Longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Fred Upton held off young liberal challenger Jon Hoadley in a purple district of southwest Michigan.
As of Wednesday morning, Upton held 58% of the vote compared to Hoadley’s 38%, with 93% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.
Upton, a 67-year-old centrist Republican first elected in 1986, was able create enough distance between himself and President Trump, especially over the latter’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His Twitter account features the hashtag #WearYourMask. He was the rare centrist House Republican to run for reelection after other centrists chose to retire, sensing a blue wave.
Hoadley had tried to portray Upton as being too close to Trump, who flipped Michigan’s 6th District in 2016 after it backed former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Upton, a former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, played up his delivering on local issues, as a longtime champion of conservation and preserving Michigan’s Great Lakes.
He campaigned on a mainstream Republican agenda of lowering prescription drug prices, ending the country’s opioid epidemic, and “making Michigan communities safer.”
He is a vice chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 25 centrist Republicans and 25 Democrats.
Hoadley, a state representative for five years, was seeking to become the first gay person from Michigan to serve in Congress.
He focused primarily on healthcare, attacking Upton for voting in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act multiple times, while himself backing “Medicare for all.”
Hoadley also ran as a vocal supporter of the “Green New Deal” to address climate change, part of his attempt to make his youth central to his campaign.
But Upton was no stranger to environmental and energy issues, helping lead a recent effort by House Republicans to adjust their messaging around climate change in response to polling showing vulnerability among young and suburban voters.
Upton argued that his district’s centrist voters would be repelled by Hoadley’s support for the Green New Deal, a 14-page resolution co-authored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that calls for economic transformation to curb climate change while also addressing social issues by providing government healthcare and housing.
