DETROIT — Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel will retain her seat for four more years after election returns show the Plymouth Democrat with a strong lead over her Republican opponent Matt DePerno in the race to be Michigan's chief law enforcement officer.
DePerno conceded the race just after 9 a.m. Wednesday in a statement posted to social media. The Associated Press declared Nessel the victor just after 10 a.m.
"Although I may be conceding to Dana Nessel today, I refuse to concede that Michigan is a blue state," DePerno said. "I will continue to fight like hell to restore Michigan to all it can be."
Nessel said in a statement Wednesday morning that "Michigan values," such as love, hope, unity, equality and democracy, had propelled her campaign to victory.
"Equal protection under the law, for each and every Michigander," Nessel said.
Nessel led DePerno 52%-45% as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, with about 87% of Michigan's estimated votes counted.
Nessel's Wednesday morning statement followed a confident address just after midnight Wednesday at the Michigan Democratic Party gathering at MotorCity Casino in Detroit.
Just after midnight, with her voice almost gone, Nessel thanked her supporters, campaign staff and family and said the result "underscores the values in Michigan."
"Things are looking pretty good right now, and I don't want to be too optimistic, but I really look forward to serving the people of this state for another four years," Nessel said at an election night party for Michigan Democrats at Motor City Casino.
Nessel, who became well-known prior to taking office for winning a landmark court case overturning Michigan's gay marriage ban, won her 2018 election by three percentage points over Republican former House Speaker Tom Leonard. She became Michigan's first openly gay statewide elected official that year.
DePerno's bid for attorney general stemmed from his challenge of President Joe Biden's 154,000-vote win in Michigan in the 2020 general election based on unproven claims of fraud. The Kalamazoo Republican was the lead attorney on contesting the election results in Antrim County, where human error caused the rural county to mistakenly report Biden leading then-President Donald Trump in initial results before the county clerk corrected the results and showed Trump winning the GOP-leaning county.
Muskegon County Prosecutor DJ Hilson currently is weighing whether to charge DePerno criminally for participating in an alleged conspiracy to access voting machines from the November 2020 election.
Jacob Kovacs voted a Republican ticket Tuesday, in part spurred by the way the COVID-19 pandemic was handled by the Democratic administration. The 26-year-old Farmington Hills man felt DePerno and other Republican candidates were the way to fix what was broken during the pandemic.
But Dr. Terry Grant of Rosedale Park said Nessel and her Democratic colleague, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, should "hold their heads up high" for the work they've done over the past four years. She was confident they'd come out victors.
"Their track record speaks for them and keeps them ahead in this race," Grant said. "People shouldn't focus on parties. This is all about what's good for the people, not profits."
DePerno and Nessel have been locked in the tightest statewide race in Michigan, where the candidates' chances, after securing their own bases, will hinge on attracting undecided voters on Tuesday. An incumbent attorney general in Michigan hasn't lost re-election since 1954.
An Oct. 26-28 Detroit News-WDIV (Channel 4) poll showed Nessel up by one percentage point over DePerno, 44%-43%, among 600 likely Michigan voters. It was within the Glengariff Group survey's margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points.
Over the past several months, Nessel has touted her experience over the last four years in her bid to win re-election, pointing to consumer protection efforts, several convictions stemming from a wide-ranging investigation into clergy sexual abuse and a win in the Supreme Court that recognized anti-discrimination protections for gay people in Michigan. Nessel also successfully defended the state against lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election and has successfully prosecuted some of the individuals involved in a 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Nessel also has argued that her focus on the "real issues" like the opioid epidemic, insulin prices, defense of the Affordable Care Act, conviction integrity and expungement opportunities had delivered for communities across the state where individuals had long been affected by a lack of action in the attorney general's office.
DePerno has boosted himself as a fighter who plans to crack down on crime and restore election integrity. He also has inserted himself recently into largely local fights over gender identity and sexual content in education materials, attending a meeting of the Dearborn school board, which had restricted access in the schools to six library books over their sexualized or overly violent content.
Working as a tax lawyer, DePerno was frequently involved in ligation against the government. After he launched his own law firm in 2005, he became more focused on constitutional law.
The race between the two has been tense with accusations and warnings about the next four years under either candidate.
Nessel has criticized DePerno's track record as a lawyer, continued his denial of the 2020 election results and promised to prosecute political rivals, including the attorney general, should he be elected.
DePerno has attacked Nessel on social issues and accused her of being soft on crime.
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(Staff Writers Kara Berg and Sarah Rahal contributed.)
