Democrats flipped a solid Republican state House seat in Michigan on Tuesday night.
Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert Regan in state House District 74 by 12 points, 52%-40%. Write-in candidates received 8% of the vote.
Republicans were favored to win since they have held the seat since 1993 and won it two years ago by 26 points.
The seat was left vacant in November 2021 when former GOP Rep. Mark Huizenga was elected to the state Senate.
However, Regan was a controversial QAnon supporting, pro-Trump candidate who believes the 2020 election was stolen and refused to say whether he would support a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if he was elected to the state House, according to The Detroit News. In a May 2021 social media post he called feminism “a Jewish program to degrade and subjugate white men” adding, “it has absolutely nothing to do with protecting women as a sex or defending the feelings of individual women.”
He lost the race to represent District 73 in the Michigan state House in 2020 after a viral tweet from his own daughter told people not to vote for him.
Regan made national headlines for comments he made about rape during a Facebook Livestream in March.
“Having three daughters, I tell my daughters, ‘Well, if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it,’” he said. “That’s not how we roll, that’s not how we won this election. We go right at it.”
He was rebuked by party officials, including the Michigan Republican Party chairman for his comments.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Glanville says she is grateful for the “voters in the 74th district who showed up tonight to stand up to hate and keep it out of the State House.”
“My opponent’s extreme, violent, and antisemitic views have no place in state government, and tonight the people of the 74th District made clear that they won’t stand for extremism,” she added.
