Previewing This Week’s Primaries with Detroit News Reporter Chad Livengood

Rick Pluta/Michigan Public Radio Network (MPRN)

We’ve been talking a lot about the November elections lately. But voters will be going to the polls on Tuesday this week for some incredibly important elections — the August primary contests.

Voters in solidly blue or red congressional districts will be choosing candidates that are all but guaranteed to represent them on Capitol Hill. What are some of the most contested or interesting races across the state?

Detroit News political reporter Chad Livengood joins Detroit Today to talk about tomorrow’s primaries and the changing nature of how candidates campaign.

“Some of these high-profile congressional primaries, they require TV advertising and they require a lot of mail early on because the dynamics of the races have been changing,” says Livengood.

This can be attributed in part to absentee voting, he says, which has increased by almost thirty percent since the last primary.

“At the same time, it depends,” says Livengood. “Some of these more local races require a lot more hand-to-hand combat, you might say.”

To hear more of the conversation with Chad Livengood, including his takes on specific races, click on the audio player above. 

The news department and special assignments team have created some very helpful election features for decisionmaking in tomorrow’s primary. At the following links, you can find information about candidates in Congressional districts, including interviews and questionnaires (when they returned them), a map of your district, and some demographics and previous election results.

These are pilots — we’ll improve them for November too!

Please share these today on your social networks:

http://wdet.org/posts/2016/07/19/83163-know-your-congressional-district-michigans-14th/

http://wdet.org/posts/2016/07/20/83464-know-your-congressional-district-michigans-13th/

http://wdet.org/posts/2016/07/29/83465-know-your-congressional-district-michigans-10th/