Communities across Michigan — including several in metro Detroit — will be holding special elections on Tuesday, May 6, for a range of local ballot measures and races.

Check if you’re registered, find your polling place, or view a sample ballot here.

Macomb County

Mount Clemens

Voters in the Mount Clemens Community School District will have a $91.8 million bond proposal and millage reduction on their ballots.

The district says the funding would be used to renovate and revitalize its historic buildings, make critical infrastructure improvements, create modern learning spaces, and address safety and security needs.

Find more information about the bond proposal at mtcps.org.

Oakland County

Ferndale

In Oakland County, voters in Ferndale will see another Headlee override operating millage proposal on their ballot.

Ferndale voters rejected a previous iteration of the Headlee override in November, with roughly 54% of residents voting against it. City council members voted in January to include an adapted proposal on the May 6 ballot that aims to address some of the concerns cited by residents during town halls and listening sessions. If passed, the millage would take effect on residents’ Summer 2026 tax bills.

More information about the proposal, including the changes that were made and its potential cost impact on residents, can be viewed at ferndalemi.gov.

Additionally, voters in the Ferndale School District — which includes portions of Pleasant Ridge, Oak Park and Royal Oak Township — will have a school improvement bond on their ballot.

The $114.8 million bond proposal would not increase voters’ tax rates, according to the district, and would enable “transformational improvements” at its middle and high school buildings. Among the updates would be a new academic wing, modernized classrooms, updated fine arts spaces, safer school entry points, and improved student services.

For more information about the school bond proposal, visit ferndaleschools.org.

Clawson

Voters in Clawson will have two charter amendment proposals on the ballot.

The first is asking voters to determine the size of city council. A “yes” vote would maintain the city’s four-member council — excluding the mayor — rather than expand the council by two additional members, as adopted by council in 2023.

The second charter amendment relates to the council members’ term limits, and can only be passed in conjunction with the first amendment.

The full proposals can be viewed at cityofclawson.com.

Madison Heights

Residents in the Lamphere School District will see an $85 million, 30-year school improvement bond proposal on the ballot.

The district says the funding is needed to enhance school safety and security, expand learning opportunities, and update school infrastructure. If passed, the cost to homeowners would be 4.15 mills ($4.15 per $1,000 of taxable property value).

For more specifics on what the bond funding would be used for, visit lamphereschools.com/bond2025.

Proposals 2 and 3 — a non-homestead operating millage renewal and 2-mill hedge — would maintain the current millage rate if passed, allowing the district to retain $5 million for staffing, instructional and extracurricular programming, maintenance and operations.

Residential tax rates on primary residences would not increase if any of these initiatives pass, according to the district. However, the millage rate would decline over the next few years if the bond proposal is rejected.

Know your rights

Michigan’s primary election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Check back for updates to WDET’s Voter Guide as the election gets closer.

President Donald Trump was in Michigan on Tuesday, visiting Selfridge Air National Guard Base before speaking at Macomb Community College. The White House says the trip was in celebration of his first 100 days in office.

Selfridge Air National Guard Base

Selfridge has operated a fleet of A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthogs since 2009. But with that plane retiring, questions over whether the base would get a replacement have muddied its future. Those concerns are now eased. During his visit, President Trump announced Selfridge will receive 21 new F-15s. “This is the best there is anywhere in the world — the F-15EX Eagle II,” Trump said. “This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of Northern American air power.” Trump added there are also plans to update the refueling planes at Selfridge. The president was joined at the announcement by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who he credited with bringing the bases need for a new plane to his attention.

Macomb Community College

After Selfridge, the president headed to Macomb Community College, where he gave a campaign-style speech to a crowd of supporters. Trump used his time at the podium to tell the crowd he’s making good on promises, including on tariffs and immigration. He also told the crowd he’s making good on promises on topics like immigration, and took aim at ongoing court battles against his administration. “We cannot allow a handful of communists and radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the President of the United States,” Trump said. The administration is facing a number of legal challenges over its handling of deportations and funding cuts. A federal judge ordered the White House to restore $12 million in funding to Radio Free Europe. Despite stock market volatility in his first 100 days, Trump told supporters he feels his economic plan is working. The president also repeated criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates, telling the crowd that Powell is doing a bad job. “You’re not supposed to criticize the Fed,” Trump said. “You’re supposed to let him do his own thing. But I know much more about interest rates than he does about interest rates — believe me.” The Federal Reserve has said it’s holding off on cutting interest rates for now in order to fight inflation. Some economists say tariff uncertainty isn’t making the Fed’s life easier.

President Donald Trump will be celebrating 100 days in office Tuesday with a trip to Macomb County.

Trump’s visit comes as Americans remain divided over policies like his mass deportation strategy, cuts to the federal workforce, and tariffs.

Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad praised the president for trying to make good on campaign promises and supported the pace it’s happening at.

“What he’s doing is making real change that is going to strategically make a huge difference in cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse here in the United States, and also making sure that we have an incredible economic policy going forward,” Runestad said.

Runestad said he expects the nearby Selfridge Air National Guard base and new investments from Stellantis in Detroit to come up during Trump’s speech.

Earlier in the month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) discussed brining a new mission to Selfridge during a White House visit with Trump.

While Republicans celebrate Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats say the country is now worse off. Tuesday morning, the DNC released its own rundown of Trump’s time in office.

The Democrats’ “snapshot” cites federal numbers that show Michigan was among the leaders in new unemployment claims for the most recent period, with more than 80,000 unemployment claims filed in the state since Trump took office. (There were more than 230,000 new claims in the state during the first 100 days of the Biden administration, though that time coincided with emergency orders and a surge in cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.) 

Democrats also say Trump’s actions could put heavily-relied-on government services and social safety net programs like Head Start at risk.

While supporters of Trump’s vision see his moves as steps to get rid of wasteful spending in the name of efficiency, DNC Deputy Executive Director Libby Schneider said the moves are destabilizing. Schneider was dismissive of Trump’s choice to spend his 100-day mark in Michigan.

“He’s going to Michigan to lie to people, but we found out you can’t lie to people when they’re suffering and paying more than they were 100 days ago, and when they are looking at their retirement and figuring out how many years now they have to add to their career in order to be able to afford to retire,” Schneider said.

Financial markets have been volatile in recent months, alternating between dips and gains depending on what policies are announced or rescinded. Democratic Party leaders say the country is sliding toward a recession. Trump administration officials have said the risk is worth it to reset America’s economy and protect domestic industries.

Runestad said it’s misleading to look at the day-to-day effects of Trump’s policies.

“All of these things change many parameters over time, not in a day. I mean, if he announces a tariff one day, the media is screaming bloody murder. And then he makes strategic pullbacks. That’s why it’s not a canoe. It is a battleship in terms of how the thing maneuvers. It takes time for these things to be ironed out,” Runestad said.

Many Democrats and political scholars also take a wider view of Trump’s first 100 days, saying he’s put the country on a path toward authoritarianism by taking steps to consolidate power in the executive branch, sidelining courts and Congress, and intimidating political rivals.

This will be Trump’s first visit to Michigan since he made several campaign stops in the state on the way to winning back the White House last year. When asked why Michigan was picked for the milestone, Runestad said the 2026 elections may have been in mind.

The state will have many offices up for grabs next year, including governor and U.S. Senate.

“There’s going to be a lot of attention on those, plus we have three congressional seats that are going to in play,” Runestad said. “Really all of these things lead through Michigan in terms of holding that majority for the Trump administration,” Runestad said.

Several high profile candidates on all sides of the political aisle have already entered or teased entering some of those races. Trump’s Macomb County rally will likely draw some of those hopefuls.

A heavy rainstorm on April 2, 2025 filled Macomb County’s Red Run Drain with more than one million gallons of raw sewage from Oakland County.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller described the murky mess she found in the drain the next day.

“It looks like chocolate pudding,” Miller says.

The fetid water came from a sewer pipe that empties into the drain, festooning it with some not-so-festive decorations.

“It almost looks like Christmas trees, because they’re all covered with sanitary wipes, sewer wipes, and some things that are too gross to discuss,” Miller said. “It’s sickening.”

Miller’s counterpart, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash, confirms the foul water came from one of his department’s sewer lines, the Dequindre Interceptor.

Normally what flows through that pipe goes to the Great Lakes Water Authority for treatment. But when too much rain fills the system, Nash says an emergency relief valve inside the pipe keeps raw sewage out of people’s basements.

“The only alternative, if we had closed off that valve, would have been to flood — we estimate — 700 to 800 homes in that area with pure sewage,” he said.

To prevent that, Nash said it was necessary to divert the water into the Red Run Drain after the storm.

The argument goes back years

But Miller says this is not a new problem, as Oakland County has a history of releasing not only raw sewage, but treated sewage mixed with stormwater into her communities. The technical term is a combined sewage overflow. Miller says enough is enough.

“We’d like Oakland County to try to do something about their combined sewer overflows,” she said.

Miller and Nash have been squabbling for years over a facility in Oakland County called the George W. Kuhn Retention Basin. It’s a huge operation that can hold up to 150 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater. 

“The water comes in, it goes through a screen; we have the biggest screening facility in the country,” Nash said. “Anything over a half an inch is screened out. It’s raked into a trough and then sent to Detroit for cleaning. It gets past that, and then it goes into these large chambers that hold millions of gallons.”

Nash says after the solids settle, the county treats them with chlorine to kill harmful bacteria such as E. coli. 

“When it comes out of our facility, it’s extremely clean,” he said. 

Updating infrastructure takes time and money

The Kuhn basin was built in the 1970s, and Nash says it’s been expanded and updated several times since then. Before its construction, Oakland County averaged almost 60 combined sewage overflows a year. Nash says the basin has helped reduce that number to eight or nine.

That’s too much for Candice Miller. A week after the storm she wrote a letter to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) accusing Oakland County of violating its state permit to operate the Kuhn basin. A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers has offered legislation requiring EGLE to put tougher restrictions on the facility.

Miller is also asking for a law requiring counties to ask permission before releasing any sewage into another county — treated or not.

Nash denies violating any permits and says Kuhn operated as it’s designed to after the April 2 rainfall. He adds it’s not the only source flowing into the Red Run Drain.

“There’s five separate storm water drains that come into that area in the same place,” he said. 

Nash says some of that is coming from Macomb County, which also experiences combined sewage overflows. Miller says her department has reduced CSOs by 80% since she took office in 2017 and spent millions of dollars expanding and improving its own retention basins.

She says Oakland County either needs to build bigger basins — which it has — or separate its stormwater and sewage. Jim Nash says the cost of that would be enormous.

“The estimates currently are about $3 billion to $4 billion dollars and would take 20 or 30 years for it to happen.,” he said.

Both counties explore natural drainage options

Nash says a better solution would be building green infrastructure to absorb water from more frequent heavy rainstorms fueled by climate change.

“We have to find ways like rain gardens, rain barrels, even planting more trees in urban areas,” he said. “All those things help with storm water, help absorb it.”

Nash said Oakland County offers up to $2,000 rebates for people to put rain barrels, trees, or rain gardens on their property.

Macomb County has also invested in green infrastructure. One example is the Sterling Relief Drain between 15 and 16 Mile roads. Workers removed tons of concrete from the drain and replaced it with grass, plants, and other natural features to soak up water and prevent basement backups.

Related: Could Detroit’s buried streams see the light of day?

Candice Miller admits such projects take time and money.

“You can’t do it overnight because it’s very expensive and it takes time to improve and upgrade old, antiquated infrastructure,” she said. “Everybody’s dealing with, it’s not just us or Oakland or Wayne.”

In the meantime, Miller says she’ll keep pushing Nash and Oakland County on behalf of her constituents to reduce CSOs flowing into Macomb County.

“They say all the time, ‘sue Oakland County,'” she said. “I don’t want to do that; I’d like him to try to do something.”

Nash says he is doing something, and that Miller should focus on Macomb County. Either way, it’s a dispute that’s not ending anytime soon.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump will mark his first 100 days in office next week with a rally in Michigan, his first since returning to the White House earlier this year.

Trump will visit Macomb County on Tuesday, the White House press secretary said. 

“President Trump is excited to return to the great state of Michigan next Tuesday, where he will rally in Macomb County to celebrate the FIRST 100 DAYS!” Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday on social media.

The rally will take place on Trump’s 100th day in office — a traditional early milestone in which a president’s progress is measured against campaign promises. Michigan was one of the key battleground states Trump flipped last year from Democrats on his path back to the White House.

Trump has not traveled much since taking office outside of personal weekend trips. The Republican president’s only other official trip in his second term was during the first week, when he visited disaster zones in North Carolina and California and held an event in Las Vegas to promote his plan to eliminate taxes on tips.

But later this week, Trump will travel to Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome, the first foreign trip in his second term.

Trump’s upcoming trip to Michigan follows a series of meetings and phone calls with the state’s high-profile Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Once a sharp critic of Trump, Whitmer has said that she hopes to find common ground with the president in his second term.

A key area of potential cooperation that Whitmer has pointed to is Selfridge Air National Guard Base, long a concern for Whitmer and Michigan lawmakers amid uncertainty over its future as the A-10 aircraft stationed there are phased out. The base is located in Macomb County, where he is set to appear Tuesday.

Trump mentioned Selfridge during an April 9 executive order signing in the Oval Office, an event that Whitmer was present for, saying he hoped to keep the base “open, strong, thriving.”

“I think we’re going to be successful, Governor. I think we’ll be very successful there,” Trump said about Selfridge.

Whitmer — whom Trump praised during his remarks — later said she was unexpectedly brought into the Oval Office during her visit. A photo captured her trying to shield her face from cameras with a folder.

Asked Wednesday if Whitmer would appear with the president in Michigan, a spokesperson for the governor said they “don’t have anything to share at this time.”

Whitmer and other Michigan officials have long advocated for a new fighter mission to replace the outgoing A-10 squadron at Selfridge.

In a 2023 letter sent during President Joe Biden’s administration, Whitmer urged the secretary of the Air Force to act, writing, “I repeat and reiterate what I stated in November and many times before over the past year: a fighter mission at Selfridge to recapitalize the A10s is the right path forward for the State of Michigan, the Air Force, and the nation.”

–Reporting by Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press