This year, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the number of women is expected to jump from two to at least four, the highest number in the state's history.

Since Grand Rapids teacher Eva McCall Hamilton was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 1921, women have been trying to break into state and federal politics with varying degrees of success.

But in 2018, a year that not only includes an explosion of female activists fueled by the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president but the #metoo movement of women decrying sexual harassment in the workplace and daily life, Michigan is poised to elect some of the biggest numbers of women in the state’s history.

There have been high points for women — like the early 2000s when 12 women were elected to the state Senate, and the 33 women elected to the state House of Representatives in 2016 — and low points when only one woman — U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township — was representing Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011-15 or for the last eight years, when only four women were serving in the state Senate.

This year, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the number of women is expected to jump from two — U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, who are running for re-election in safe Democratic seats — to at least four, the highest number in the state’s history. Former state Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat, is projected to win in the heavily Democratic district, and either Republican Lena Epstein, a Bloomfield Hills businesswoman, or Democrat Haley Stevens, a Rochester Hills appointee of former President Barack Obama, will prevail in the 11th Congressional District.

Rashida Tlaib speaks to staff, supporters and the press after the Associated Press called Tlaib's race in her favor at one of Tlaib's field offices in Northwest Detroit on Aug. 7, 2018. (Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

The state Senate will jump from four women to eight because four Democratic women running in safe Democratic seats are taking over for male senators — state Reps. Stephanie Chang and Sylvia Santana, as well as newcomer Betty Jean Alexander, all of Detroit, and Erika Geiss of Taylor. Two Republican women are running in safe GOP seats that were held by men — state Reps. Kim Lasata of St. Joseph and Lana Theis of Brighton. And two races feature Republican and Democratic women running against each other.

Women will be on the ballot in 25 of the 38 Senate seats and several more are on the verge of flipping toward Democratic women, who got higher numbers in the August primary election than their Republican opponents. The highest number of women serving in the Senate happened in the 2005-06 legislative session when 12 women were serving.

State Sen. Margaret O’Brien, R-Portage, faces a tough re-election challenge from former state Rep. Sean McCann, a Kalamazoo Democrat who fell 70 votes short of winning the seat in 2014, but gained more than 9,000 more votes than O'Brien in the August primary. O'Brien said she welcomes the influx of women into the races around the state.

“We definitely need more women in the Senate. Doubling our numbers would be great, but we need even more,” she said. “It let’s people know that women can run for and win seats. Now there are Senate committees with no women. My colleagues are great, but it’s better when we have more perspective. We want to be part of every conversation, every policy decision.

“As a Republican, I want to see more Republican women, but at the end of the day, it’s great to see more women overall running for office.”

Michigan state Sen. Margaret O'Brien speaks during a press conference on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018, at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. (Photo: Nick King/Lansing State Journal)

In the state House of Representatives, 77 women will be on the ballot for the 110 seats in the House and 39 of those seats will most likely be won by women, who are running in seats that are either safe for Republicans or Democrats or in seats where two women are running against each other. The 39 seats would be the high water mark for the chamber, exceeding the 2016 total of 33 women. Another eight seats, which feature female candidates, also could be considered a toss-up for the female candidate in the race.

“It’s nothing but good news. When we have more balance in gender, we have better and more ways to communicate. And in general, you hear about women being really strong at collaboration,” said state Rep. Chris Greig, D-Farmington Hills, who is running for re-election and could be in line to become the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives if the Democrats win a majority in the House. “It’s bringing in different voices and adds to the depth of the discussion and different priorities on agenda items.”

Michigan’s transformation would be nothing short of extraordinary, said Jean Sindzak, associate director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

“If those numbers hold true in Michigan, it’s pretty significant. You wouldn’t be at parity, but it’s pretty dramatic at every level of government,” she said. “Michigan may very well have its own version of the year of the women.”

She noted that Michigan has always been in the middle of the pack — the state ranks 26th in the nation now in terms of women elected to state and federal office. “But that automatically will move Michigan up to the top 10 of all of the states” if predictions hold.

The so-called “pink wave” is a trend that’s playing out all across the nation. Currently, there are six female governors, but the number of female gubernatorial candidates who have won their primary races and are heading to the Nov. 6 ballot is at 11, including former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing. And women are on the ballot for governor in three other states that will hold their primary elections over the next two weeks.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) talks with reporters following the Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 1, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In addition, women will be at the top of the statewide ticket for both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan, including U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing; Lisa Posthumus Lyons, an Alto Republican running for lieutenant governor; Democrat Dana Nessel for attorney general; and Republican Mary Treder Lang of Grosse Pointe, and Democrat Jocelyn Benson of Detroit, for secretary of state.

Women also have won 2,669 major-party nominations for state Legislature seats across the country this year, according to data from CAWP, and could signal a significant change in how politics and policy work in the nation.

“This really is a real flashpoint, a big moment,” Sindzak said. “We have research that shows that women legislators will make government more transparent and accessible to previously marginal groups. And women legislators are more likely to seek consensus across the aisle.”

Policy issues, such as Kansas’ move to allow candidates to use campaign finances for child care expenses, are things that might not otherwise get addressed without women at the table, she added.

Shannon Garrett, a Holland resident and co-founder of VoteRunLead, which has trained more than 12,000 Republican and Democratic women since 2016 — including 172 from Michigan — on how to run for office, said the 2018 election cycle “definitely feels like a tipping point. And the reason we’re at this point in politics is because we’ve had the same people serving in political seats since the dawn of democracy and that’s mostly white men.

“And the politics has become less about policy and more about power. Who has the power, who’s keeping the power and people are beginning to recognize that we need to be looking at actual policy. “That happens when you have a diverse group of candidates based on gender, race and income level. Because if you have the same group of people looking at the problem, they’re going to come up with the same ways of solving those problems.”

Most of the increased number of women on the ballot are Democrats: eight in the U.S. House of Representatives compared with two Republicans; 17 in the state Senate compared with 10 GOP women, and 58 in the state House, compared with 34 Republicans.

In the wake of the Women’s March in 2017, Lori Goldman of Bloomfield Township helped create Fems for Dems with a group of friends sitting around her kitchen table. It has grown to more than 1,000 members, primarily in Oakland County, who are operating phone banks, knocking on doors and crafting unique opportunities for candidates such as candidate “speed dating," in which voters gather in a large room and move from candidate to candidate to see whether there's a political match.

She credits the work her group did for some of the successes of female candidates, especially in Oakland County, a place that has been trending more blue than red in the last decade. While the group supports Democrats, either men or women, the success of women in 2018 will help attract more in the future, no matter the party.

“I think it will encourage women to continue to participate in politics and run for office. And they’ll show up to vote on a more regular basis,” she said. “When this election is over, we can flip all the seats we want, but if we go home and put our blinders on, it defeats the purpose. We still want to they hold their feet to the fire and stay true to their ideals.”

The Republican pipeline for female candidates hasn't been as productive this election cycle, said Dawn Crandall, the founder of the Michigan Excellence in Public Service Series, an intensive seven-month program that trains GOP women in leadership and campaign skills. In the 2016 election cycle, the program attracted 14 women. But this year, it dropped in half to seven.

"It does seem that women on the Democratic side are way more engaged and enthusiastic," she said. "Putting themselves out there in that vulnerable position to run for office is not always an easy thing to do, especially in this heated political environment."

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal

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