Michigan — 10th District

Democrats in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District are optimistic that they can flip their House seat blue. The history of the district, which covers southern Macomb County and Rochester and Rochester Hills in Oakland County, suggests that’s possible, but is no certainty.

That’s the seat now held by U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, who is running for governor. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as leaning Republican in the general election race.

It should be heartening to Democrats that they have credible candidates from whom to choose: Christina Hines, an adjunct law professor at Wayne State University and former prosecuting attorney; Tim Greimel, a lawyer who has served as Pontiac mayor and as Michigan House Democratic leader for part of his seven years in the Legislature; and Eric Chung, a lawyer who worked in the U.S. Commerce Department helping implement the CHIPS Act in the Biden administration.

Of these, CHRISTINA HINES wins the Free Press endorsement for the Democratic nomination in the Aug. 4 primary election.

Pragmatic and hard-working

Hines, who emphasizes that she is the only Democrat in the race from Macomb County, goes beyond the predictable issues in discussing her potential constituents’ needs and is working hard to make inroads with “working families that I think have not felt heard by the Democratic Party.”

That matters for Democrats nationally, but particularly here. The district, which has supported politicians of both parties in recent years, is where “Reagan Democrats” sprouted, during the 1980 presidential election, to describe working-class voters with union affiliations who broke from tradition to back Ronald Reagan.

Those tensions exist today, with Republicans tagging Democrats as elitists who have lost touch with people struggling with escalating costs for housing, health care, gasoline, groceries and just about everything else.

Hines won 43% of the vote in the 2024 Macomb County prosecutor’s race as a first-time candidate, losing to incumbent Pete Lucido, previously a well-known local attorney who left private practice to run for the state Legislature.

In this year’s campaign she has knocked on 7,000 doors so far “in places that Democrats won't knock, and I've learned a lot about what I think our community actually cares about,” she told the Free Press Editorial Board in an endorsement interview last month.

She touts kitchen-table issues like affordability of groceries, gas and child and elder care, protecting Social Security by eliminating the annual withholding cap for high earners, and supporting solutions to address the burgeoning housing crisis. Here, she made the case for how Congress can help her district with “investment into our electric grid, into water and sewage, making it a lot easier for places like Centerline or Roseville or Fraser, small communities like that, to be able to afford those improvements, which means that more people will want to rehab or build housing there.”

A tough road ahead

Whoever wins the 10th District Democratic nomination will have to do some upstream paddling.

From 2021 to 2022, U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Township, represented the 10th. After redistricting, she shifted to the 9th District, and James was elected to the 10th District seat in 2022 and re-elected in 2024.

The Democratic nominee is likely to face either Michael Bouchard or Robert Lulgjuraj, both of whom are leading in polling, fundraising and media attention.

Lulgjuraj is an assistant Macomb County prosecutor. Bouchard is an Army captain and the son of the longtime Oakland County Sheriff of the same name.

Bouchard’s team canceled a scheduled June 12 endorsement interview with the Free Press; repeated phone calls and emails seeking to re-schedule went unanswered. Lulgjuraj’s spokesman did not schedule an interview after multiple phone calls and emails. A third Republican candidate, Justin Kirk, is well-regarded, but simply hasn’t raised enough to compete with the better-funded candidates.

We believe Hines understands the district, and is doing the groundwork necessary to be the best choice for Democrats to take on either Republican in November ― and to represent the 10th District in Congress.

How to vote

Local clerks mailed absentee ballots to Michigan voters June 25. Registered voters may cast ballots early, in person, in some Michigan communities starting July 6, and statewide from July 25 to Aug. 2 — check with your local clerk for your city's early voting start date, location of early voting sites and absentee ballot dropboxes for absentee. And, of course, you can vote — and register to vote — in person on Aug. 4, Election Day.

Not sure what U.S. House District you're in? Look it up here.

About our endorsements

The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board is endorsing candidates in competitive races on the Aug. 4 primary in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, choosing the best-qualified candidate on each party's ballot. Because of the large number of candidates, we invited only viable candidates in competitive races to interview for our endorsement. We may make further endorsements this fall in races with competitive general elections.