incumbent John Mullinar over
the challenger Jerry Hilliard
and Kent County.
Those with the absentee ballot
facility at the Boss Place are
working to get the ballots processed.
There are a lot of ballots,
13 on your sides.
Michael Chow joins us now live from Depaz.
Place which Micah?
How many ballots are they
working to get through today?
While talking with Kent County
clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons,
she told me that as of
around 9:30 PM this evening,
there were over 120,800 ballots returned.
Or that's about a 93% return rate.
Just those absentee ballots alone
that I mentioned puts the voter
turn out percentage at 23.65% and
that's not accounting for all the
in person ballots and day of ballots
that are yet to be accounted for.
Looking at the long lines of voters
waiting to cast their ballots today,
especially those who waited
around 3 hours at the Grand Rapids
City Hall building downtown,
posthumous Lion says she's grateful
that everyone waited patiently
to get their voices heard.
It was a
really busy day in the
precincts on Election Day.
So we saw a lot of a lot of voter
activity there in our precincts
and and that's a good thing.
We want people to come out
and make their voices heard.
You know, we do everything we can
to make sure that we're operating
efficiently and effectively
to mitigate those lines.
Certainly the implementation of
no reason absentee voting and a
lot more of participation through
that method has has helped to
decrease the weight and lines.
Those ballots from the Grand Rapids
City clerk's office at City Hall
that we mentioned are actually on
their way as well to be counted here.
Those were those same day ballots and
posthumous Lyons also told us this
evening and that they're expecting
about a 24 hour time period for all
those absentee ballots and those day
of ballots to be accounted for and
processed for now in Grand Rapids.
I'm Michael for 13 on your side.
Well, coming up we will have
more on the races for Attorney
General and Secretary of State
and George is on his way out to the
weather deck with details of a warm up
before a big change in temperatures.