Puri elected House Speaker as Democrats prepare to take control of state government

State Rep. Ranjeev Puri of Canton will lead Michigan’s newly elected Democratic House majority as speaker in January, while Republicans chose state Rep. Tom Kunse of Clare to lead their caucus in the minority, marking a new chapter for both parties as Democrats prepare to take control of state government.

The respective caucuses in the House held their leadership votes on Thursday following a short session day where attendance was taken but no other voting occurred — aside from the leadership elections taking place behind closed doors.

Puri spoke to members of the capitol press corps outside the chamber, and described the last two years as House minority leader as “the most grueling two years of my life.” 

His caucus retaking control of the House was the result, Puri said, of traveling around the state and making the case that a change was needed in state government. 

Those efforts bore fruit in Tuesday’s midterm election, giving Puri and his colleagues what he called “a resounding mandate” for more “stable leadership and prioritizing the needs of Michigan.”

“We’re ready to do that,” Puri said, adding that he was willing to work with Kunse and anyone, really, who is willing to work with his caucus.

Still, he reflected on his past relationship with current House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), as well as the slings and arrows that he had to dodge from the brash and aggressive style of Hall’s leadership.

“The last two years have been led with political divisiveness, and every aspect of it seemed to be on how we could own the other side or win a political point,” Puri said. “In my opinion, that’s not how this institution was designed to run, and so the House Democrats are focused on ‘Team Michigan’ and making sure that we’re making the lives of everyday Michiganders easier and better.”

Puri added that if they had partners on the other side of the aisle, who are willing to put politics aside, they can move forward on that goal.

“The needs of Michigan are transformative, and we need to think about how we tackle systemic issues that are plaguing our state,” he said. “Median household incomes are lagging behind some of our peer states. We still are not seeing population growth in the way that we want. So I’m hoping, with the size of the majority, that we’re able to tackle real issues.”

One thing that Puri doesn’t want to spend time on is litigating culture war issues like “who’s playing in what sport, or who’s going to use which restroom.”

“I’m hopeful that there was some semblance of understanding with the leadership change in the other caucus that maybe that approach wasn’t working,” he said.

In that vein, Puri said he also hoped that the election brought a new set of core values to the House, and that it would have the potential to move the state’s politics “in a direction that is more fair.”

In choosing Kunse, House GOP will try a new approach to working with Dems

Although all eyes were on the Democrats after they secured another government trifecta in the 2026 elections — nabbing the governor’s office, the other two executive branch offices, control of the Legislature and near complete control of the Michigan Supreme Court — the leadership battle on the GOP side of the chamber was of high import.

Hall led the caucus through its minority leader position during the 2023-24 session, in which the Democrats also held a government trifecta, and into the 2025-26 session, where he served at top of the caucus as speaker.

Hall had said before the elections that his caucus would work hard to retain its majority in the House, even if the Senate Democrats were able to retain theirs, and that he could do that all in the face of a highly-favorable Democratic year.

A blue wave, however, swept the nation and Michigan on Tuesday, and that pushed out several key members of the GOP House caucus. Hall faced a serious challenge for his own seat, but prevailed, albeit narrowly, against House District 42 Democratic nominee Nick Rowe, winning only by 3.2 percentage points.

While Republicans chose to move on from Hall’s leadership on Thursday, the speaker will be remembered for his brash and aggressive approach to commanding power in the House, as he routinely mocked his House Democratic colleagues from the bully pulpit of his own press conferences. 

Hall also dared Democrats to blink on all manner of policy points and budget fights over his two years of leading the caucus. In some respects, Hall was successful in doing the latter, especially during the 2025 budget fight.

Kunse thanked Hall for his leadership over the last few years, but said he would do things a bit differently.

“We’re going to do better, and what we’re going to do is show the state of Michigan, number one, that we care,” Kunse said. “We understand that things are expensive, and we understand that education needs to be addressed.”

Kunse said Hall did some good things for the caucus and that there were indeed times when the GOP needed to stand up and say, “No, this is bad policy.”

“I commend him on that,” Kunse said, while also making it clear that he would not blame Hall or any other GOP member for the loss of 11 seats in the 2026 election. “I have nothing but respect for Matt Hall.”

In a break from Hall’s harsh rhetoric, Kunse said his minority leadership in the House would commence with a guiding ethos that “Democrats are not the enemy.”

“Being 45th in education is the enemy,” Kunse added. “Affordability is the issue. There are things that we’re going to work with Democrats on, and there are some things we’re going to have differences on. But what I’m excited about with the team is the professionalism.”

There were many times when Hall used his position as speaker to go after Puri, as well as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, in a head-on and sometimes personal way. 

Michigan House speaker refuses to reinstate Democratic legislator to Appropriations Committee role

Kunse said the media and the residents of the state won’t be seeing or reading about “our differences on Facebook because we’re going to go into the office and we’re going to say, ‘Listen, we’re not there today, we have a difference of opinion on this.’”

On the House losing its majority, Kunse recognized that they “lost some good people,” but also that “politics is a blood sport.”

“Some of my friends aren’t here anymore,” Kunse said. “I’m sad, I’m angry. I don’t think finding blame is what’s going to be productive. Gov. Snyder had ‘positive, relentless action,’ right? I’m totally stealing that from him. To me, that’s better. Let’s move forward. What are we going to do to get this problem solved? What are we going to do to get back the majority? I don’t have any interest in assigning blame.”

Puri, Kunse give an early look into the priorities of both caucuses

The respective leaders in the House said they are still getting their ducks in a row, meeting their new members and devising battle plans for the road ahead.

Puri’s majority caucus will focus its efforts this year on affordability, household incomes, population growth and the systemic issues that appear to be holding Michigan back. Puri raised utility costs as an area of concern regarding affordability.

Whereas the previous 2023-24 Democratic trifecta that had pushed a large amount of legislation swiftly, Puri said Thursday that “the question is, how do you measure productivity?” 

“I think at times, sometimes it’s on the quantity of how many public acts have been passed, but for me, it’s the impact of the bills that we do,” he said. “There are a number of systemic issues that we can be thinking about and deliberating on what to do.”

Kunse was asked the same question, and landed on it in the same way that Puri did — those plans will come with time.

“Our team has been together for 33 minutes,” Kunse said. “We are working on that. Do I have a detailed plan? No, but I can tell you that education is not acceptable where it’s at. We need to talk about healthcare. The pricing of healthcare is not acceptable. I can’t tell you how we’re going to do it, but I can tell you that these are things that we want to do.”