Paul Hudson emerged with the victory in the Republican primary for Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, one of the most competitive races in the country.
Hudson was leading Michael Markey Jr. approximately 55% to 45% when the race was caklled by the Associated Press.
Markey Jr., who touted his business experience throughout the campaign, painted himself as a “disrupter” who would work to “get things” done if elected to Congress.
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GOP Congressional candidate Mike Markey Jr. (Markey campaign)
“I’m like, ‘Why are we using, you know, what makes me a disrupter?’ [My team is] like, ‘Mike, you started your first business at 14 years old, you got into real estate before you were 15, you started a financial firm during the worst economic crisis hopefully we ever see in our lifetimes,’” he told ABC News 13 in an interview earlier this month. “They’re like, ‘That makes you a disrupter. You go against the grain, you get things done.’”
Hudson, an attorney, ran on a platform of stability. He argued that the district’s voters are “uneasy” about the current political climate and promised “common sense for crazy times.”
“When I’ve talked to voters, I get a sense that people are really uneasy about the state of the country right now, and that there’s a deep sense that the country is going in the wrong direction,” Hudson told ABC News 13.
Michigan Republican House candidate Paul Hudson. (Hudson campaign)
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WASHINGTON – JULY 25: Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., speaks with Roll Call in her office in the Longworth House Office Building on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Hudson will now face Democrat incumbent Rep. Hillary Scholten in November’s general election.
Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, which features all of Grand Rapids and much of the surrounding area, is seen as one of the biggest swing districts in the country after the state’s 2022 redistricting saw the boundaries of the district drawn more competitively.
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Scholten, who is serving her first term, was able to wrestle the district away from former Republican Rep. Peter Meijer in 2022. The district is classified as a “likely” win for Democrats in this year’s contest, according to the Cook Political report.