REDISTRICTING RESULTS
After the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission was compelled to redraw state House maps in southeast Michigan in response to Black voters who challenged the existing maps, declaring Black voting power had been diluted in 2022, 14 metro Detroit state representatives will now face a different set of voters if they choose to run again. State Rep. Natalie Price (D-Berkley) currently represents the 5th District, which runs from northwest Detroit up to Birmingham and Bloomfield Township, and was one of the districts challenged as marginalized for Blacks and the city of Detroit, because it was only 58.9 percent Black. The new 5th district will now include parts of Detroit, Oak Park and Royal Oak Township and will be 81.1 percent Black. The 6th District, currently represented by state Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park), will lose Oak Park, but pick up all of Berkley, Huntington Woods, most of Royal Oak, and continue up the corridor to include most of Birmingham and a part of Bloomfield Township, Price said. “I will be running in the new 6th – and Regina will be be running in the new 5th, because she lives in the current 5th. No one will be moving, and no one will be primarying each other,” she said – although several other Democrats have filed in the 5th. Prior to the 2022 redistricting, former state Rep. Mari Manoogian (D) represented all of Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills – now there are five state representatives for the three carved up communities. “There are pros and cons to having multiple representatives,” Price said. “More representatives in a community allows for more voices and points of view and more people to advocate for the community, and allows for different people with different specialties to help with different things.” The filing deadline for the August primary election is Tuesday, April 23.