Attorney Matthew Ackerman won election to the Court of Appeals to represent the bench's 2nd District on Tuesday, beating candidate Latoya Willis by a healthy margin, according to unofficial election results.
Ackerman will replace Judge Kathleen Jansen on the appellate bench in 2025. The attorney is a partner at Ackerman & Ackerman and had the backing of Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, Justice David Viviano and Justice Brian Zahra. While generally seen as the conservative option, he also had support from well-known Democrats like Justice Richard Bernstein, former Governor Jim Blanchard and Carl Marlinga, the former Macomb County prosecutor who was the Democratic nominee in the 10th U.S. House District the last two cycles.
He earned 565,230 votes, according to the state's unofficial results for 55 percent of the vote. Willis earned 461,563 votes, or 44.9 percent in the two-way race.
A third candidate was in the race, Randy Wallace, before Governor Gretchen Whitmer in August appointed him to replace Judge Deborah Servitto, whose seat was also up for grabs. His appointment meant he and Judge Adrienne Young became the sole candidates for incumbent seats, meaning Wallce received incumbent designation on Michigan ballots. No one challenged him or Young, so they both won election Tuesday.
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