Democrat Jeremy Moss wins Michigan race to succeed Haley Stevens

Democrat Jeremy Moss is projected to win in the race for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, becoming the official pick to replace Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

With 19 percent of ballots counted around 8:15 p.m. EST, he had secured 73 percent of the vote over Republican Ethan Baker, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary.

Moss’s win came as no surprise, with DDHQ rating him as the likely winner as early as August. The Cook Political Report also similarly projected the district would stay solidly blue ahead of Election Day.

Michigan’s 11th District had voted in favor of Stevens — who opted to run for Senate instead of reelection — by roughly 20 percentage points in the last two elections.

No stranger to politics, Moss has served in the Michigan State Legislature since 2015, becoming the Great Lakes State’s first openly gay state senator. He has also served as president pro tempore of the Michigan state Senate since 2023.

With his win, Moss will also be Michigan’s first openly LGBTQ member of Congress.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) endorsed the Democrat as her pick to succeed Stevens, who lost the Senate primary to progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Stevens’s endorsement of GOP nominee and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers over El-Sayed has captivated headlines in recent days.

Moss ran his campaign on tackling the cost of living, putting his support behind a “robust public option” as a means of achieving universal healthcare coverage. In the run-up to the election, he signaled his belief that the Democratic Party could be doing more.

“We need a stronger, bolder, tougher Democratic Party, one that does not show up to the knife fight carrying a pie chart,” the candidate said in an interview with the Advocate.

He also adopted a no-nonsense approach to addressing the issues while on the campaign trail, seeking to refocus topics away from cultural discourse like the discussion about transgender people in sports .

“There is no trans athlete in Michigan that is causing gas prices to spike,” Moss told the Advocate, likely referring to rising energy costs tied to the Iran war. “There is no trans athlete in Michigan that is putting up barriers to affordable healthcare.”