michigan

PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has denied a prosecutor’s appeal of an order that the state’s fake elector case against President Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others over the 2020 presidential election be sent back to a grand jury.

The decision marks another setback for Democratic Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes as she struggles to push the sprawling case through the courts. Mayes’ office said it will again present the case in its entirety to a grand jury rather than end the prosecution.

The ruling came after similar cases in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed by the courts and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Cases related to the fake elector scheme remain in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.

A lower-court judge in Phoenix concluded in May that the case’s first grand jury hadn’t been shown the text of the Electoral Count Act, a 19th century law that governs the certification of presidential contests and was invoked by those charged in defending themselves.

Defense lawyers argued the law allowed for multiple slates of electors to be submitted to Congress in case the results were disputed, though it was amended in 2022 to specify that a state could put forward only one slate of electors and that it was the governor who would sign off.

There has been no movement in the Arizona case at the trial court level since mid-May.

Former President Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by 10,457 votes.

Billeaud writes for the Associated Press.

May 28 (UPI) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will not run for president in 2028, planning instead to take a break from politics rather than jumping straight into another campaign when her term ends.

Whitmer, who is in her second and final term as Michigan governor, was widely expected to join the field as her profile nationally has grown since President Donald Trump‘s first term in office.

“There will be a robust group of people running for president,” Whitmer told WJBK-TV.

“I will not be one of them in 2028. I can tell you that,” the Democratic governor said.

Whitmer’s term ends at the end of this year, and she told the Detroit television station that there is time between now and the next presidential election to change her mind, but does not expect to do so.

“I want to have an impact,” Whitmer said in the WJBK interview, which was conducted at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

“I want to do good work, but I’m also looking forward to taking a little bit of a break and thinking about it, not jumping right into something,” she said.

Whitmer said she spoke with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo before making the decision.

A poll on Democrats who may run for president in 2028 published Thursday found Buttigieg leading a possible primary race, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

INTERLOCHEN, Mich. — A Michigan summer arts camp and boarding school where Jeffrey Epstein has been accused of meeting at least two of his victims will tear down a lodge that once bore his name.

The Interlochen Center for the Arts said this week that its board of trustees has approved a plan to demolish the Green Lake Lodge, which had been known as Jeffrey E. Epstein Scholarship Lodge until the school cut ties and scrubbed references to the late millionaire sex offender after his first conviction in 2008.

Epstein attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in 1967 as a teenager, and donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 to 2003, including $200,000 for the construction of the lodge.

“The lodge has, over time, come to carry associations that are not reflective of who we are as an institution or the values we strive to uphold,” Interlochen said in a statement. “After careful consideration, the Board determined that removing this structure in a safe and timely manner is the right step for Interlochen at this time.”

A world-renowned destination for young artists, actors and musicians, Interlochen’s alumni include Grammy winners Chappell Roan and Norah Jones and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

At least two of Epstein’s accusers have said they met him at Interlochen in the 1990s.

The school said it was aware of news reports about the women’s claims and said it has invited them to speak with an independent investigator as part of an external investigation into reports of historical misconduct at Interlochen.

A pair of internal reviews, most recently after Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest in 2019, found no reports of misconduct at Interlochen involving Epstein in its records, the school said.

Epstein visited Interlochen periodically, often with his confidante and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and stayed in the lodge now marked for demolition.

According to correspondence included in the Justice Department’s recent release of Epstein-related records, he directed that tuition for at least one student be paid out of his donations and once flew violinist Itzhak Perlman to the school on his private jet.

Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. In 2008 and 2009, he served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking for helping to recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims, and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where USC and Notre Dame are back at the bargaining table — as you first read in this space last Monday — and also back to bickering about who’s to blame for blowing up their century-old rivalry in the first place. One step closer to order being restored!

I have less faith in the rest of college football and its leadership, which now appears to be mobilizing around a playoff format that’s almost universally disliked by actual consumers of college football. The 24-team playoff is a great deal for coaches, who want to be able to point to as many playoff berths as possible for job security. It’s probably a good deal for athletic directors, digging through couch cushions for extra NIL dollars. And for the TV networks, it’s especially juicy. Twenty four teams means more than double the number of games, and each of those games is pulling in an average of between 10 million and 20 million viewers. That’s a lot of eyeballs and a lot of advertising dollars. (For everyone but ESPN, which currently has exclusive rights up to 14 teams.)

It’s also a good deal for Notre Dame, whose athletic director Pete Bevacqua came out this week in support of the 24-team playoff in an interview with the Athletic. The Irish would essentially assure themselves of a bid in most years, which, per Bevacqua, would make it easier to clear the way for USC and Notre Dame to play again.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti has been leading the charge on the 24-team playoff. So while USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen hasn’t said anything about her preference, it would be a surprise to hear her publicly oppose what the rest of the conference has been pushing.

But why do we have to push anywhere? Why do we have to keep fixing the playoff? And if you must keep tinkering with college football, well, there are plenty of ways to fix it that won’t water down the product and devalue the regular season the way playoff expansion does. Plus, who’s to say that after two seasons at 24 teams, the conference commissioners don’t decide they want to expand again? To 28 teams? To 36 teams?

The 12-team playoff already makes a lot of money. But like everything now, it has to make the most possible money or be as big as possible. I actually long for the days when college football’s leaders did whatever they could to keep the game from changing.

Now it’s the only thing that feels inevitable these days around college football.

Back to school

Marqise Lee at his graduation ceremony.

(USC)

Marqise Lee stepped to the lectern Friday, in full cap and gown, looked out over a full crowd at Galen Center, and cleared his throat. For so many reasons, the former USC wideout still couldn’t quite believe he was standing there.

Growing up, no part of Lee thought that college would even be available to him. He was brought up in the most difficult of circumstances in Inglewood. Separated at a young age from his sister and his mother, who was deaf. Thrust alone into the foster care system. He ended up living in a motel for three years.

When he did make it to USC, class hadn’t been a priority. Football was his focus from the start, and it would ultimately lead him to the NFL, where he’d never really taken the idea of returning to school that seriously. A counselor would try to convince him on a few occasions and even got him onto campus to set up a schedule.

“But it just never happened,” Lee told me.

Then, his football career ended, and his daughters started getting older. They never got to see him play football. He started thinking about what it would mean to show them what he could accomplish. So Lee decided to go back.

It wasn’t easy at first. He was taking five classes, a full course load. He felt uncomfortable being the oldest student in the class.

“When I first sat in there,” he said, ”I was like, I really don’t need to come back.”

His statistics class, especially, was daunting. He looked for any reason to leave. Then, he thought of his daughters.

“To go back to school and tell my daughters, yeah, I went back, but I wasn’t successful — and expect them to succeed?” Lee said. “Yeah, I can’t.”

But before long, Lee found that he actually liked his classes now. He enjoyed the group projects where he used to only do the bare minimum.

After sloughing off his final semester the first time around at USC, Lee needed at least three B’s and two A’s. No easy feat at USC.

Lee ended up getting A’s across the board. At the end of the semester, the school asked him to be the speaker at its student athlete commencement. Which is what led Lee to that stage, where he delivered a hell of a speech Friday.

“It was just like, this is something that you never ever dreamed about,” Lee said. “You never dreamed about graduating from college. So like to get that done was amazing. And then, I have an opportunity to sit up here and say to these kids and get them prepared for their future, by at least letting them understand where I come from and how hard it is. So they know that we actually can fight through anything that comes our way.”

Next up for Lee?

“I’m about to try and go get my master’s degree after this,” he said.

Cofie’s plans changing?

Jacob Cofie reacts after a layup and a foul during a win over Washington State last season.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

A month ago, USC basketball announced that Jacob Cofie, one of its starters from last season, planned to return next season. It was a huge coup for Eric Musselman, who had a grand total of two returning players in two seasons as USC’s coach.

Cofie decided to still take part in the G League scouting combine. But in the process, he became one of five players who earned invites to the NBA scouting combine last weekend.

While in Chicago, Cofie was asked if he’d considered keeping his name in the draft. And he didn’t say no. “I’m leaving that up to my agent right now,” he said.

But even with the combine invite, I don’t expect that Cofie could climb any higher than the second round of this NBA draft. And depending on where he would be drafted, if he’s drafted at all, he might actually stand to make more at USC in revenue sharing dollars and NIL.

Cofie has nine days, technically, to make a decision. But I expect we’ll hear sooner than that on his future, and I’d be shocked to hear he’ll be spending next season anywhere but USC.

—USC baseball locked up the fourth seed in the Big Ten tournament. But what about hosting a regional? The Trojans managed to take one of three against Oregon to at least lock up a bye until Friday in the Big Ten tournament. But right now, USC is likely on the outside looking in at hosting its first NCAA regional since 2002. All that could change with a run in the Big Ten tournament. Doing so, though, probably means pulling off an upset of No. 1 UCLA. If USC wins its first tournament matchup against whomever emerges out of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State and Purdue, then the Bruins will almost certainly be on tap. Win that game, and their hosting fate could change fast.

—Pete Carroll is coming back to teach “The Game of Life” at USC. The former USC coach delivered the commencement address for the Marshall School of Business last Friday, and in the process, announced that he’ll be making his triumphant return as Professor Pete next school year. A spot in Carroll’s class was one of the most coveted on campus in his first go-round — good luck getting off that waitlist the second time!

—Honor Fa’alave Johnson, USC’s top commit in 2027, reaffirmed his plans to sign with USC. That was after a group of USC coaches flew down to the safety’s hometown of San Diego via helicopter. Not a bad way to show you mean business — especially as Texas was doing its best to flip Fa’alave Johnson.

—Some Big Ten championship results from the weekend: The USC men finished fourth in the Big Ten track and field championships, while the USC women finished third. Meanwhile, women’s rowing placed sixth at their Big Ten championships.

What I’m Reading This Week

Patrick Radden Keefe writes for the New Yorker.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

It’s a quiet time for new TV, so I took the radical step of picking up a new book this week. (Crazy, I know.) That said, I’m always game for reading something new from New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who, for my money, is one of our greatest living nonfiction writers. His latest book, “London Falling” follows an American family investigating the death of their 19-year-old son, who they find was living a secret life within London’s criminal underworld mysteriously before he jumped mysteriously from a building into the Thames River in 2019.

Keefe is a tremendous reporter and writer, capable of turning a nonfiction narrative into a roller coaster, page-turning story that reads like a crime novel. This book, like “Say Nothing” and “Empire of Pain” before it, is one I won’t forget any time soon.

Scheduling note

I said I’d be off this week, however the Lee graduation was so nice that waiting to report on it seemed wrong. But the newsletter will be on hiatus the next two weeks.

In case you missed it

NCAA to expand March Madness fields to 76 teams

A star pitcher at USC, he was cut after six years in the minors. Then Banana Ball came calling

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the spring sports calendar is quickly coming to a close at USC. Saturday saw a trio of Trojan teams upended in the NCAA tournament. The women’s beach volleyball team fell in a brutal quarterfinal shutout by No. 5 Florida State. Men’s volleyball faltered in the second round to No. 3 Hawaii, and the men’s tennis team was shut out 4-0 by No. 9 Oklahoma.

But at USC, there’s a lot of excitement about what’s coming next. The year ahead is a critical one, and not just for Lincoln Riley and the football program. Eric Musselman enters Year 3 with no tournament invites to date, but the most talent he’s had yet as USC’s men’s basketball coach, while the women’s basketball program could be more talented next season than it has ever been.

That abundance of star power has made for a much different offseason for Lindsay Gottlieb this spring. At this time last year, the women’s basketball coach was scrambling to put pieces together in the transfer portal after JuJu Watkins’ knee injury derailed the Trojans’ plans of a title run. The vibes …. were not great. Two promising young guards, Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel, left. Some potential transfers who hoped to play with Watkins went elsewhere. All setting up for an up-and-down season.

But with Watkins set to return to full-go this summer and a trio of five-star prospects set to join her, Gottlieb entered this offseason facing polar opposite circumstances. Watkins is set to retake her throne as the most dominant player in women’s college basketball. Jazzy Davidson, already the national freshman of the year, should only get better as a sophomore. And Saniyah Hall, the nation’s top recruit in 2026, would be the best player on most college basketball teams. She may only be the Trojans’ No. 3 next season.

So when Gottlieb set out to survey the transfer portal this spring, she wanted to take a much more selective, intentional approach to building out an already-stacked roster.

“We wanted players that fit,” Gottlieb said. “It takes the person to have the courage to understand that they can really contribute with these really talented players that we have. And also a humility to know that we’re trying to win a national championship, so you’ve got to [be] confident and believe in your abilities. But it can’t necessarily be where they want something crafted around them only, you know? Because we’re trying to win a national championship.”

Pania Davis with Florida State last season.

(Gary McCullough / Associated Press)

She wanted more size, to split time with five-star freshman Sara Okeke at center and found 6-foot-6 center Pania Davis, a towering rim protector who played last season at Florida State.

“We were studying the best bigs that fit us, and 6-6 just jumps out at you,” Gottlieb said. “The way she moves we were really excited about.”

Gottlieb also set out to add an experienced guard in the portal after nearly all of USC’s backcourt depth departed in the offseason and landed on one that she’d known since her first year as the Trojans’ coach.

Gottlieb met Ryann Bennett at a camp during that first season, and when she became available last month after two seasons at UC Davis, her skills just happened to fit USC’s needs perfectly.

“She’s just a really good all-around player,” Gottlieb said. “She can create and pass. She plays some point guard. I don’t think she’s going to be afraid of taking or making a big shot.”

USC could add another player or two in the portal from here, Gottlieb said, but she also doesn’t want to upset the balance that she has right now, on a roster that should already be among the best in the nation.

The question now isn’t so much who USC adds, but how Gottlieb will manage the needs of a roster full of star players. Though, she scoffs at any concern that there’s only one ball to be shared among USC’s star-studded group.

“There’s one ball for South Carolina. There’s one ball for LSU. There’s one for UCLA,” Gottlieb said. “We’ve gotta play in a way that values winning. I don’t think it should take away anyone’s individual skills. But the priority has to be playing the best possible basketball.”

A joyous title run

USC women’s water polo players celebrate after defeating California for the NCAA title last month.

(Derrick Tuskan / NCAA)

The first season that Casey Moon took over USC’s water polo program, he freely admits that “I fell on my face.”

The Trojans lost in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals of the 2024 season, their worst finish in decades. And in the weeks that followed, Moon tried to step back and reevaluate what he wanted to be as a head coach. He had no choice but to be away from the pool, which was under construction all summer.

“The thing that kept coming up,” Moon says, “is this aspect of joy.”

Two years later, Moon has USC water polo back on top again, winners of their seventh national title. He and his players say “joy” is the reason why.

“We’re really unserious, and I think it helped us a lot this year,” said goalkeeper Anna King, who had a career-high 14 saves in the national title win. “We’re trying jokes the whole time. 
We’re just, like, making fun of each other. We keep it light.”

Maggie Johnson, a senior attacker, points to a moment between the third and fourth quarters of USC’s narrow title win over California.

“We are up by one, and they zoom in on our huddle, and we’re all just dancing,” Johnson said. “And I think that just encapsulates, like, what our team is.”

—The NCAA is primed to change its eligibility rules in a big way. The new rules would eliminate the notion of “redshirts” or eligibility waivers — and hopefully stop the cascade of legal challenges — by giving athletes five years to play, with only few exceptions. Eligibility issues have been a disaster as of late for the NCAA, and president Charlie Baker said last week that he’s “pretty optimistic” that the changes will pass when a vote happens later this month. Lincoln Riley has said in the past that he favors the five-year rule, though it’s been a while since we asked.

—The Big Ten distributed a record $1.7 billion in 2024-25, USC’s first year in the league. That was a 55% increase from the previous year, before USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon joined and the most money ever distributed by a college football conference. And from that pile of conference cash, USC should bring in somewhere between $76 million and $80 million. That’s nearly three times as much as the school got in its last year of the Pac-12. In case you needed reminding why USC left.

—USC lost a key member of its football front office. Zaire Turner came with general manager Chad Bowden in 2025 to be the Trojans’ new director of recruiting operations and played a key part in putting together the nation’s No. 1 class in 2026. Now, after a year, Turner, a Dallas native, is off to Southern Methodist where she’ll be senior director of recruiting.

—USC baseball notched its second straight Big Ten sweep. That brings the Trojans to 37-12 on the season, which still leaves them within striking distance of second place in the Big Ten with one conference series — and two overall — remaining in the regular season. With five more wins out of their seven remaining games, the Trojans would lock up their best regular season in a quarter century.

—A shout-out to USC women’s golf, who I unfortunately overlooked in last week’s newsletter, even after they’d won the school’s first Big Ten title and 10th conference title overall. And not just that, sophomore Jasmine Koo won the individual Big Ten title. She was already the winningest player in USC women’s golf history, but added her most distinguished honor yet by becoming the school’s eighth individual conference champion.

What I’m watching this week

Oscar Isaac as Josh Martin, Carey Mulligan as Lindsay Crane-Martin in “Beef.”

(COURTESY OF NETFLIX)

When its first season debuted on Netflix in 2023, there weren’t many shows out there that could build anxiety-inducing tension quite like “Beef.” And I’m happy to report that it’s still got it.

Season 1, which starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, centered on a road-rage dispute that escalated out of control. Season 2 has a totally new story, even better actors — Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan are the couple at the center of the beef — and even higher stakes. This time, a younger couple played by Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny witness Isaac and Mulligan, who run the country club they work at, get into a raging fight, the optics of which don’t look so great.

This problem maybe could’ve been solved with a little communication. But judging by the name of the show, you can probably guess which direction it went.

In case you missed it

More March Madness: NCAA basketball tournaments reportedly set to expand to 76 teams

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The protracted uncertainty over control of Congress reverberated through both major political parties on Wednesday, as Democrats basked in the relief of the red wave that wasn’t and Republicans became increasingly clear-eyed that the lingering influence of former President Trump had hamstrung their party.

President Biden’s emphasis during the campaign season on the extremism of “MAGA Republicans” had been greeted skeptically by many. In the Democratic Party’s better-than-expected showing, though, he saw vindication of his appeals for civility and normalcy.

“This election season, American people made it clear: They don’t want every day going forward to be a constant political battle,” Biden said at a White House news conference. “The future of America is too promising to be trapped in endless political warfare.”

Amid high inflation and Biden’s lackluster approval numbers, Democrats’ hopes had hinged on voters being more put off by Trump’s imprint on the Republican Party — be it the divisive candidates he endorsed, the political violence that festered from his lies about election fraud, or the reversal of federal abortion protections made possible by justices he appointed to the Supreme Court.

“We knew going into the cycle that there was going to be an opportunity to rally a moral majority that is an anti-MAGA coalition,” said Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, a progressive donor network. “When I say that, I include everyone from [GOP Rep.] Liz Cheney to [democratic socialist Sen.] Bernie Sanders. Think about that spectrum of the middle to the left coming together to say Republicans are just too damn extreme.”

If recent history is any guide, Trump’s not going anywhere. The once and likely future presidential candidate is unpopular, but he continues to exercise outsized sway over the Republican base, and could hobble the party for the next two years and beyond.

“While in certain ways yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory,” Trump said on his conservative social media network, Truth Social, pointing to the record of candidates he endorsed. “219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General – Who has ever done better than that?”

The specter of the former president hampered the GOP’s ability to frame the midterm as a referendum on Biden, said Ken Spain, a GOP strategist and former spokesman for the party’s House campaign arm.

“Trump was always a looming shadow over this election, more than Republicans probably wanted to admit,” he said. “This essentially became a choice election between an unpopular president and an even more unpopular Trump.”

There were signs that patience was running thin among Republican power brokers. Notably, Trump’s much-beloved New York Post, the tabloid owned by conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on its cover Wednesday with the headline “DeFuture.” DeSantis is widely considered Trump’s biggest threat for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Republicans still had a chance of winning both chambers of Congress as vote-counting continued Wednesday. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) projected confidence that his party would win the five additional seats necessary to take the majority there, and announced his intention to run for speaker of the House.

Whether he secures a majority may come down to his home state. California’s 11 competitive races remained unsettled as of Wednesday evening, with results trickling in slowly, as is common with the state’s methodical ballot-counting procedures.

Republicans had targeted incumbent Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Mike Levin in Orange County, as well as an open seat in the Central Valley, as possible pick-ups. But Democrats were also watching the returns for the potential to oust vulnerable GOP Reps. David Valadao of Hanford and Ken Calvert of Corona.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin notched a close win over Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes, giving Republicans a 49-48 advantage in the Senate, with races in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada yet to be decided.

With neither candidate in Georgia winning more than 50% of the vote, the race will go to a Dec. 6 runoff, like the one that decided Senate control in 2020. A 50-50 split in the Senate would let Democrats maintain control with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.

Republicans made some successful pushes into blue territory; in New York, for example, they appeared likely to win four Democratic-held House seats. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a New York Democrat who led his party’s efforts to keep the House, conceded his own race Wednesday morning to Mike Lawler, a Republican state assemblyman.

Still, the night was distinctly underwhelming for a party that contemplated a blowout win in the House and an assured majority in the Senate.

“Definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday night on NBC as he predicted a narrow win for Republicans in the Senate.

Paradoxically, a small Republican majority in the House would likely give Trump more leverage there, as McCarthy would have to depend on continued support from acolytes of the former president, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, to exercise the GOP’s majority power.

Biden, speaking at the White House on Wednesday, said he had not had much occasion to interact with McCarthy but planned to talk with him later in the day. The president promised to work with Republicans in Congress, but noted pointedly that the American people had also sent the message that they wanted the GOP to show similar cooperation.

The president was happy to point out that his party had defied expectations, noting that “while the press and the pundits [were] predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen.”

National exit polls gave a glimpse into why Republicans fizzled. The surveys showed inflation was a top concern among voters. But abortion ranked second. That, and the relative weakness of Trump-backed candidates, helped Democrats stay in the fight.

Many voters appeared willing to swallow their disappointment with Biden. An NBC exit poll showed Democrats narrowly winning — 49% to 45% — among voters who “somewhat disapprove” of Biden’s performance.

Results in Michigan underscored the extent of the Republican Party’s disappointments. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom Trump had attacked relentlessly, defeated his endorsed candidate, Tudor Dixon, and Democratic incumbents held on to the state’s attorney general and secretary of state posts and gained control of the Legislature as well.

The GOP failed to oust Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a vulnerable Democrat in a Michigan swing district that barely backed Biden two years ago. Elsewhere in the state, a Trump-backed candidate — who in the primary beat Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican who had voted to impeach the former president — lost in the general election, costing Republicans a seat in the surprisingly tight battle for control of the House.

Michigan voters also approved a ballot measure striking down a 1931 ban on abortion, and voters in Kentucky rejected an initiative that would have amended the state constitution to make clear it did not protect abortion rights.

The Republicans’ loss of a Senate seat in Pennsylvania could prove the most consequential if Democrats keep the chamber. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz, a television doctor and first-time candidate backed by Trump. Fetterman, still recovering from a stroke, painted the untested Oz as an elite carpetbagger.

Many of the gubernatorial candidates Trump backed also lost or were in danger of losing as of Wednesday afternoon. DeSantis’ double-digit win in Florida, as well as his strong coattails for Republicans in the House, served as a stark contrast. But Trump has said he will run again even if party leaders prefer DeSantis. Opinion polls, at least for now, show the former president as the prohibitive favorite to capture the party’s nomination.

Jason Miller, an advisor to Trump, told the BBC on Wednesday morning that he was urging Trump to postpone an announcement that he will run again from next week — as he has been teasing — to December, to avoid distracting from a potential Senate runoff in Georgia. But Miller said he remained 100% certain that Trump would run.

“Many of the people who are championing Ron DeSantis for president are the same people who were skeptical of President Trump ever since he came down the escalator in 2015,” Miller said, recalling Trump’s improbable announcement for the 2016 race.

Miller predicted that Trump would “have his hands full” but would ultimately win the nomination again.

Mason reported from Los Angeles and Bierman from Washington. Times staff writer Erin B. Logan contributed to this report from Washington.