Michigan's 6th Senate district

Michigan's 6th Senate district is one of 38 districts in the Michigan Senate. It has been represented by Democrat Mary Cavanagh since 2023, succeeding fellow Democrat Erika Geiss.^[2][3]

Michigan's 6th State Senate district
Senator	Mary Cavanagh D–Redford Township
Demographics	45% White 41% Black 3% Hispanic 5% Asian 1% Other 4% Multiracial
Population (2022)	258,801
Notes	[1]

Geography

District 6 encompasses parts of Oakland and Wayne counties.^[4]

2011 Apportionment Plan

District 6, as dictated by the 2011 Apportionment Plan, covered much of Downriver to the southwest of Detroit in Wayne County, including the suburban communities of Westland, Taylor, Romulus, Rockwood, Flat Rock, Huron, Sumpter, Van Buren, Belleville, and most of Brownstown.^[5]

The district was split between Michigan's 12th and 13th congressional districts, and with the 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 21st, and 23rd districts of the Michigan House of Representatives.^[6]

List of senators

Senator	Party		Dates	Residence	Notes
James Wright Gordon		Whig	1839	Marshall	[7][8]
Sands McCamly		Democratic	1839–1840	Battle Creek	[7][9][10]
Henry P. Bridge		Democratic	1840–1841	Kent	[7][11]
David E. Deming		Whig	1841	Kalamazoo	[7][12]
Stephen V. R. Trowbridge		Whig	1842	Birmingham	[7][13]
Daniel B. Wakefield		Democratic	1842–1843	Grand Blanc	[7][14]
Isaac Wixom		Democratic	1842–1843	Farmington	[7][15]
Sanford M. Green		Democratic	1843–1844	Pontiac	Moved from Owosso to Pontiac in 1843.[7][16][17]
Johnson Niles		Democratic	1844–1845	Troy	[7][18]
Alvin N. Hart		Democratic	1844–1845	Lapeer	[7][19]
Gardner D. Williams		Democratic	1845–1846	Saginaw	[7][20]
Sanford M. Green		Democratic	1846–1847	Pontiac	[7][16][17]
William M. Fenton		Democratic	1846–1847	Flint	Resided in Fentonville in 1846.[7][21]
Elijah B. Witherbee		Whig	1847	Flint	Died in office.[7][22][23]
Andrew Parsons		Democratic	1847–1848	Corunna	[7][24]
Alvin N. Hart		Democratic	1847–1850	Lapeer	Initially elected to fill the vacancy left by Elijah B. Witherbee's death.[7][19][25]
James McCabe		Democratic	1848–1849	Pontiac	[7][26][27]
Edward H. Thomson		Democratic	1848–1849	Flint	[7][28]
Johnathan P. King		Democratic	1849–1850	Mackinac County	[7][29]
Thorton F. Brodhead		Democratic	1850	Pontiac	[7][30]
Noah Beach		Democratic	1850–1852	Bridegeport	[7][31][32]
Elijah J. Roberts		Democratic	1851	Eagle River	Died in office.[7][33][32]
Samuel Axford		Democratic	1851–1852	Oxford	[7][34]
John P. LeRoy		Whig	1851–1852	Pontiac	[7][35]
The 1850 Michigan Constitution takes effect, changing the district from a multi-member district to a single-member district.[36][37]
Henry Hall		Democratic	1853–1854	Dexter	[7][38]
Charles Tripp		Republican	1855–1856	Ann Arbor	[7][39]
Willard B. Arms		Republican	1857–1858	White Lake	[7][40]
James M. Hoyt		Democratic	1859–1860	Walled Lake	[7][41]
John G. Owen		Republican	1861–1862	Clarkston	[7][42]
Peter Dow		Republican	1863–1864	Pontiac	[7][43]
John G. Crawford		Republican	1865–1866	Holly	[7][44]
James Webster Childs		Republican	1867–1868	Ypsilanti	[7][45][46]
Lyman D. Norris		Democratic	1869–1870	Ypsilanti	[7][47][48]
Emanuel Mann		Republican	1871–1872	Ann Arbor	[7][49]
Charles E. Mickley		Republican	1873–1874	Fairfield Township	[7][50]
John K. Boies		Republican	1875–1876	Hudson	[7][51]
Roland B. C. Newcomb		Republican	1877–1878	Blissfield	[7][52]
Richard B. Robbins		Republican	1879–1880	Adrian	[7][53]
Brackley Shaw		Republican	1881–1884	Clayton	[7][54]
Manson Carpenter		Republican	1885–1886	Lenawee County	[7][55]
John C. Sharp		Republican	1887–1888	Jackson	[7][56]
Adelbert R. Chapman		Republican	1889–1890	Reading	[7][57]
William H. Withington		Republican	1891–1892	Jackson	[7][58]
Marden Sabin		Republican	1893–1894	Centreville	[7][59]
Oscar A. Janes		Republican	1895–1896	Hillsdale	[7][60]
Edward E. Bostwick		Democratic	1897–1898	Union City	Elected on a Democratic, Populist, and Silverite fusion ticket.[7][61]
Frank A. Lyon		Republican	1899–1900	Hillsdale	[7][62]
William H. Lockerby		Republican	1901–1904	Quincy	[7][63]
Edward B. Linsley		Republican	1905–1908	Three Rivers	[7][64]
Walter R. Taylor		Republican	1909–1912	Kalamazoo	[7][65]
William C. Grace		Democratic	1913–1914	Kalamazoo	[7][66]
Walter R. Taylor		Republican	1915–1916	Kalamazoo	[7][65]
Frank L. Willison		Democratic	1917–1918	Climax	[7][67]
J. Mark Harvey		Republican	1919–1920	Constantine	[7][68]
Donald C. Osborn		Republican	1921–1924	Kalamazoo	[7][69]
Frank S. Cummings		Republican	1925–1928	Centreville	[7][70]
James T. Upjohn		Republican	1929–1934	Kalamazoo	[7][71]
Miller Dunckel		Republican	1935–1938	Three Rivers	[7][72]
Carl F. DeLano		Republican	1939–1945	Kalamazoo	Resigned.[7][73]
John W. Fletcher		Republican	1945–1948	Centreville	[7][74]
Carlton H. Morris		Republican	1949–1962	Kalamazoo	[7][75]
Garry E. Brown		Republican	1963–1964	Schoolcraft	[7][76]
Basil W. Brown		Democratic	1965–1974	Detroit	[7][77]
Michael J. O'Brien Jr.		Democratic	1975–1982	Detroit	[7][78]
R. Robert Geake		Republican	1983–1994	Northville	[7][79]
George Z. Hart		Democratic	1995–2002	Dearborn	[7][80]
Laura M. Toy		Republican	2003–2006	Livonia	[7][81]
Glenn S. Anderson		Democratic	2007–2014	Westland	[7][82]
Hoon-Yung Hopgood		Democratic	2015–2018	Taylor	[7][83]
Erika Geiss		Democratic	2019–2022	Taylor	[84]
Mary Cavanagh		Democratic	2023–present	Redford Township	[85]

Recent election results

2022

2022 Michigan Senate election, District 6^[86]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Mary Cavanagh	14,908	43.9
	Democratic	Vicki Barnett	12,158	35.8
	Democratic	Darryl D. Brown	6,865	20.2
	Write-in Candidate	Betty Jean Alexander	8	0.02
Total votes			33,939	100
General election
	Democratic	Mary Cavanagh	74,122	68.0
	Republican	Ken Crider	31,463	28.9
	Working Class	Kimberly Givens	3,396	3.1
Total votes			108,981	100
	Democratic hold

2018

2018 Michigan Senate election, District 6^[86]

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Erika Geiss	19,596	65.4
	Democratic	Robert Kosowski	10,359	34.6
Total votes			29,955	100
General election
	Democratic	Erika Geiss	60,789	61.3
	Republican	Brenda Jones	38,301	38.7
Total votes			99,090	100
	Democratic hold

2014

2014 Michigan Senate election, District 6^[86]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Hoon-Yung Hopgood (incumbent)	42,835	62.3
	Republican	Darrell McNeill	25,919	37.7
Total votes			68,754	100
	Democratic hold

Federal and statewide results

Year	Office	Results[87]
2020	President	Biden 55.2 – 43.3%
2018	Senate	Stabenow 59.7 – 38.1%
	Governor	Whitmer 60.9 – 36.0%
2016	President	Clinton 53.2 – 42.2%
2014	Senate	Peters 64.6 – 30.4%
	Governor	Schauer 57.3 – 40.3%
2012	President	Obama 64.3 – 34.8%
	Senate	Stabenow 69.6 – 26.7%

Historical district boundaries

Map	Description	Apportionment Plan	Notes
	Wayne County (part) Detroit (part) Highland Park	1964 Apportionment Plan	[88]
	Wayne County (part) Detroit (part)	1972 Apportionment Plan	[89]
	Wayne County (part) Canton Township Livonia Northville Northville Township Plymouth Plymouth Township Redford Township	1982 Apportionment Plan	[90]
	Wayne County (part) Allen Park Dearborn Dearborn Heights Garden City Inkster	1992 Apportionment Plan	[91]
	Wayne County (part) Garden City Livonia Redford Township Westland	2001 Apportionment Plan	[92]
	Wayne County (part) Belleville Brownstown Township (part) Flat Rock Huron Township Rockwood Romulus Sumpter Township Taylor Buren Township Westland	2011 Apportionment Plan	[93]