Michigan
College basketball transfer portal cycle 2024 winners and losers: Michigan moves fast, Villanova falls short
A few stragglers are still hanging out on college basketball’s free agent wire, mulling where to play during the 2024-25 season. But as mid-June arrives, the overwhelming majority of players in the transfer portal have announced their destinations. Rosters around the country are coming into focus, and it’s becoming more obvious who the winners and losers were during the 2024 offseason.
It was a period marked by a record number of coaching changes, and those changes led to major roster overhauls around the country. While John Calipari’s move from Kentucky to Arkansas and Mark Pope’s subsequent jump from BYU to Kentucky stole the spotlight, there were 68 Division I job changes in total.
As expected, the Razorbacks and Wildcats have done well for themselves on the transfer market with the backing of strong NIL collectives. Slightly more surprising is how strong of a class first-year USC coach Eric Musselman has assembled after leaving the Arkansas job. Musselman worked the portal well during his time in the SEC and used it to build a pair of Elite Eight teams.
Now, it’s becoming clear he’ll have a chance to do the same with the Trojans as they transition to the Big Ten. The Trojans are among our winners.
Let’s take a deeper look at the winners and losers of college basketball’s 2024 portal cycle.
Winner: Oats rebuilds Alabama roster again
Alabama’s roster was already shaping up nicely when the May 1 deadline to enter the portal arrived. Then, Nata Oats received a commitment from elite shot blocker Cliff Omoruyi (Rutgers) and got Mark Sears back from his NBA Draft exploration. With Auburn transfer guard Aden Holloway, 2023-24 AAC co-Player of the Year Chris Youngblood (South Florida) and sharpshooting wing Houston Mallette (Pepperdine) also in the fold, the Crimson Tide will be Final Four contenders once again. Key returners Latrell Wrightsell Jr. Grant Nelson and Jaren Stevenson round out what will be a veteran roster filled with a diverse array of playmaking. — David Cobb
Loser: Villanova’s late rally not enough
Villanova did some work in the portal by adding Miami transfer Wooga Poplar and a trio of mid-major players with at least some promise. But did the Wildcats do enough to reach the NCAA Tournament in Year 3 under coach Kyle Neptune? It still looks like an uphill climb after the departures of rotation pieces TJ Bamba (Oregon) and Brendan Hausen (Kansas State) along with the expiration of eligibility foor key players like Justin Moore, Tyler Burton and Hakim Hart. Neptune will need incoming guards Jhamir Brickus (La Salle) and Tyler Perkins (Penn) to hit, and he may also need substantive contributions from his freshman class, which is not ideal. This transfer haul needed more pop. — Cobb
Winner: Texas Tech adds right pieces
Second-year Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland rounded out his transfer class with the addition of promising transfer forward JT Toppin (New Mexico), who also considered staying in the NBA Draft. Toppin was the Mountain West Rookie of the Year, and he’ll pair with assist guru Elijah Hawkins (Minnesota) to supplement a returning core that includes three double-digit scorers. Former Drake wing Kevin Overton and ex-Pitt big man Federiko Federiko are also nice adds that will help the Raiders on their quest to go 2 for 2 on reaching the Big Dance under McCasland’s direction. While TTU did lose leading scorer Pop Isaacs to Creighton, he wasn’t a particularly efficient player. — Cobb
Loser: Colorado heads to Big 12 with new roster
Colorado’s biggest losses were to the NBA Draft in the form of KJ Simpson, Tristan Da Silva and Cody Williams. However, the departures of J’Vonne Hadley (Louisville), Luke O’Brien (Georgia Tech) and Eddie Lampkin (Syracuse) leave the Buffaloes without a single player who started more than five games last season. Washington State transfer Andrej Jakimovski is the only Division I transfer addition, which means coach Tad Boyle will be in the difficult position of relying on some unproven commodities as his program makes the transition to the Big 12. — Cobb
Virginia Tech is getting a makeover for the 2024-25 season, and it’s going to take a great coaching job from Mike Young to get the Hokies back to the NCAA Tournament after consecutive NIT appearances. Leading scorer Sean Pedulla is using his final season of eligibility at Ole Miss, while No. 3 scorer Lynn Kidd is off to Miami after a breakout season. With rotational mainstay and 3-point marksman Hunter Cattoor graduated as well, an under-the-radar transfer class will have to pop. The headliner is former Temple guard Hysier Miller, but he shot just 35.3% from the floor last season. If Young can coax substantive contributions from Duke transfer Jaden Schutt, then perhaps VT will remain competitive in the ACC. But on the whole, it appears more was lost than gained this offseason. — Cobb
Winner: Kansas adds perimeter pop
A lack of depth and perimeter punch proved fatal for Kansas last season. There will be no such issues for the Jayhawks in the 2023-24 season. Even with Johnny Furphy syaing in the NBA Draft, KU has positioned itself for a return to Big 12 supremacy by landing a blockbuster transfer haul. AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Rylan Griffen (Alabama), Riley Kugel (Florida and Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) are each in the CBS Sports Transfer Rankings and will combine to give coach Bill Self a deep group of offensive weapons to pair with an excellent returning core of Dajuan Harris Jr., KJ Adams Jr. and Hunter Dickinson. – Cobb
Loser: Seton Hall disintegrates after NIT title
Congratulations on the NIT title, now go rebuild your roster from scratch. That’s the reward coach Shaheen Holloway got after guiding his alma mater to a 25-12 record and thrilling NIT championship win over a 32-win Indiana State team. While some of the Pirates’ numerous departures were relatively insignificant, losing starters Kadary Richmond, Dre Davis and Dylan Addae-Wusu to the portal stings. Richmond is an especially painful loss as the multi-faceted point guard was a first-team All-Big East performer. It will take a Herculean effort for SHU to find adequate replacements at this point in the cycle. – Cobb
Winner: Cal cleans up in the portal
Cal’s incoming transfer portal class is headlined by former McDonald’s All-American Andrej Stojaković, the son of former NBA star Peja Stojaković. After spending his freshman season across the Bay Area at Stanford, Stojaković committed to Mark Madsen and the Bears despite receiving interest from blue bloods like North Carolina and Kentucky. Stojaković is one of six incoming transfers with Air Force forward Rytis Petraitis, Michigan State center Mady Sissoko, Minnesota forward Josh Ola-Joseph, Vanderbilt’s Lee Dort and North Dakota’s BJ Omot being the others that will help the program transition from the Pac-12 to the ACC. – Cameron Salerno
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Loser: Miami’s star power takes a hit
Miami stars Norchad Omier and Poplar jumped into the transfer portal less than a week before the deadline to enter. Omier was coming off a season in which he averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Poplar averaged 13.1 points. With star freshman Kyshawn George entering the draft, Miami (15-17 in 2023-24) will be without three of its top scorers heading into a new-look ACC. It’s been 13 months since Miami made the Final Four, but a lot has changed. – Salerno
Winner: May makes an impression at Michigan
It didn’t take long for May to leave his mark as the new Wolverines coach. His first order of business was landing four-star guard Justin Pippen, the son of NBA legend Scottie Pippen, to Michigan’s incoming recruiting class. In the transfer portal, May landed one of his former star players at FAU (center Vladislav Goldin) to go along with Alabama’s Sam Walters, Ohio State’s Roddy Gayle Jr., Auburn’s Tre Donaldson, Yale’s Danny Wolf, and North Texas’ Rubin Jones. – Salerno
More: Roddy Gayle Jr. to Michigan among portal cycle’s best fits
Loser: Wisconsin loses two key players
The departures of Chucky Hepburn (Louisville) and AJ Storr (Kansas) leave big holes to fill for the Badgers, who struggled down the stretch after a 16-4 start. Hepburn was a three-year starter at point guard with a reputation for stingy perimeter defense, while Storr served as a much-needed offensive spark in his lone season with the program. Former Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter and ex-Northern Illinois forward Xavier Amos are on the way, but the Badgers will need their returning core to increase its productivity. – Cobb
Winner: Penny does it again
Last offseason, Memphis landed a transfer portal class that included Jahvon Quinerly, Jordan Brown, and David Jones. This cycle, Hardaway landed Texas’ Tyrese Hunter, Illinois’ Dain Danija, and Tulsa’s PJ Haggerty.Haggerty spent his first college season at TCU before breaking out in his redshirt freshman campaign. With Hardaway only signing one high school player from the 2024 cycle, the incoming transfer class will have an opportunity for a big role from Day 1. – Salerno
Loser: Indiana State’s coach, key players depart
When Josh Schertz departed for the vacant job at Saint Louis just days after losing in the NIT final to Seton Hall, he took the program’s best player with him. Indiana State star big man Robbie Avila, better known for his various nicknames such as “Larry Nerd” or “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” was one of the top available players in the portal. He wasn’t the only player the program lost, as Isaiah Swope followed Schertz to Saint Louis, and star guard Ryan Conwell transferred to Xavier. For a program that was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since Larry Bird played at the school, losing those players and Schertz is a devastating blow. – Salerno
Winner: UCLA, USC add big names ahead of Big Ten arrival
After a disappointing 2023-24 campaign that saw UCLA miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Mick Cronin’s tenure, he reloaded the roster with players who have experience. One of those players is USC star wing Kobe Johnson, who didn’t go far to find his next home. Cronin also added former blue-chip recruit Skyy Clark from Louisville, Oregon State’s Tyler Bilodeau, Oklahoma State’s Eric Dailey, and more.
On the other side of Los Angeles, new USC coach Eric Musselman has been working the portal aggressively. The Trojans’ transfer portal class is full of veteran players such as Boise State’s Chibuzo Agbo Jr., Michigan’s Terrance Williams, Northern Colorado’s Saint Thomas, UC San Diego’s Bryce Pope, Yale’s Matt Knowling, Bowling Green’s Rashaun Agee, UMass’ Josh Cohen, and Penn’s Clark Slajchert. All the incoming players will have an opportunity to compete for playing time right away because most of the 2023-24 roster is gone. – Salerno
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Winner: Indiana finally gets some guards
Indiana’s haul includes three players from the CBS Sports Transfer Rankings and a fourth in Luke Goode who played a key role for an Elite Eight team at Illinois. The headliner is big man Oumar Ballo from Arizona, but guards Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle are the breath of fresh air that the IU backcourt has been needing. Rice earned Pac-12 Rookie of the Year honors at Washington State in 2023-24 while Carlyle averaged 11.5 points as a freshman at Stanford. If they can shoot it decently well from 3-point range, the Hoosiers should be in the Big Ten’s upper crust. – Cobb
Winner: DePaul’s reboot has strong start
Former Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann is hitting the ground running at what is arguably the worst job in a major college basketball conference. DePaul hasn’t been to an NCAA Tournament since 2004 and is coming off a 3-29 season. But with the transfer class Holtmann is putting together, don’t be surprised if the Blue Demons make strides in his first season. Backcourt players Conor Enright (Drake), Jacob Meyer (Coastal Carolina), Isaiah Rivera (Illinois-Chicago) and David Thomas (Mercer) each shot 40% or better from 3-point range at their last stops. Many of the frontcourt additions have perimeter shooting acumen as well. Holtmann faces a long road to making DePaul relevant in the Big East, but he’s off to a good start. – Cobb
Winner: Ole Miss gets more dynamic
Ole Miss loaded up on bucket getters, landing five transfers who averaged 13.5 points or more last season. Power conference additions Dre Davis (Seton Hall) and Sean Pedulla (Virginia Tech) will help in the backcourt while mid-major additions Mikeal Brown-Jones (UNC Greensboro) and Malik Dia (Belmont) are versatile forwards who can also step out and shoot. Davon Barnes from Sam Houston is a 6-foot-5 wing who hit 39.1% of his 3s this past season. With shot-swatting centers Moussa Cisse and Jamarion Sharp gone, coach Chris Beard is moving in a more athletically fluid, offensively dynamic direction with his second roster. – Cobb
Loser: The Ivy League is now losing undergrads
The Ivy League has been losing graduate transfers for years since the league doesn’t allow graduates to play. What’s different about this portal cycle is the number of quality undergraduates leaving the Ivy League. Players such as Malik Mack (Harvard to Georgetown) Danny Wolf (Yale to Michigan), Tyler Perkins (Penn to Villanova) and Kalu Anya (Brown to Saint Louis) are departing some of the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions for NIL paydays elsewhere. Given the academic standards and limited access for transfers to Ivy institutions, it’s nearly impossible for coaches to find suitable replacements. I tackled this topic more in-depth earlier in the week. – Cobb
Winner: Missouri loads up for redemption
Third-year Missouri coach Dennis Gates is looking to reclaim the winning trajectory he established during a 25-win debut campaign by bringing in a class that includes three players from the CBS Sports Transfer Rankings. A fourth transfer, Marquest Warrick, was a four-time All-Horizon League player at Northern Kentucky. Tony Perkins from Iowa is a physical guard with distribution chops, Jacob Crews from Tennessee Martin is an elite 3-point shooter and Mark Mitchell from Duke is a versatile forward with NBA upside. The Tigers have upgraded their talent in a massive way following a horrific 0-18 SEC season. – Cobb
Loser: Dayton is depleted
Dayton relied heavily on six players during a 25-8 season. Two of them are transferring out as Koby Brea (Kentucky) and Kobe Elvis (Oklahoma) each hit the portal. With star forward DaRon Holmes II staying in the NBA Draft, the Flyers have a hefty bit of rebuilding to do as coach Anthony Grant enters his eighth season. Transfer additions Posh Alexander (Butler) and Zed Key (Ohio State) will help keep the Flyers near the top of the A-10. But getting back to 25 wins might not be feasible. – Cobb
Winner: Marquette’s silence is golden
Sometimes, no news is good news. Such is the case with Marquette, whose roster has no outbound or inbound transfers. Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro declared for the draft, but Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles will return a solid nucleus and have more minutes available for a young crop of internally developed players who should be ready to step into rotation roles. – Cobb
Loser: Minnesota gets wiped out
Eight players started seven or more games for Minnesota as the Gophers improved from nine wins in 2022-23 to 19 wins in 2023-24. But six of them are transferring out, leaving coach Ben Johnson to frantically mine the portal for reinforcements as he enters a critical fourth season. – Cobb
Winner: Xavier is reloading
Xavier finished 16-18 in coach Sean Miller’s second season after reaching the Sweet 16 as a No. 3 seed in the first year of his second stint with the Musketeers. Given the caliber of transfers Miller has landed, expect to see the Musketeers back in the Big Dance. Guards Ryan Conwell (Indiana State), Marcus Foster (Furman) and Dante Maddox Jr. (Toledo) are big-time bucket getters from strong mid-major programs. Frontcourt players John Hugley IV (Oklahoma) and Lassina Traore (Long Beach State) will also add production to a roster that is expected to have veteran forwards Jerome Hunter and Zach Freemantle back from injury. – Cobb
More Winners and Losers: Why North Carolina, Oregon headline 247Sports’ list
Detroit — Michigan Democrats rallied their largest group of delegates in the party’s history at a state convention Sunday, even as they attempted to mend divisions that emerged during the Israel-Gaza war.
Delegates to the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement on Sunday elected a slate of largely progressive candidates, picking Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II as their nominee for secretary of state, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit as the nominee for attorney general and unseating University of Michigan incumbent Regent Jordan Acker in favor of Dearborn attorney Amir Makled.
Gilchrist will face off in November against the Republican nominee, Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, while Savit will compete against the GOP nominee for attorney general, Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd, as well as a handful of third-party candidates.
About 7,252 delegates participated in Sunday’s convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, a record for the party, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel said.
The state Democratic Party declined Sunday to disclose the vote totals for its nominees at the convention, which is held every four years for party activists to pick nominees for every statewide office except governor and U.S. Senate in lieu of a primary election.
The chosen nominees come as the state approaches massive midterm elections, in which every statewide seat is up for grabs in the November election, as well as the 148 seats in the state House and Senate, where Democrats hope to capture a majority.
In caucus rooms at Huntington Place, Democratic leaders urged unity behind messages of affordable health care, accessible housing, opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive actions and a commitment to sweeping statewide seats in November. There was also recognition, in some meeting rooms on Sunday, of the issues that divided the party in 2024 amid protests of the Biden administration’s support of Israel in the Israel-Gaza war, and the need to fully mend those divisions in advance of the Nov. 3 election.
During the convention program on Sunday, the Israel-Gaza conflict appeared to remain a sensitive issue among some convention-goers. Protesters shouted repeatedly for a point of order, with one holding a sign that said: “Put the Palestine human rights resolution back on the agenda.” And the loudest booing, by far, occurred when U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and Acker, both pro-Israel candidates, were announced on stage in their respective U.S. Senate and Board of Regents races.
Malinda Salameh was among those booing at Huntington Place, in part to protest candidates’ support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The 31-year-old UM alumnus registered too late to be a delegate on Sunday, but attended as a guest and intends to vote in the U.S. Senate primary. Stevens has long been aligned with AIPAC, while her two Democratic primary rivals, physician Abdul El-Sayed and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, have sworn off AIPAC’s campaign cash.
“Unfortunately, they need to understand that we as people cannot stand for this anymore,” Salameh said. “We don’t want any foreign interests messing with our politics. We want money out of politics. And I think that people are sad because they’re not being heard.”
During Acker’s nomination speech, as crowds booed, Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch warned that delegates were not learning from the party’s 2024 electoral losses.
“There’s one thing that November 2024 should have taught us, is that the enemy is not in this room,” Kinloch said.
In caucuses, Democrats reckon with a divide
Abbas Alawieh, a cofounder of the Uncommitted National Movement, active in the 2024 election, told delegates, while campaigning for a state Senate seat Sunday morning, that he remained determined to ensure Arab American and Downriver communities are represented within the party.
He told The Detroit News Sunday that the party had done a good job over the past two years in making more room for all members. The record attendance, he said, is proof the Michigan Democratic Party is “trying to be the big tent party and we’ve got to continue growing that.”
“It’s clear that anti-war voters of all stripes, including Arab Americans in Michigan, are going to be critical to our path forward as Democrats,” Alawieh said. “As Democrats, we have to be proactive about reaching out to disaffected voters and voters that we’ve lost to the Republican party.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, pushed delegates to ask candidates seeking their vote real questions about actions to combat neighborhood pollution or their stances on federal actions in the Middle East. Pushing for those discussions among candidates will ultimately help improve the party, she said.
“We’re not anti-Democratic Party,” Tlaib said. “We’re trying to make the Democratic Party better.”
El-Sayed, a Muslim Democrat running for U.S. Senate, told members of the party’s Jewish Caucus that he would focus on issues affecting all communities, including allying against “anti-religious bigotry.”
“A lot of folks want us to pay attention to things that we might disagree on happening 6,000 miles away rather than reminding us about the things we agree on happening right here in our state,” El-Sayed said.
Regent candidates debate ‘elephant in the room’
Earlier in the day, the state party’s Jewish Caucus also heard from candidates who expressed a commitment to maintaining a place within the party for Jewish candidates and voters.
Acker, a Jewish Democrat fighting to retain his seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and his fellow incumbent Paul Brown argued Acker had been targeted in his role as regent and in the nomination race. Brown called it the “elephant in the room”
Acker and Brown were running to retain their seats against Makled, a Dearborn attorney who represented several students who faced charges after protests calling on UM to divest from weapons manufacturing and Israel.
Brown argued that Acker had borne the brunt of attacks during the campus unrest and the nomination campaign.
“There’s one difference between Jordan and I,” Brown told members of the Jewish Caucus, “and that is, Jordan is Jewish, and I am not.”
Acker, a personal injury lawyer, said he wouldn’t be cowed by efforts to oust him from the board and credited Jewish Democrats with being significant leaders in civil rights fights over the decades.
“We have a message that we can send today, that we will not be pushed out of this coalition,” Acker said.
Makled, for his part, encouraged members of the Arab American Caucus also to hold their ground within the party.
“We want to make sure this electorate, this convention is giving an image of unity to the Democratic Party, that we’re collectively trying to push the better foot forward, but we’re also not afraid to stand up and speak for our issues as Arab Americans,” Makled said.
The contest between Makled and Acker was particularly heated.
Makled was criticized for reposting, and later deleting, praise for Hezbollah and antisemitic remarks on his social media account, deleted posts.
And The Guardian on Friday reported that Acker appeared to have made obscene sexual comments about a Democratic party strategist and lewd comments about a female U-M student in Slack messages.
When asked Simday about the messages by The News, Acker said the allegations were “ridiculous” and “fake.”
Acker’s attorney, Ethan Holtz, later sent a statement to The News alleging Acker “has never been on Slack” and that the messages contained elements that appeared to be “doctored.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
Emergency responders navigate Black Lake looking to rescue flood victims
Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection were on Black Lake looking for flood victims April 17, 2026.
The Cheboygan River level remained elevated Sunday as forecasters continued to issue fresh warnings about flooding in the region, though measurements at the dam were trending gradually downward.
The river was 7.56 inches below the top of the dam as of 12:45 p.m. Sunday, about a quarter of an inch below the prior measurement taken at 8:30 a.m., according to Michigan State Police. Levels had fluctuated around the seven-inch range below the dam’s top late Friday and Saturday after surging substantially higher earlier in the week.
State officials alerted the public about the emergency at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex on April 10 when the river was 18 inches below the dam’s top. It then fell 2 inches to 20 inches below cresting on Saturday before starting five consecutive days of rising levels, raising concerns over the potential for a major flood disaster downstream in and around the city of Cheboygan.
Scattered snow showers are possible in Cheboygan and other parts of the northern Lower Peninsula on Sunday and into Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. Much of the remainder of the week is expected to be sunny.
The weather agency on Sunday morning posted a flood warning for Cheboygan and Emmet counties that’s in effect until 8 p.m. Tuesday. “Expect many areas of slow moving or standing water,” it said.
People should stay away from flooded roads to avoid being swept away, the agency said, adding that “river banks and culverts can become unstable and unsafe.”
The Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office also warned of “significant debris” flowing through local waterways and urged residents to stay away. The sheriff listed on its Facebook page more than a dozen road closures as of Sunday.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development urged residents Sunday to keep animals and farm equipment safe. It said livestock should be moved to higher ground, and utilities for lower-lying farm building should be switched off. Building doors and windows should be left partially open to “equalize pressure and help prevent buildings from shifting.”
The agency also broadly warned about the dangers of floodwater, given that it can contain harmful bacteria, sewage, toxic chemicals and debris. Pets should be kept way, the MDARD said. And all food and utensils should be kept away from it.
Michigan State Police scheduled a meeting at 6 p.m. Sunday to provide the public an update on the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex situation. It will take place at the Cheboygan Opera House, 403 North Huran St., in Cheboygan. Residents can also join remotely via Zoom, with details on the agency’s social media pages.
lramseth@detroitnews.com
Lansing — Jocelyn Benson, the front runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, said she believes her work in eight years as secretary of state will help convince voters to promote her this fall.
On Sunday, during a convention in Detroit, Democrats will pick a new secretary of state nominee. And on Thursday, Benson’s campaign for governor submitted about 30,000 petition signatures to get her name on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
Amid those key moments in the 2026 election cycle, Benson, a former law school dean, sat down Thursday afternoon for an interview with The Detroit News about her time as secretary of state.
“I think that’s what people are looking for: A government that saves them time, saves them money and makes their life easier,” Benson contended. “I’ve done that as secretary of state, and I’ll do that as governor.”
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
Question: You just dropped off your signatures this weekend. The Democrats are going to be gathering to nominate a new person for secretary of state. I was just looking over your campaign promises from 2017, do you feel like you hit them?
Benson: I had two goals when I came into office: wait times down and voter turnout up. And we did both, and I’m really proud of that.
When I started, we did a strategic planning session every January, and during our first strategic planning session in 2019, we filled the whiteboard on every wall in the office. And in our most recent one, the final one, we had just sort of one, just one little to-do list item left, which was really gratifying. Because we have not just increased turnout, but we’ve transformed our elections, eliminated gerrymandering, implemented the state’s first-ever citizens redistricting commission, which was no easy task, and then also implemented a number of new election procedures and options, educated voters about them and took Michigan’s elections from being ranked 31st in the country to No. 2.
We also did that while reducing those wait times (in Secretary of State offices), transforming our customer service experience. … Wait times are consistently 20 minutes or less, which was my No. 1 campaign goal.
Q: What were some of the strategies you used to get the wait times down for people?
A: No. 1, we listened to our employees, and No. 2, we collected data about what wasn’t working. You can’t fix what you can’t measure. And No. 3, we actually went around the country and looked at what states that actually had low wait times were doing. There weren’t many, but there were a few. Indiana and Illinois, had some interesting things that they did, and we took best practices that were working in other states and replicated them here.
But that first piece was key, listening to our employees. Early on in the process, we brought everyone in, all the branch office directors. I was expecting a daylong retreat where we would be discussing ideas, and I sat down with the director of branch office services. He had a whole PowerPoint presentation that went through everything we needed to do, from filling 900 vacant positions that were just vacant and not filled, to creating internally this opportunity for people to schedule the visit ahead of time.
We didn’t pay someone else to build that. That was built by our employees.
Q: When you ran in 2018, one of the big things you were talking about was election security. Do you feel like you’ve achieved that: improving election security? And what do you think about more people probably having faith in the results of elections then than they do now?
A: I am really proud of the fact that in this era of misinformation, we were able to protect our elections and ensure they remained secure.
While withstanding this unprecedented scrutiny and an unprecedented level of frivolous lawsuits, sham legislative hearings and falsehoods spread about our elections in the eye of the storm, we not only met the moment, but we built a better election system through it. That’s evidenced by the fact that we now have choices on how to vote in our state, we’ve modernized how you can register to vote and have increased the registration numbers we have.
Q: If one of these current candidates for secretary of state came to you and said, “I believe that the election is secure and everything is fine, but obviously there’s a lot of voters who don’t. How do we improve that?” What would you say to them?
A: Transparency is our friend.
Q: Just continue to open the process up as much as possible?
A: Well, the facts are on our side. The process is secure. So one of the most important things we need to do first is just continue to give people the tools that they need to get their questions answered and work with folks across the aisle, like we worked with Sen. Ed McBroom in 2021 to invite them into the process as well as answer questions that they have, while also, of course, maintaining any necessary confidence or security about the information that we’re providing.
But the through line is just transparency.
Q: What do you say to some of your opponents who will say, “Yeah, you decreased wait times. But what about the campaign finance website?” It’s not functioning, as they would hope it would.
A: Well, it’s certainly better than what we’ve had in the past. I think it’s important to remember that when I first ran for office, one of the things I heard most on the trail was actually, when are you going to get rid of MERTS (the former campaign finance disclosure system)?
Q: But that’s from people who are on the back end of it?
A: Right. Yeah. So I didn’t want to leave office without taking on that behemoth, knowing that it wasn’t going to be a smooth process, but it’s a necessary one if we were actually going to have a more transparent system, which I would argue also is something that the next secretary of state really needs to lean into more: getting money out of politics. I’ll be an ally for that as governor.
But when it comes to MITN and that process, one, what it really underscores is that I’m not afraid to take on big behemoths that others, frankly, past secretaries of state, refused to do, because it was too hard. And it does invite criticism. Whenever you try to transform a massive system that’s broken, yes, there are going to be hiccups along the way.
Q: Do you think voters are interested in that message: “I’ve improved these systems. I’m in government. I’ve succeeded in government. I can make it work.” Or are they looking for someone to just change everything?
A: People see a broken system that needs fixing, and they know I have transformed and fixed a system that every single one of our residents has interacted with. The other day, I was picking up food for my son and husband, and walking out with bags of food, and this gentleman in a pickup truck pulled up next to me in the parking lot and said, “Excuse me, are you the secretary of state?”
I was like, “I am.” And he said, “You know, I’m not political or anything. But I just was driving down this road the other day and realized when I passed the secretary of state’s office that it’s been years since I’ve had to go in there. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make that possible for me.” And I said, “Yeah, now imagine if all of government worked that well.”
Q: Do you think all three of the Democratic candidates running for secretary of state would be a good secretary of state? I know you’re not endorsing.
A: I’m committed to working with whoever comes through the convention and making sure they’re prepared to build on what we’ve done and achieve even more success.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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