Good Chance GOP Will Keep Open Michigan Seat

All eyes are on Michigan's 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring GOP Rep. Dan Benishek.

With hours to go before the voting booths close, signs are strong that retired U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Bergman will win a tight race with former Democratic State Chairman Lon Johnson.

“The popularity of Trump in the district helps Bergman because this is one district in which straight-ticket voting might help the Republicans,” Bill Ballenger, editor of the Ballenger Report on Michigan politics, told me.

Ballenger added, “you had Mike Pence and Sarah Palin spending time in the 1st District in the past few days, but no major Democrats. If the Republicans have made sure voters know who Johnson really is, and his background, his wife is a fundraiser for Obama, that should be enough to pull the general across the finish line.”

Bergman made headlines in May when he scored a surprise win over an incumbent and a former state senator (the latter of whom lost the 2010 primary to Benishek). If elected, he will be the highest-ranked former military officer to serve in the U.S. House since retired Brig. Gen. James Devereux, a Republican congressman from Maryland from 1950-58.