Michigan House elects new leadership after Republicans win majority

Republican House Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) has been chosen to serve as the next speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Hall won his bid Thursday to continue leading House Republicans when his party takes the majority in the chamber next year after picking up a handful of seats in Tuesday's general election.

Having that majority is likely to give the Republican caucus more leverage in negotiations over legislation.

Hall accused Democrats, who controlled the House (and the Senate and governor's office) this session, of holding long votes on bills to wear down Republicans when they didn't have enough support among their own side to pass legislation.

"I'll put it up when we're ready to vote," Hall said. "When the Republicans are ready and there's a bipartisan deal, then we'll put it up to vote," he told reporters Thursday.

When asked about his priorities for next year, Hall pointed to education, community safety and spending-related items. Those include road funding and discretionary budget items, called earmarks, that have supported specific projects and programs in certain parts of the state.

"You will see a detailed plan for me to reform the way we do our budget. That includes transparency on these earmarks. If we have earmarks moving forward, which is something I'm going to have to talk to our caucus about, I believe we should identify the sponsor in advance," he said.

Hall also advocated for a public process to vet programs before lawmakers vote to fund them.

While Hall assumes his new title as speaker-elect, Democrats chose Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) to serve as their minority leader next legislative session.

Puri said one of his top priorities is unifying Democrats after seeing division between progressives and other parts of the caucus.

"I want to kind of re-envision how we make up the caucus and how decisions are made ... by trusting and empowering more members to help with making those decisions," Puri said.

Democrats lost four seats this election.

Puri said he believes each of his colleagues ran their campaigns well but was weighed down by a poor performance from Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.

He said he'd be open to bringing in experts in organization to see how the caucus can run more functionally next session and better achieve his goal of taking back the majority in 2026.

"I look forward to tapping into some of that potential that's out there that could help Michigan get that damn trifecta back, because the reality is in 2026, Michigan is going to be a national Democratic darling. There's going to be a lot of eyeballs and recapturing this Democratic trifecta. And you know, as House Democrats, I think we look forward to playing a very strong role in making that vision come true," he said.

Democrats will keep control of the Michigan House, Senate and governor's office until the end of the year.

But Puri said he doesn't know which policies could come out of this lame duck period. And current House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) did not make time Thursday to speak with reporters about what to expect.

For the upcoming legislative session, Puri will be a mediary between Hall's incoming Republican majority and Democrats that will still control the other parts of the legislative process.

Puri said he plans on using lessons from controlling the chamber to exercise power from the minority. There are 110 seats in the Michigan House, so a majority decision needs 56 votes.