Michigan Voters Reject Proposal to Rewrite State Constitution

Michigan voters rejected Proposal 1 in the Tuesday election, defeating a measure that would have convened a constitutional convention in 2027 to rewrite the state's 63-year-old constitution. Early returns indicate a resounding defeat, with three out of every four votes cast against the measure.

Protect MI Constitution from Special Interests, a coalition of labor, business, and advocacy groups, spent nearly $3 million to oppose the proposal. The coalition argued that the process would waste taxpayer funds and enable special interests to overturn voter-approved provisions, including abortion access. The Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency supported these concerns with an estimate that the convention would have cost $80 million.

Supporters, including Republican state Senator Ed McBroom, argued that a convention could address issues such as dark money in politics. However, the measure failed to gain traction, continuing a trend of rejection for the proposal, which automatically appears on the ballot every 16 years and was previously defeated in 1978, 1994, and 2010.