Dana Nessel re-elected Michigan attorney general, AP projects Wednesday morning

NOVI, MI – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will serve a second term and keep a Democratic executive trifecta.

Nessel defeated Republican trial lawyer and 2020 election critic Matthew DePerno, the Associated Press projected 10 a.m. Wednesday, 14 hours after all polls began closing.

DePerno called Nessel to concede, the Republican’s campaign manager Tyson Shepard told MLive. He also announced his concession in a statement.

Along with wins by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Democrats will get another four years in the state’s top offices. Nessel’s race was the closest of the three according to pre-election polling, as she led all independent public polls but was often within the margin of error.

With 86% of votes counted just past 10:15 a.m., according to the AP, Nessel’s advantage was 6 percentage points, smaller than Whitmer’s or Benson’s.

Latest results: Michigan 2022 election results: Governor, AG, SOS and ballot proposals

In brief remarks at Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Detroit watch party Tuesday night, Nessel thanked her family and staff, then predicted a win that “underscores the values that we hold sacred here in Michigan.”

“Love over hate, hope over fear, unity over division, science over ignorance, equality over bigotry and racism, facts over lies, and democracy over fascism,” she said.

GOP opponent DePerno ran a campaign focused on issues like violent crime and diversity teachings in schools after leading efforts to find nonexistent widespread election fraud post-2020.

A special prosecutor is deciding whether to criminally charge DePerno, state Rep. Daire Rendon and others in an alleged scheme to take and analyze ballot tabulators last year from three Michigan counties. Nessel’s office’s investigation alleges DePerno was “one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy.”

Because of that case and DePerno’s “hateful and dangerous rhetoric,” she refused to debate him.

Accomplishments Nessel has noted that earn her a second term include clergy and Boy Scouts abuse investigations, $800 million from opioid settlements and task forces to fight elder abuse task, hate crimes and domestic terrorism.

Notable missteps include failing to prosecute former Gov. Rick Snyder and other top officials for the Flint water crisis, as the Michigan Supreme Court ruled their “one-man grand jury” technique was unconstitutional.

The AG’s race was notably nasty, with both candidates lobbing personal insults at the other. In separate interviews with MLive, DePerno called her a “coward” and “entirely incompetent,” while Nessel called him “a fundamentally flawed human being.”

Read more: Michigan AG race embodies ‘uniquely awful’ moment for campaign incivility

He and Republicans also constantly dogged Nessel for a joke she told this summer about wanting “a drag queen for every school,” even though she was talking to a crowd about how Republicans use “wedge issues” to “divide us.”

DePerno repeatedly called Nessel in interviews and on social media a “groomer,” a word used for someone who befriends a child to lure them into sexual abuse. He told MLive Nessel “wants to sexualize our children within the education system.”

Go deeper: GOP outrage on drag queen joke shows lack of any real policy, Nessel says

In response, Nessel, Michigan’s first openly gay statewide elected official, told MLive that insult is “personally offensive” and makes her think about LGBTQ kids who are bullied and sometimes driven to suicide.

Read more from MLive:

Michigan AG race embodies ‘uniquely awful’ moment for campaign incivility

Nessel touts record, calls AG opponent a ‘fundamentally flawed human being’

DePerno sees crime, education as priorities if elected attorney general

Public tests of Michigan voting machines fight election conspiracy theories

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