Who’s running for Michigan Supreme Court in 2024?

• Seven candidates currently vying for Michigan Supreme Court seats
• Kyra Harris Bolden seeks to continue her term after 2022 Whitmer appointment
• Justice David Viviano won’t seek reelection, leaving an open seat and no Republican-nominated incumbents in 2024 election

With one long-time justice preparing to leave the bench and another defending her recent appointment, Michigan Supreme Court elections could get interesting this year. 

On March 15, Justice David Viviano announced he wouldn’t seek reelection for his seat on Michigan’s highest court, leaving the Republican Party without an incumbent nominee in the 2024 cycle. 

Voters will also decide this fall whether Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, an appointee of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, remains on the bench to finish out the remainder of former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack’s term.

The Michigan Supreme Court often has the final say on issues of critical importance, including whether laws enacted by the state Legislature are constitutional or weighing in on the validity of ballot initiatives.

Related:

• GOP Justice David Viviano leaving Michigan Supreme Court
• Michigan's first early in-person vote a hit with some Republicans
• Michigan defends bloated voter rolls with 625,000 cancellations pending

Although Supreme Court elections in Michigan are nonpartisan, candidates’ nominations are a political process, with delegates at state party conventions determining who advances to the November ballot. 

The seven-member court is currently split 4-3, with Democratic nominees holding a one-justice majority. 

As of June, seven prospective candidates are seeking nominations to the ballot. Here’s who’s in so far:

Kyra Harris Bolden

Bolden, of Southfield, was nominated to the court by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November 2022 to replace former Justice McCormack. She must run for reelection to serve out the remainder of McCormack’s term, which expires Jan. 1, 2029, and will seek a Democratic nomination. 

Bolden is the first Black woman to serve in the Michigan Supreme Court and is the only justice on the bench with past legislative experience. 

She unsuccessfully ran for one of two seats that were up for election in 2022, coming in third behind incumbents Richard Bernstein and Brian Zahra. 

Prior to her court appointment, Bolden served two terms in the Legislature as a Democrat, where she worked on criminal justice reforms and championed bills to protect survivors of sexual violence. 

She’s also worked as a criminal defense and civil litigation attorney and clerked in Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court under Judge John Murphy. 

Bolden graduated from Grand Valley State University and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. She’s said she was inspired to pursue law after learning the story of her great grandfather, who was lynched in Tennessee in 1939. 

Mark Boonstra

Boonstra is a sitting Court of Appeals judge and entered the race for Supreme Court after Viviano announced his retirement.

Boonstra worked as a private practice attorney with Miller Canfield before joining the Court of Appeals in 2012, and has authored books on the U.S. Constitution and its signers. He graduated from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.

Boonstra, who is seeking a GOP nomination, said in a statement announcing his campaign that he would provide an “unbiased, rule-of-law approach” if elected to the high court. 

Boonstra has been outspoken in his opposition to using personal pronouns in court cases, writing in a December 2021 opinion that he declined “to join in the insanity that has apparently now reached the courts” and refer to a defendant using they/them pronouns. 

The court in 2023 required Michigan judges to either use the pronouns specified by legal parties or to address people in their courtrooms by their names "or other respectful means." 

Boonstra picked up endorsements from several former justices, including Robert Young, Clifford Taylor, Maura Corrigan and Stephen Markman. 

Matthew DePerno 

DePerno, a Kalamazoo-area attorney, is seeking the Republican nomination to serve the remainder of McCormack’s term. 

DePerno, along with former state Rep. Daire Rendon and fellow attorney Stefanie Lambert, is now battling criminal charges for an alleged pro-Trump plot to illegally access voting machines following the 2020 election. He’s pleaded not guilty.

He has never held elected office or a judicial post, but was the Michigan Republican Party’s nominee for attorney general in 2022 and also ran for Michigan GOP chair last year. DePerno lost a convention vote to Kristina Karamo, who has since been replaced. 

DePerno earned law degrees from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and the New York University School of Law.

In a statement, DePerno said he is running for a seat on the state’s highest court, in part, because "activist judges, prosecutors and attorneys general are using their power to prosecute their political enemies.” 

DePerno gained prominence in conservative circles for his 2020 lawsuit that alleged a reported vote total in Antrim County was evidence that fraud cost then-President Donald Trump in that year’s election. He lost that case, and the Michigan Supreme Court denied his appeal. 

Andrew Fink

Fink, of Adams Township, currently serves as a Republican lawmaker in the state House of Representatives, where he serves as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Fink initially intended to challenge Bolden for her partial term, but more recently said he’ll seek a GOP nomination to run for Viviano’s open seat after the sitting justice announced his retirement. 

Fink graduated from Hillsdale College and University of Michigan Law School, then served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2009 to 2016.

In a September 2023 statement announcing his candidacy, Fink said he would take an originalist approach to the court and would strive to interpret laws as written. 

“As a justice, one of my priorities will be to restore faith in government institutions by emphasizing transparency, accountability, and integrity in our state’s court system,” Fink said at the time. 

Patrick William O’Grady 

O’Grady, a longtime circuit court judge in Branch County, is seeking the Republican nomination for the partial term vacated by McCormack. 

O’Grady was first elected to the 15th Circuit Court bench in 2008 and recently served as the court’s chief judge. According to his campaign website, O’Grady has presided over nearly 14,000 criminal and civil cases. 

He graduated from Western Michigan University and served in the U.S. Army Reserve before working as a state trooper with the Michigan State Police and obtaining his law degree from Cooley Law School. O’Grady was also an assistant prosecutor in Branch County prior to his election to circuit court. 

He said he decided to seek the GOP nomination for the Michigan Supreme Court after consulting with Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra and promised if elected to act as a “rule of law” justice who wouldn’t legislate from the bench. 

“As a Rule of Law Justice, I will prioritize governance rooted in the letter of our laws,” he wrote in a release announcing his campaign. “I will protect the rights of all and make Michigan safe for our families and our future.”

Alexandria Taylor

Taylor, a Detroit attorney, is seeking the Republican nomination for the partial term vacated by McCormack. 

Taylor graduated with degrees from Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University before earning her law degree at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. 

She clerked for former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly before working at a Royal Oak law firm, where she represented the cities of Woodhaven and Allen Park as city attorney.

Taylor has operated her own Detroit-based practice, Taylor Law Firm, since 2015 and is also an adjunct professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. 

If elected, Taylor hopes to “uphold the values of family, faith and freedom for a stronger and more just America,” and would be a “voice for justice and integrity” on the court, according to her campaign website. 

Kimberly Ann Thomas

Thomas is a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches civil and criminal litigation and runs the Juvenile Justice Clinic.

Thomas, who is expected to seek a Democratic party nomination, served as a Whitmer appointee on the state’s bipartisan Task Force on Juvenile Justice Reform from 2021-2022 and has also served as a Fulbright Scholar.

Thomas joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty in 2003 and previously worked as a trial attorney. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park and Harvard Law School.

On her campaign website, Thomas’ stated priorities include a commitment to equal access to justice for low-income residents and improving state court systems.