Michigan

Michigan has a plural executive, with a distinctive way of choosing some of its officers. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected together as a ticket, so they share a party. The Attorney General and the Secretary of State are also elected statewide, but through an unusual route: the parties nominate them at state conventions rather than in primaries, and voters then elect them in the general election.

Michigan also elects, statewide, the governing boards of its three largest public universities, the University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State, a feature almost unique among the states. The Governor appoints the heads of the other executive departments and leads the rest of the bureaucracy, but shares the executive branch with the independently elected Attorney General and Secretary of State.

The Michigan Legislature is bicameral: a 38-seat State Senate (four-year terms) and a 110-seat House of Representatives (two-year terms). It is a full-time, professional body with a base salary of $71,685 a year plus a $10,800 expense allowance and substantial staff.

Michigan has term limits, a lifetime cap of 12 years that a legislator may serve in either chamber or split between the two, a rule voters revised by initiative in 2022 (the earlier limits were stricter and chamber-specific). The Legislature works on a two-year cycle and meets close to year-round.

A bill is introduced, sent to committee, and, if it advances, voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law without a signature, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations. A veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Michigan’s direct democracy is strong and has a distinctive wrinkle: the "indirect initiative." Citizens who gather enough signatures for a proposed law send it first to the Legislature, which has 40 days to enact it; if lawmakers decline, the measure goes to the statewide ballot. Notably, an initiated law adopted this way can shield it from a governor’s veto. Michigan voters can also propose constitutional amendments by initiative and overturn laws by referendum, and it was a 2018 ballot initiative that created the redistricting commission described below.

The Governor appoints the heads of the non-elected departments, fills certain vacancies, proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds broad emergency powers, and wields a line-item veto. Within the executive branch the Governor must coexist with the independently elected Attorney General and Secretary of State, who can pursue their own agendas and come from a different party.

The Governor holds the clemency power. The larger constraints on the office are external: the strength of Michigan’s direct democracy means voters can write law the Governor cannot veto, and since 2018 the Governor and Legislature no longer control how district lines are drawn.

Michigan selects its Supreme Court in an unusual hybrid way: the parties nominate candidates at their conventions, but the justices then appear on the general-election ballot without party labels, so the race is officially nonpartisan even though the nominees are party-backed. The Supreme Court sits at the top, above the Court of Appeals and the trial-level Circuit Courts. Lower-court judges run in nonpartisan elections, and the Governor fills mid-term vacancies by appointment.