Thursday, October 15, 2026
B.C. votes in 9 days

Michigan’s 8th District

U.S. House · MI-8

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of October 15, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 18.5 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: 3%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 58.4%

    Kristen McDonald Rivet, incumbent

  • Republican 39.9%

    Thomas J. Smith

  • Other 1.7%

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican Other
MI-8 58.4%39.9%1.7%
National averageUnited States 54.5%+3.9 44.2%−4.3 1.2%+0.5

Simple average of the 435 districts, not weighted by population.

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Local profile

Latino citizens aged 18 and over4.5% (± 0.1)

Share of all citizens aged 18 and over (ACS 2020–2024 estimate). Not a share of registered or actual voters.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, citizen voting-age population by race and ethnicity, ACS 2020–2024, 119th Congress districts

Current member

McDonald Rivet, Kristen · Democrat

Primary results

Held August 4, 2026 · Official source

Democratic primary McDonald Rivet, Kristen 100.0% 104,231 votes
Republican primary Smith, Thomas J. 50.4% 31,149 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    McDonald Rivet, Kristen

    source
  • Republican Challenger

    Smith, Thomas J.

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 6.6 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 18.5 points.

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • MI-7 Democrat, toss-up
  • MI-9 Republican, safe seat
  • MI-11 Democrat, safe seat
  • MI-6 Democrat, safe seat
  • MI-12 Democrat, safe seat
  • MI-10 Democrat, toss-up

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Republican52%5.7-point gap
  2. KY-6Republican53%5.8-point gap
  3. VA-1Republican58%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated