Both candidates running in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election for Michigan Supreme Court — Andrew Fink and Kimberly Thomas — completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. These survey responses allow voters to hear directly from candidates about what motivates them to run for office.
Here are the candidates’ responses to the question: What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?
Fink:
- Michigan’s judiciary must ensure everyone has due-process, not just insiders. Our courts must judge every case based on its merits, not based on the partisan affiliations of the parties in the case.
- Michigan’s judiciary must work with law enforcement to prioritize public safety, not undermine their efforts to hold criminals accountable.
- Michigan’s judiciary must protect the will of the people by upholding the law as written. When judges interpret the law according to their personal policy preferences instead of according to the original meaning of the text, they undermine the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives and their vote.
Thomas:
- I will bring over two decades of experience as a trial and appellate lawyer and a law professor to ensure that the Michigan Supreme Court fulfills its constitutional role in our democracy and that the people of Michigan can have access to, and be respected in, our court system.
- My expertise, including work for the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative to promote justice and human dignity under the law, helps me bring a voice of integrity, fairness and equal protection to our Court.
- I am committed to equal justice for all Michiganders, ensuring litigants are heard and respected before the court, and improving how the court system serves the public.
Click on the candidates’ profile pages below to read their full responses to this and other questions.
Michigan is also holding a special election for Supreme Court justice. Incumbent Kyra Harris Bolden and Patrick W. O’Grady are running for that seat. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) appointed Harris Bolden in November 2022. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Bridget Mary McCormack’s term, which ends in 2028.
O’Grady filled out Ballotpedia’s Candidate Survey. Click on his profile to see his responses.
Michigan’s Supreme Court elections are nonpartisan, but candidates are nominated through a party convention. Thomas and Harris Bolden are affiliated with the Democratic Party. Fink and O’Grady are affiliated with the Republican Party.
Heading into the election, Democratic judges held a 4-3 majority on the court. Incumbent David Viviano (R) is not running for re-election. Democrats have an opportunity to win a 5-2 supermajority, and Republicans have an opportunity to win a 4-3 majority. According to the Associated Press, “Republicans have framed the races as a fight to stop government overreach, while Democrats say it is a battle to preserve reproductive rights.”
Michigan is one of 33 states holding state supreme court elections in 2024. In total, 82 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts are up for election. Nonpartisan justices hold 61 of those seats, Republicans hold 15, and Democrats hold six.
For more 2024 election coverage in Michigan, click here.