Tears, fingerpointing and cursing reverberated through the Michigan House on Thursday afternoon as leadership adjourned for the year without votes for the second straight day, ending the Democrats’ two-year governing trifecta.
House Speaker Joe Tate, Detroit, pulled the plug after failing to secure votes amid walkouts by all Republicans and Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett, who on Thursday returned to the Capitol — but not the House floor.
Though staff announced the House would reconvene at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 31, House Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, told reporters that was only so she could officially end the legislative session for the year at that time.
“Everything that was on the agenda today in the House is dead, and the 55 members that did not attend should feel free to own that,” Pohutsky said, tears in her eyes.
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Her frustration was shared by other lawmakers in the chamber after multiple days of legislative stagnation.
Neither Whitsett nor Democratic Sen. Sylvia Santana, both representing Detroit, attended session on Wednesday. Both told reporters they felt Michigan’s Black communities were not being paid enough attention to, and their priorities had fallen to the side in favor of pushing corporate incentives.
House Republicans began their boycott last week, demanding Democrats take up bills addressing the state’s pending minimum wage, sick leave and tipped wage changes in 2025.
Whitsett, explaining why she did not return to the floor Thursday, alleged Tate “would not negotiate in good faith.”
She and House Speaker-elect Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, took questions from reporters following Thursday’s session.
“They told me, they promised me, they weren’t going to lock me in here and that’s exactly what they did,” Whitsett said, referring to Tate’s decision to issue a “call of the House,” an order for sergeants to bring lawmakers back to session and bar the chamber doors.
“I can’t believe the Speaker of the House, Joe Tate, is so heartless and wanted me to push the button for bills that he knows have not been vetted,” she said.
Hall accused Democrats of “trying to bait” Whitsett into returning to the House for a vote on a water affordability package, something she’d long sought, despite not having enough support to pass the measure.
Tate did not speak with reporters after session.
But Rep. Abraham Aiyash, majority floor leader and a Hamtramck Democrat, pushed back against Whitsett’s claims. He said leadership never told Whitsett water affordability would pass, and that one Democrat — newly elected state Rep. Peter Herzberg of Westland — “had no interest” in the proposal.
“Quite frankly, it became a point where there was no more logic in some of the things that were brought up … We were working at every possible turn to secure those votes, but there was no guarantee that it was going to move,” Aiyash said.
Hall, however, was skeptical, saying: “This whole lame duck, Joe Tate has not had a plan.”
Whitsett took that a step further.
“The whole two years he hasn’t had a plan.”